The Curious, The Fearful, And Ammonium Nitrate
Welcome to the gallery of the curious and fearful. Welcome to the world of H.G. Wells. You don't have to delve too deeply into his oeuvre before you're confronted with a character that confounds and chills. Dr. Moreau, for instance, is especially loathsome. As opposed to the lunatic rantings of the narrator of War of the Worlds, Moreau is quiet, dedicated, diabolical. He is lord of his misbegotten creations -- a Frankenstein equally lost in his own megalomania.
Not surprisingly, we just can't get enough of him. In fact, Marlon Brando could hardly contain himself at the prospect of portraying Moreau and the final cut shows us as much. We are intrigued by that which we do not understand. It just so happens, dear reader, science can be quite difficult to understand. So, making our way past the beakers full of ammonium nitrate and hydrochloric acid, we move deeper into the lab -- deeper into our collective fear of the unknown.
The cold comfort of Wells's work is that his mad scientists and blood-draining aliens never succeed. That is, they don't succeed for very long. And the climax is always the same. The heavy exposition that usually culminates in something like this: "They all laughed at me. But I will show them. One day it will be I who laughs last!" And so the journey into the mouth of madness, from the comfort of our armchairs and couches, continues.
Thankfully, these malcontents are easily replaced and the saga continues. This fuels our need to keep coming back to our Saturday matinees and thumbed-through paperback novels. We love a good story and we love a good story and a bad scientist. And the climax is always the same. The heaving exposition that usually goes something like this: "They all laughed at me. But I will show them. One day it will be I who laughs last!" And so the journey into the mouth of madness, from the comfort of our chairs and couches, continues.
We hunger to know our own capacities. Would we go equally mad had we the skills to create artificial life? How would our minds hold together this fragile thing called sanity if aliens from Mars attacked us? The questions seem trivial only because so much ado has been made in answering them. Walk into any bookstore, any movie palace and you will see the long, hungry attempt to understand why and know how.
Not surprisingly, we just can't get enough of him. In fact, Marlon Brando could hardly contain himself at the prospect of portraying Moreau and the final cut shows us as much. We are intrigued by that which we do not understand. It just so happens, dear reader, science can be quite difficult to understand. So, making our way past the beakers full of ammonium nitrate and hydrochloric acid, we move deeper into the lab -- deeper into our collective fear of the unknown.
The cold comfort of Wells's work is that his mad scientists and blood-draining aliens never succeed. That is, they don't succeed for very long. And the climax is always the same. The heavy exposition that usually culminates in something like this: "They all laughed at me. But I will show them. One day it will be I who laughs last!" And so the journey into the mouth of madness, from the comfort of our armchairs and couches, continues.
Thankfully, these malcontents are easily replaced and the saga continues. This fuels our need to keep coming back to our Saturday matinees and thumbed-through paperback novels. We love a good story and we love a good story and a bad scientist. And the climax is always the same. The heaving exposition that usually goes something like this: "They all laughed at me. But I will show them. One day it will be I who laughs last!" And so the journey into the mouth of madness, from the comfort of our chairs and couches, continues.
We hunger to know our own capacities. Would we go equally mad had we the skills to create artificial life? How would our minds hold together this fragile thing called sanity if aliens from Mars attacked us? The questions seem trivial only because so much ado has been made in answering them. Walk into any bookstore, any movie palace and you will see the long, hungry attempt to understand why and know how.
About the Author:
The specific uses of ammonium nitrate are reserved for those who have the training and expertise to conduct safe, well-monitored experiments.
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