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| From the 1933 adaptation of The Invisible Man |
For Thursday:
Wells, The Invisible Man, Chs. 12-20
As before, answer two of the following in a short
paragraph, and cite individual passages whenever possible. Remember, any writing you do now will pay off
on the papers to follow!
1. How does the
Invisible Man exhibit many of the qualities and mannerisms of the typical
“super villain” we find in movies and comics today? Though we can argue he isn’t as maniacal as a
Joker or a Green Goblin, he still offers a blueprint for these later
villains. Related to this question,
would you consider Griffin
2. Many writers
have argued that science/technology is neither bad nor good; the question is
simply who uses it and to what
ends. With this in mind, what are the
Invisible Man’s goals in pursuing the science of invisibility? What is he will to do to see his project
through? Why might it be telling that
his immediate uses for the “miracle” of invisibility are all criminal (or
comic) in nature?
3. Ursula K. Le
Guin remarks that “science fiction is metaphor,” reminding us that the future,
science, and ideas like invisibility are speculative and allegorical. In other
words, they offer a novel framework in which to view our own lives and
ideas. How might much of these chapters
be satirizing late 19th century English society through the “haunting” of an
Invisible Man? Where do we see H.G.
Wells’ own ideas about society shining through his seemingly unbiased
journalistic observations?
1. He's similar to a super villain in the sense that he is quick to anger. He isn't exactly the calm, logical type. There are exceptions, of course, but most super villains aren't the most rational. He also doesn't believe that he is evil. Like we discussed in class, the bad guy doesn't often consider himself to be the bad guy. The invisible man here doesn't believe he is doing evil. He is merely trying to pursue scientific advances and people get in his way. To him his research and his bouts of anger are perfectly justified. Yes, Griffin is definitely a psycho. He doesn't care about anyone else or who he hurts. He stole a woman's cat to practice his experiment before setting the entire place on fire so no one could copy his work. I would definitely say that he is testing boundaries. He would think the same way and would probably WANT to behave the same way, but he wouldn't. The invisibility gives him a sort of shield that lets him act however he wishes, but wouldn't normally dare, with impunity.
ReplyDelete2. I think that his methods started out harmless enough, he was fascinated by light and wanted to see in what new ways he could manipulate it, but he quickly became obsessed and dangerous. He robbed his own father to pay for his experiments, which caused his father to commit suicide. That's about the point where this turned into a selfish search for power and fame. He has no qualms any more about good and evil. He will do absolutely anything to see this through. I think the fact that they start out relatively harmless and then progressively get worse is to draw attention to this. He started off merely curious then became obsessed. The longer he stays invisible, the less stable and more dangerous he will be.
Great responses...as Kemp says late in the book, Griffin is inhuman, full of total selfishness. He is no longer a man, and thus becomes invisible: all that remains is his voice and the results of his anger. This suggests to me (bouncing off your comments) that he has regressed to something quite primal, and that science has led him full circle to the beginning of time. He is just a naked primate now, howling at the moon and hunting so as not to be hunted himself.
Delete1. I liked that the narrator started calling the Invisible Man “The Voice”. It’s like this new name made him less human. He no longer even has the word man in his title. He has been completely stripped of his identity. I noticed in these chapters he became more aggressive towards other people. In the beginning he was at least somewhat mannerly. One scene in particular that makes The Invisible Man a villain, was when he snuck back to the hotel to get his stuff and found the two men going through his things. He proceeds to forcefully get them to do what he wants. I think he displays characteristics of villain in that he is quick to anger, but he feels his anger is justified. I’m not sure Griffin would have turned out evil had it not been for the invisibility. I think it brought a lot of unwanted attention, which is ironic because he’s INVISIBLE! Maybe I just like to think all villains might choose to be good if given the opportunity, but I hope that Griffin would be a better man under different circumstances.
ReplyDelete2. This is a classic scenario in a lot of science fiction stories. Someone wants to create something new and possibly dangerous, and it somehow ends up in the wrong hands. In this case I think The Invisible Man started this experiment with curiosity then it slowly formed into a sort of obsession; which shows another trait of a villain. They are almost always obsessed with something, whether it is an object or an idea, or a person. I think the fact that he abuses his power of invisibility might hint that, if in the same situation, we might all “turn to the dark side”.
Great response, and I'm sorry I forgot to call attention to this in class. The fact that he becomes "the Voice" is an important metaphorical point. He really isn't Griffin anymore, but a Voice, something primal and ghostly. He has given in entirely to a darker side of himself that can no longer be a scientist (and isn't it interesting that whenever he tries to conduct science, he ends up breaking beakers and screaming. He's clearly lost the touch). Instead, he's just this dark presence welling up from our primal past--a ghost to be exorcised by society, as he soon is, and quite violently too. It's ironic that a science fiction story ends in exactly the same way as Dracula: with the villain basically staked in the heart, and then "transformed' into a normal man again.
DeleteSoooo... Fun fact, I had an entire thing typed out and my computer crashed the minute I pressed "publish," so I'm gonna try to remember everything I said before and write it down exactly how I had it. It's been a GREAT day! (Major sarcastic comment).
ReplyDelete1. I think Griffin is absolutely a psycho. However, I believe he was this way previous to the invisibility (it was just kind of "under wraps" in a sense). I mean, come on. This dude CHOSE to conduct an experiment ON HIMSELF. Granted, he thought it would be reversible... but still. In doing so, he assured himself that the possibility of the experiment going wrong was okay. Even in society today, no science experiment is ever guaranteed. Personally, I don't think he was a saint even before this experiment went haywire. Do I think the invisibility has heightened the crazy? Absolutely. How could it not? This is a man was so used to being on top of the food chain, and now he's been knocked down to the importance of an animal (maybe even less). His temper, rage, and malice all act as that of a true super villain. The destruction he's willing to cause and to what extent make him no better than the Joker in my book. Griffin has the mind of a legit insane person. He stops at nothing.
2. Like I said in my previous comment, Griffin is willing to do whatever it takes to see this experiment pan out. He robbed his own father in order to get the chemicals for this experiment, for Pete's sake! Of course he's going to go to great lengths for the remainder of the project when he already has so much invested in it. I think this may've started out as being intrigued, but it moved to overt obsession rather quickly. From the beginning, Griffin wanted to do something no man had ever done before. Welp! Curiosity killed the cat.
**These responses weren't as long and poetic as the original ones, but I've become so angry with my laptop that I could literally throw it.
Sorry for all the difficulties: you can always e-mail this to me, too, if you can't get it to post. Always copy a response before you send it just in case, so you can post it back.
DeleteOtherwise, good responses...he is like The Joker, in that he wants to mock and ridicule society, though he lacks the finesse to pull this off. Whereas The Joker is malicious and intelligent, the Invisible Man becomes malicious through his lack of forethought and intelligence. He doesn't know how to play the role he intends, and this seems to make him regress to something very primal--a ghost, a beast, something inhuman and filled with simple, animal desires. Strange that the greatest scientist on the planet becomes little more than a monkey!
Ashley Bean
ReplyDelete1. Griffin definitely fits in with other supervillians because he's lost so much of himself. Most people are born with compassion and sympathy, which Griffin appears to have either lost it all or never had it in the first place. He never thinks about the repercussions of his actions, whether to himself or to others. He clearly didn't think about the invisibility becoming permanent, and how that might play out in his society. It seems that he always had bad intentions too, not evil, but they never seemed to be good. Lastly, I definitely consider him a psychopath in his own way. He shows a lot of schizophrenic signs, and his loss of empathy makes him cold and heartless. He never cares who he hurts or uses to get his way.
4. I personally didn't need the full explanation. Maybe a short summary, but the detail was lost on me. It confused me more than anything, mainly because I've always had a problem remembering unfamiliar details in a story, but it didn't necessarily take away from it. I think he added it to give a little credibility to the story, helping the reader really believe the story while they're reading it. It gives the reader something to nod along and scratch their chin at. It makes the idea of "possibility" really seem possible. Also, Griffin is explaining it to a fellow scientist, I don't think Wells could have gotten away with that scene without some kind of explanation. Why wouldn't another scientist bug Griffin until he finally told the secret? Again, it adds to the credibility and reality of the story.
Great responses here...he has lost much of himself, which is an interesting point: why would a scientific achievement of the "future" make him such a relic of the "past." Once he becomes the Invisible Man, he becomes a glorified ghost, throwing chairs, shaking sheets, and smacking people left and right. None of this has anything to do with science or progress. He has reverted to a primal self, one that can offer nothing to humanity and must ultimately be slain (as the villagers are more than happy to do). So this begs the question, to whom can we entrust science, and is it in the very nature of man to abuse the fruits of knowledge?
DeleteRocky Moore
ReplyDelete3. I cant exactly put my finger on what Wells is trying to do when he creates the scenes of mayhem that seem to come off as really humorous for some reason. Like every scene where the Invisible Man is causing harm like when he had Mr. Marvel try and steal some clothes and his books back but the whole scene turned into Griffin tripping, hitting and kicking people, which I thought was too funny as I was reading it. This has happened numerous times including, Mr. Marvel running away from Griffin or the time when Griffin first became invisible and made a ruckus in the room he had occupied and was giving the people who were trying to figure things out a fit. I guess you could say that Wells may have been telling people of that period to stop being so nosy, it could lead to things that you never wanted to deal with in the first place. It seems like almost every character, not everyone though because I do have sympathy for Mr. Marvel, sticks there nose into places they shouldn't. This might just be my observations and opinions but I found myself extremely irritated with how much the citizens bugged him.
4. I mean we could always say we don't need information from a writer or this and that but I am going to go there and make a huge assumption, didn't everyone want to know what allowed him to be invisible, even if you know you couldn't really do it, didn't you think the whole time how in the back of your mind you may have thought, 'what could he have possibly come up with to pull off invisibility?'. Just imagining the possibility is so intriguing to me, I mean wouldn't you want to be invisible even for a day. In a sense Wells makes the impossible seem possible, and I find this part so valuable. I mean I'm reading through the explanation of light and its refractive and reflective properties and how in turn this lead to his discovery and I love every word of it. I guess I fall victim to loving the super-villain and this explanation just helps to further that connection.
Great responses...I think the citizens bugged him so much because they weren't following his master plan. They were too nosy, too loud, too invasive. They wouldn't let him unfold his true mayhem and indeed, often ruined it completely, as with Mr. Marvel (coincidentally, the ordinary man who steals his books is called Mr. Marvel, which sounds more like a super hero!). The comedy comes from his botched attempts to stage his own story, which he clearly hasn't thought out properly. It's like the first attempt of a super villain to be his new identity: it's filled with a lot of trial and error, mistakes, and nonsense. Unfortunately for him, these mistakes are quite public, and deflate the terror he hoped to instill in the villagers--which makes him resort to outright violence. The man of science becomes a primate, basically, smashing and strangling things.
Delete1. The Invisible Man shares many qualities with other super villains. There is always some moment in the villain's past that gave them some sort of power. I mean the Hulk isn't typically considered a villain but he does cause a lot of destruction and his power was because of a science experiment which is somewhat the same as the Invisible Man's situation. Also, there is a pivotal moment in which a super villain decides to be on "the dark side". We see this when he steals the funds from his father and his father committing suicide. What is rather odd to me is the Invisible Man isn't trying to takeover the world which is typically the intent of most super villains. It is almost as if he isn't qualified to be a super villain but rather just an advanced criminal. I believe without the power of invisibility he would be just as corrupt as he is now. The proof is when he stole the money from his father. He wasn't invisible when that took place.
ReplyDelete4. I think the answer to this question is pretty simple. By describing the technique used to create the super power, it makes the story believable for the audience. Like we said in class, people of this time were reading all kinds of novels and honestly believed what they were reading to be true. I really enjoy reading the details and explanations on how the science can thoroughly explain the supernatural phenomenon taking place. I could see how the explanation given in The Invisible Man might be confusing or rather difficult to understand but, just like anything else we read that we don't understand, we simply accept it and go on. I have a feeling the readers of this time might have done the same thing.
Great responses and nice connection with The Hulk, who borrows from the "dark half" mythology of the late 19th century: Mr. Hyde, Dracula, the Invisible Man. Of course, we could argue that he became this dark half long before he invented invisibility, since he cruelly stole from his father and was gloriously unsentimental about his death. I think what makes him a super villain is less what he achieves (or doesn't achieve) but what he plans to do with his power. He has no ambitious schemes or grand philosophy--he just wants some sort of hyperbolic revenge on society. In a way, he seems to want to "clean house," but what he will replace it with remains in question.
Delete1. One thing that I found amusing was this idea that villains love revealing their complicated scheme and the amount of work and/or intelligence behind it in order to pull their plan together, and the Invisible Man falls right in line with this. I’m not sure how many have done this before him or if he was the first, but he’s dying to share it with someone who accepts him as invisible and not a specter. Like many other villains, he was oppressed in some way, being impoverished but very intelligent, and in order to rise above his disadvantages to perform this great scientific wonder he results to thieving and disgracing the name of his own father- then the man shoots himself as a result. I think he was a shady character before he became the temperamental invisible man because he seems to describe himself as unethical or at least morally ambiguous and apathetic.
ReplyDelete4. I think Wells trying to give the scientific explanation of his invisibility fits in with the overall tone of this book as a scientific journal or report. If it wasn’t there it would still be alright I guess, but it would be lacking something. Plus, he puts his backstory into the reveal, and instead of making it an emotional journey, we get this sense of his apathy and detachment from fellow humans before he even became invisible. I also like the way Wells made him an albino to fit with his theory because it also made him kinda on the fringe of society and ‘different’ than everyone else already. Unlike modern readers, his audience wouldn’t have been able to Google the properties of light and blood to test the premise of his hypothesis, but with all of this scientific sounding jargon might have taken it at face value and been awed at the possibility of it instead of alienated. Because really none of it seems very technical. I think a modern audience would further appreciate the attempt at an explanation, and maybe this was the beginning of coming to accept/expect that as part of the story.
Great responses...I think this idea that he needs to share and expound his achievements to someone who can understand, like Kemp, is the true window to his soul. He needs to prove that he's superhuman in more ways than one. He wants to be seen as a true superior intellect and species, which is why he poo-poos Kemp's horror at his criminal behavior. Only "common men" can worry about such things...and he is far from common! (or so he would have us believe). This hints at the fundamental makings of any super villain, which are rooted in psychology more than an invisibility serum.
Delete1. I don't really think the Griffin would be this crazy if he were visible. Still an jerk, yes, entirely, but I think invisibility has very much given Griffin this sense of anonymity, which does and doesn't work for him. No one knows him by name, but at the same time he's in the papers and everyone is wanting to "see" him. Like I thought it was weird that no one questioned Marvel when he ran in and started screaming about an Invisible Man. All of this aside, Griffin's like a super villain in that he's pushing boundaries. It started with him pushing the boundaries of science and now he's pressing the boundaries of humanity. With super villians, especially some of these older, mad scientist types (and that's exactly what Griffin is, a mad scientist), it's always about this one great project that will put them on the map of humanity and then they bumble around with the consequences. (Victor Frankenstein anyone?)
ReplyDelete4. I got to the part where Griffin explains how he made himself invisible and I pretty much did exactly what Mark talked about his answer to this question. I read it, thought "Okay, he's invisible" and went on because I was confused. Maybe Wells was spot on in his theory, but I'm not a scientist so I have no idea. Despite that, however, you have to merit Wells for the science he puts behind Griffin. I'm not super interested in it but over all these years there have been readers who get sucked in by that explanation and think "He's RIGHT!" and it takes the reader down this whole train of thought of "Could I make myself an Invisible Man?" Such detail makes the story more real, which is something Wells has been really aiming for this entire book.
Great response...he's definitely pushing boundaries like any self-respecting scientific revolutionary, but isn't it strange how he seems to lack any purpose for his achievement? He has no real philosophy or use for his power until the final chapter, where he says he will use it to institute a "Reign of Terror." Why would he need invisibility to do this? It seems a sadistic and somewhat unimaginative use for one of the greatest inventions of all time.
Delete1. Griffin is a man who feels that he is meant to test boundaries, specifically in scientific research. The way he refers to the kids at the college as almost meddling shows that he does not have much regard for his relationships, nor does he feel a need to mentor anyone. He instead feels that he is doing himself and science a disfavor if he does not take advantage of his intelligence and emotional coldness. As for his super villain qualities, I would say that Griffin is definitely withdrawn and misunderstood. He also uses fear as a tactic to acquire the things that he wants or feels he needs, much like modern villains.
ReplyDelete2. Carrying out the act of creating an invisible man seems to be more of a feat to be accomplished more than a means to an end. Griffin is very self-motivated and seeks to gain his own fame and fortune without having to split it with anyone else, as evidenced by his desire to keep his findings a secret from his lab partners and other meddling scientists. Once Griffin accomplishes his immediate goal, it seems that he is at a loss for what to do next, especially because he now has a desire to share it with others and a desire to keep it to himself all the same. Griffin’s immediate adventures in crime and debauchery show that he is struggling internally with how to react to his own genius and his own stupidity.
Great responses...but what you do think makes him so misunderstood? Is he more advanced/intelligent than his common man? Is he a new breed, almost like a mutant in the X-Men movies? Or does he envision himself this way as a defense mechanism, to deflect his racist tendencies and paranoid delusions? In other words, is he made a supervillain by society or by himself?
Delete