I am alone, like Dr. Moreau

Sigh. Colleen and her hubby are leaving for California on Sunday, which means that yesterday - of which I spent a lovely Fourth with her - will be the last time I see her in a while. Now I am basically in this city all alone, like the Doctor. I am probably going to start fusing weird animals together now in hopes of making (literally) friends.

So from that I hope you gather that I finished reading The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. I was already familiar with the plot line, as I have a shadowy recollection of watching some terribly-made film version of it in some sort of middle school science class. I only vaguely remember a dark scene where (I think) Prendick was stalking around the building where the operations were taking place. I'm almost certain I as a young girl was offput by this film with its lack of cute and pretty imagery.

I'm not sure that it was meant to be, but I think it's hard to ignore an association between religion and the beast men's codes of law. From what I got, it was an affirmation of the harm that belief in religion can do...rather than man has created these boundaries and rules for himself that are hurting him more than doing good. It's strange though how fleeting of a character Moreau himself was. He barely even made an appearance so it's hard to make a judgement call on what type of man he was (which I assume the movie goes ahead and twists its own idea of this to push on the viewer).

I realized perhaps I am rather sensitive. There was really nothing very gruesome or disturbing depicted through the physical words in this novel, but I was really feeling a heavy weight of unsettling vibes when it came to the animal-people. Traditionalist, perhaps? Or just downright Conservative? Nah...I'm all for science and progress (after all, I do hope we can track down that pesky particle zipping around out there all sneaky-like). Plus I'm not even American. Figure that one out.