The daughter of Doctor Moraeu (a review)

I don’t know how many years it has been since I read the Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells, but it has been a long time. Other than the basic premise (mad scientist creates human hybrids with a predictable bad outcome) I don’t remember much. But I was intrigued by seeing The Daughter of Doctor Moreau in the library. It was written by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who wrote Mexican Gothic which I read last year and found satisfyingly creepy.

This one, I would say is less creepy. It is told from the point of view of two characters: Carlotta, the doctor’s “natural” (bastard) daughter, and Montgomery, the doctors hired mayordomo. Montgomery comes to the doctor’s ranch with demons of his own: alcoholism, debt, and relentless bad luck. Carlotta has lived a sheltered life. She is sweet and innocent. Montgomery is far from innocent, but he knows right from wrong, and usually chooses right, even at his own expense. The doctor himself is not an evil man, but he is self-centered and egotistical. He seems to care only for his experiments, not for his experimental subjects. He has set himself up as the god of his little domain. He asks absolute obedience.

There are plenty of other creatures at the ranch, hybrid creature created by Moreau. Some are horribly misshapen and have severe health problems. Two of the more successful experiment were raised with Carlotta, and she came to see them as her brother and sister, even though they have fur. They are smart and spirited, and I would have liked to see even more of them in the story.

The biggest flaw for me was the slow pace of the fist part of the book. It took a while to get moving. But once it did it kept my interest. The villains developed slowly, but were well-drawn: The land owner who has lost patience with Moraeu, and his son who woos Carlotta. We don’t trust either of them for a minute. It might be tempting to say this story is a metaphor for racism, but I don’t really think that was what the author was going for. It is a story about treating people with respect. The biggest flaw of Dr. Moraeu is that he refuses to see what his daughter has known all along, that the hybrids are people.

Star Liner

Comments

Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove

Despite both of us having science backgrounds, my wife and I share a leaning toward the artistic, though we may express it in different ways. In her life, my wife has been a painter, a poet, a singer, an actor, and a fiction writer. Not to mention a mother. I don’t remember what precipitated this event, but my wife, my son, and I were at home in the front room. My wife was responding to something my son said. She said, “remember, you get half your brains from me. If it wasn’t for me, you’d be a complete idiot.” To which my son started howling with laughter and said to me,” I think you have just been insulted.” Sometimes I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. I get no respect. But that is not an uncommon state of affairs for fatherhood. When my son was going to middle school and high school, my wife was always the one to go in with him to get him registered for classes. One time she was unable to go and I had to be the one to get him registered. “Ugh,” he said. “why can’t Mama do i...

Empathy

Websters defines Empathy as: “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.” Empathy is what makes us human, though lord knows there are many humans who don’t seem to have any. A person without empathy is like a caveman, only concerned for himself. Selfish. It is a lack of community and by extension, a lack of the need for civilization. The person who lacks empathy can have a bit of community, but only with others exactly like himself. It seems like societies go through cycles of empathy and less empathy. Sometimes a single event can change the course of society. Prior to America’s involvement in WWII, the general feeling in America was not very empathetic. We had our own problems. We were still dealing with the lingering effects of the Great Depression, and had been for years. That kind of stress makes it hard to think of others. Hitler was slashing through Europe. He and his fol...

A Deception

I have a secret. I deceived my mother. Okay, it was like 50 years ago and she is gone now, but still . . . I was generally a good boy. I did as I was told. My family lived a pretty strait-laced, middle-class, fairly conservative life. We were a G-rated family, well, until my older siblings broke the mold, but at this time, I was still in the mold. My friend Rich and I made a plan. Rich had asked me if I wanted to see Cabaret . He said he didn’t think much of Liza Minnelli, but he wouldn’t mind seeing her take her clothes off. We were like 13 years old and sex was ever-present on our minds as much as it was absent in our households. Cabaret was not rated R. It was rated PG. The ratings system has changed since that time. There was no PG-13; there was just the choice of G, PG, and R (X was not an official rating). Apparently the makers of Cabaret satisfied the ratings commission enough to escape an R rating, so it was PG. There was therefore no law or ...

A speculative mind

Search This Blog