H. G. Wells - The Island of Dr Moreau
the truth about the reviewer’s own reaction would probably be “This book does not interest me in any way, and I would not write about it unless I were paid to.”
Okay, that's not strictly true. The Island of Dr Moreau did interest me for 3 reasons: (1) it's in the Penguin Book of Modern Classics, (2) the prose was concise and the pace fast as hell, and (3) I thought it would prepare me for Silvia Moreno-Garcia's The Daughter of Doctor Moreau.
Dr Moreau is a very quick read because it's really a short story rather than a novel. I felt it was more like an illustrated idea. A thought experiment (hmmm, what if we took vivisection to its logical conclusion?). Things happen so fast, you barely register the emotional and philosophical depth of the book's events.
Dr Moreau's creations, initially taken to be human-animal hybrids, turned out to be animals reshaped into human-like shapes and drilled (via hypnosis) with The Law, which is creepy as fuck:
Not to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
Not to suck up Drink; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
Not to eat Fish or Flesh; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
Not to claw the Bark of Trees; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
Not to chase other Men; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
And:
His is the House of Pain.
His is the Hand that makes.
His is the Hand that wounds.
His is the Hand that heals.
The most memorable creations were the females:
The females were less numerous than the males, and liable to much furtive persecution in spite of the monogamy the Law enjoined.
And:
in some narrow pathway, glancing with a transitory daring into the eyes of some lithe, white-swathed female figure, I would suddenly see (with a spasmodic revulsion) that she had slit-like pupils, or glancing down note the curving nail with which she held her shapeless wrap about her.
The protagonist clearly links the animal-women with prostitutes (and why not? Their "virtue" is protected only by a tenuous subliminal suggestion). Later, when he escapes the islands and goes back into the company of "regular people" in London:
When I lived in London the horror was well-nigh insupportable [...] I would go out into the streets to fight with my delusion, and prowling women would mew after me; furtive, craving men glance jealously at me
Most of the transgressions in Dr Moreau are plain brute violence: the creations giving in to their animal instincts and killing the humans, for example. But that has zero shock value, either now or then.
The humans are shown to "devolve" into beasts, somewhat, but in very tame ways, like sleeping in the day and adopting a kill-or-be-killed attitude. I would have liked more moral transgression on the sexual front.
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