[continued from previous message]   
      
   So in Spanish the word for "red" is either "rojo" or "roja",   
   depending, but it still counts as only one word.   
      
   So is the human race in more danger from "one clumsy North Korean   
   biowarfare lab tech" or climate change?   
      
   Well, I thought that the climax in MICKEY 17 was a steal from   
   GORGO, which predated NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WINDS. (And   
   the film itself is reminiscent of MOON.) [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)   
      
   "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis   
   Stevenson was the topic of the most recent episode (after a   
   three-month hiatus) of "Classical Stuff You Should Know" and it   
   inspired me to re-read it.   
      
   Reading it does not solve one of the mysteries in it: how to   
   pronounce "Jekyll". The most common pronunciation is "JEH-kuhl",   
   but in the 1934 film, it is pronounced "JEE-kuhl". (The same   
   problem occurs in Sherlock Holmes with Irene Adler; is it   
   "eye-REEN" or "eye-REEN-ee"?)   
      
   The inspiration for this work is well-known. In the 18th century   
   there lived in Stevenson's home city Edinburgh Deacon William   
   Brodie. By day, Brodie was an upstanding citizen, a deacon of the   
   guild of cabinetmakers, and very well-respected. By night, he was   
   a burglar and a thief, defeating many of the same locks and   
   security devices he installed by day. Early on, Stevenson wrote a   
   play about Deacon Brodie that was not successful, so he was   
   clearly aware of and influenced by the story.   
      
   When we first heard the story of Deacon Brodie, while on a walking   
   tour of Edinburgh, Mark immediately recognized that it must have   
   been Stevenson's inspiration. And the story also explained a   
   speech in THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE: "But I am a descendant,   
   do not forget, of Willie Brodie. He was a man of substance-- A   
   cabinetmaker and a designer of gibbets... a member of the town   
   council of Edinburgh... the keeper of two mistresses who bore him   
   five children between them. Blood tells. He played much dice and   
   fighting cocks. Eventually, he was a wanted man for having robbed   
   the excise office. Not that he needed the money. He was a burglar   
   for the sake of the danger. He died cheerfully on a gibbet of his   
   own devising in 1788. That is the stuff I am made of." And   
   indeed, legend has it that after Brodie was discovered, arrested,   
   and convicted, he was hanged on a gallows that he designed. (As   
   with many legends, there is no truth to the story about the   
   gallows, other than that he was hanged, and he apparently needed   
   the money to cover his gambling debts.)   
      
   There is a similarity of the Jekyll and Hyde story with THE   
   PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde, in that in THE PICTURE OF   
   DORIAN GRAY there is also a division of self, but between moral   
   conscience and sensual appetites.   
      
   And the Classical Guys drew yet another parallel, perhaps the most   
   pertinent now. So many people divide themselves today between   
   their persona in the real world, and their persona on-line.   
   On-line many people give in to their worst impulses, knowing (or   
   at least thinking) that their real-life persona's reputation will   
   never be tainted by their on-line misdeeds. Because what Jekyll   
   wants is to split into good and evil, not to purge the evil, but   
   to be able to *be* evil without feeling any guilt or hhaving any   
   damage to his reputation. (And this is true of Dorian Gray; he   
   wants a way to shed all his guilt onto his portrait, and feel none   
   himself.)   
      
   And another parallel between the real world and on-line is that in   
   both cases, eventually the evil (on-line) becomes dominant.   
   (Somehow just as Jekyll would never have brought forth an angel,   
   the on-line persona is never the better side of the original.)   
      
   Oh, and the Dr. Fell that Utterson invoked in his instinctive   
   dislike of Hyde is the one referenced in the well-known poem,   
   possibly by Thomas Brown:   
      
        I do not love thee, Dr. Fell.   
        The reason why I cannot tell,   
        But this I know, I know full well,   
        I do not love thee, Dr. Fell.   
      
   The legend behind *it* can be found at   
   .   
   (Apparently there are a lot of legends touched by Stevenson, and   
   considerably less fact.) [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
                                        Evelyn C. Leeper   
                                        evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com   
      
      
              You don't expect me to know what to say about a play   
              when I don't know who the author is, do you?   
                                              --George Bernard Shaw   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)