Pompous review III
Jul. 28th, 2004 08:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilThis week I read H.G.Wells' The Invisible Man. It had been a while since I'd read anything classical, so to speak, and since I had been perusing a wonderful Science Fiction Encyclopedia that my parents got me for my birthday, this book came to my mind. I had already read Wells' The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds, and enjoyed them, and this was no disappointment. A quick read - I finished it in two days - and very fast moving, as were the other two books. It was intriguing for its focus on a character who is neither a hero nor exactly a villian - but not really an anti-hero either, because the book is never directly from his point of view. And here's where the genius of Wells comes through. At the start, the invisible man is seen (or not seen, I guess) from the perspective of country hicks - ignorant and superstitious to the point of being comical. It really leads the reader to have sympathy for the man who has to put up with them. But as the book progresses, the characters who interact with the invisible man are increasingly more intelligent and rational, to the final confronation with Doctor Kemp, a peer at or above the intellectual level of the invisble man. And so the title character seems to grow less and less sympathetic, and more and more monstrous. Yet the fact is, he was monstrous from the very beginning. He descends a certain amount, but much more than that, the people who encounter him realize more and more how low he was at the start. Very clever.
Suspense abounds - any moment there could be a tap on someone's shoulder, they turn, and -- nothing there. And the chilling disembodied Voice, the subtle ways he is noticed - footprints, snow falling on his frame, blood becoming visible after it leaves his body. The panic near the end of the story as an entire town closes its doors and windows to the unseen prowler, and the mad chase between Kemp and the title character - it was literally a page-turner. Fully as exciting as the time traveler racing from the Morlocks, or the flight from the invading Martians. And the image of a man swathed in bandages with dark glasses and a hat pulled low - there's an image not easily forgotten. This is what makes something a true classic - it leaves an indelible impression on the reader.
There is a sheer mountain of irony in the narrative. Much of the book involves the invisible man's story in his own words as he tells it to Doctor Kemp. It is full of a self-defensive, self-absorbed tone that Kemp only humors so that he can distract this dangerous man from the arrival of the authorities. The invisible man relates his frustrations and annoyance at all the people who have kept him from achieiving his goals, without having it once occur to him that perhaps their own wishes and choices were just as valid, in spite of - heaven forbid - not serving his purposes. How ironic that a man who literal wipes out the appearance of his existence is the most arrogant, self-serving man on earth. He actually feels it his right and duty to begin a Reign of Terror - that's right, capital letters and all - with him as the supreme judge and executioner. For, after all, nothing else can be accomplished, he says, by being invisible - while invisible, he cannot enjoy anything that he can steal or obtain, because it will give away his presence. And it never occurs to him that perhaps he might find some purpose if only he'd look beyond his own gain. Was it becoming invisible that so corrupted him? No, I think it's pretty obvious that he was corrupted before he ever started the experiments. But gaining the frightening power of invisibility gave him the chance to let that corruption take an ugly, violent form. And yet, for all his hideous behavior, when his form is revealed at his death, it is more pathetic than horrible. As an invisble man, he was a demonic, unstoppable force. Take away his invisibility, and he's just another weak, flawed human. Ultimately, a tragedy.
As a science fiction novel, of course, it's rather leaning towards horror - don't venture too much into the forbidden unknown, or you may awaken nightmares that should have been left untouched. But such an attitude was characteristic of 19th-century science fiction, because the industrial revolution, for all its wonders, seemed to carry a touch of danger, a loss of the old, safe ways. There is some plausibility to the science behind invisiblity, though, as with most good science fiction stories, that's not the point. At any rate, I can see the roots of the genre quite strongly established in Wells' work.
In other news, I am bemused by the Episode III title. Oh, it fits the movie just fine, it's just that Lucas surprised everyone so much with the first two titles, I was fully expecting him to come up with something utterly different from fan speculation. But I guess he couldn't help it if everyone hit upon the pulpish, serial-movie-toned sort of title that just fit what he was looking for. Ah, well. Who cares what it's called, I want to see it!!! I can't hold off from spoilers too much longer.....
Suspense abounds - any moment there could be a tap on someone's shoulder, they turn, and -- nothing there. And the chilling disembodied Voice, the subtle ways he is noticed - footprints, snow falling on his frame, blood becoming visible after it leaves his body. The panic near the end of the story as an entire town closes its doors and windows to the unseen prowler, and the mad chase between Kemp and the title character - it was literally a page-turner. Fully as exciting as the time traveler racing from the Morlocks, or the flight from the invading Martians. And the image of a man swathed in bandages with dark glasses and a hat pulled low - there's an image not easily forgotten. This is what makes something a true classic - it leaves an indelible impression on the reader.
There is a sheer mountain of irony in the narrative. Much of the book involves the invisible man's story in his own words as he tells it to Doctor Kemp. It is full of a self-defensive, self-absorbed tone that Kemp only humors so that he can distract this dangerous man from the arrival of the authorities. The invisible man relates his frustrations and annoyance at all the people who have kept him from achieiving his goals, without having it once occur to him that perhaps their own wishes and choices were just as valid, in spite of - heaven forbid - not serving his purposes. How ironic that a man who literal wipes out the appearance of his existence is the most arrogant, self-serving man on earth. He actually feels it his right and duty to begin a Reign of Terror - that's right, capital letters and all - with him as the supreme judge and executioner. For, after all, nothing else can be accomplished, he says, by being invisible - while invisible, he cannot enjoy anything that he can steal or obtain, because it will give away his presence. And it never occurs to him that perhaps he might find some purpose if only he'd look beyond his own gain. Was it becoming invisible that so corrupted him? No, I think it's pretty obvious that he was corrupted before he ever started the experiments. But gaining the frightening power of invisibility gave him the chance to let that corruption take an ugly, violent form. And yet, for all his hideous behavior, when his form is revealed at his death, it is more pathetic than horrible. As an invisble man, he was a demonic, unstoppable force. Take away his invisibility, and he's just another weak, flawed human. Ultimately, a tragedy.
As a science fiction novel, of course, it's rather leaning towards horror - don't venture too much into the forbidden unknown, or you may awaken nightmares that should have been left untouched. But such an attitude was characteristic of 19th-century science fiction, because the industrial revolution, for all its wonders, seemed to carry a touch of danger, a loss of the old, safe ways. There is some plausibility to the science behind invisiblity, though, as with most good science fiction stories, that's not the point. At any rate, I can see the roots of the genre quite strongly established in Wells' work.
In other news, I am bemused by the Episode III title. Oh, it fits the movie just fine, it's just that Lucas surprised everyone so much with the first two titles, I was fully expecting him to come up with something utterly different from fan speculation. But I guess he couldn't help it if everyone hit upon the pulpish, serial-movie-toned sort of title that just fit what he was looking for. Ah, well. Who cares what it's called, I want to see it!!! I can't hold off from spoilers too much longer.....
