The Island of Doctor Moreau - Q11: Adaptations and Legacy

Apocryphal

"Then we went into the laboratory and put an end to all we found living there."

How has this book been adapted in popular culture? What's it's legacy? Where do we see it's influence?

NeilNjae

I mentioned Jurassic Park as perhaps drawing deeply on the contents of this book. The trope of intelligent animals is common in SF, fantasy and folklore: Moreau's vivisection is just the SF mechanism by which it happens. Where I think this book is different is that it's a person that does the creation, not a god or a force of nature. That usurpation of god is different from earlier fiction, I think.

Apocryphal

Jurassic Park was the first one to spring to my mind as well. It does seem like a re-make, though it doesn't capitalize on all the themes present in Moreau.

You also mentioned Lord of the Flies, which I also wondered at being, if not a re-make, at least heavily inspired by this book.

Are there any planetary SF novels? I'd be surprised if not. Conrad's Heart of Darkness seems to be being constantly revisited on other planets, and I should think this book would lend itself to that. The dangers of tampering with nature have hardly gone out of style as a theme.

NeilNjae

The contrast is Brin's Uplift series, which is a positive take on making animals sentient. But for planetary SF, do we need uplift or does the contact with non-humans fill the same role? Not human, but intelligent.

Apocryphal

I don't know. For reasons I could never understand, there's always a cadre of people that want to play anthropomorphized animals. Probably because of their cozy upbringing reading Sweet Pickles books.

RichardAbbott

I'd say loads and loads. I mentioned James Bond before. In (older) films you could look at FuManchu (who always had a cool base that had to be infiltrated and was abandoned with the promise of return. Lots of modern eco-thriller plots take for granted the figure of the amoral scientist

clash_bowley

@Apocryphal said:
I don't know. For reasons I could never understand, there's always a cadre of people that want to play anthropomorphized animals. Probably because of their cozy upbringing reading Sweet Pickles books.

Four words: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles