<\/p>\n

No, I wasn’t reading a biography on Everlast when I said in my last post, “His <\/em>is the House of Pain.” The original Keeper of the House of Pain, my friends, was Dr. Moreau. <\/p>\n

I’ve been a fan of H.G. Wells since my English major days, but this is the first time I’ve read The Island of Dr. Moreau<\/a><\/em>. I love Wells’s simple, clean prose and how easily you fall right into the unnervingly controlled cadence of Moreau’s vivisected insanity. This was also ostensibly a very Wellsian view of man’s changing roles in science and nature, thanks I’m sure in part to all that Darwin dropped on the scientific community fewer than 50 years prior to this novella’s release. It was also disturbingly accurate in regard to how far science could go if left unchecked (see Nazi Germany for experiments far worse than even Wells could have envisioned). <\/p>\n

The copy of this novella that I own is one I picked up at my favorite used book store. It’s a Signet version that was released in conjunction with the 1996 Marlon Brando\/Val Kilmer movie. I can only imagine that whoever originally purchased this book must have been so frightened\/repulsed\/disgusted\/angered by seeing the movie that they just got rid of the book without even reading it. That’s honestly the only reason I can imagine for ever parting with a copy of this story (but maybe that’s just me). <\/p>\n

Okay, pardon my tangential yelling for a moment, but OHMYGODWHATHAFU?!?! What in the bloody, blooming hell is going on in this movie other than whole buckets full of fetid crazy? There are just so many things wrong with this movie. So many terrible, horrible things. And I dare not even imagine the horrors Fairuza Balk must have witnessed while trapped there with the dueling creepiness of Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando. At least, though, we now know from where Remus Lupin really comes (that’s for all you loyal HP\/David Thewlis fans). <\/p>\n

Ugh. Seriously, I could have gone the rest of my life without witnessing this atrocity. I’ve seen the 1932 version, Island of Lost Souls<\/em>. I’ve even seen bits and pieces of the 1977 Charlton Heston version. After subjecting myself to the Brando Moreau and his MuMus of Terror, I think I might have to watch the entire Heston version, to cleanse my palate. <\/p>\n

Anyway, back to the book. I point out the version of my copy simply because I wanted to note one of the most delightful typographical errors (or perhaps a bored proofreader with a wicked sense of humor) that I have encountered in a while. Rather than discussing the “feline Beast People,” at one point Montgomery tells Prendick about the “feline Breast People.” <\/p>\n

Hmm. That’s a whole different part of the island…<\/p>\n

Final novella score: 4\/5<\/strong>
\nFinal Brando crazy score: Solid 5\/5 psycho MuMus.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, I wasn’t reading a biography on Everlast when I said in my last post, “His is the House of Pain.” The original Keeper of the House of Pain, my friends, was Dr. Moreau. I’ve been a fan of H.G. Wells since my English major days, but this is the first time I’ve read The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lobablanca.com\/blog09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}