#edithnesbit

[sciencefictionthoughts]

Edith Nesbit

Edith Nesbit wrote books to feed her five children. She began with children’s books but also wrote Gothic fiction and ghost stories. It is such an interesting thing to me that her career she chose to support her family was writing as I always thought of it as a career that took time to break into or get well-known enough to support someone fully. But she obviously made it work as she wrote over 60 children’s books, not including poetry collections or novels for adults. She also wrote stories for magazines such as the ones we read in this class. I can only imagine how difficult that would be to create constantly to support your family. Edith Nesbit did it and did it while making some good stories as well. 

[sciencefictionthoughts]

The Third Drug

Callousness

""I saw," said Roger, " the quiet people lying all along the floor in their death clothes — the people who have come in at that door of yours that is a trap—for robbery, or, curiosity, or shelter — and never gone out any more."(6).”

This stood out in particular because it truly shows the callousness or at least indifference the doctor has toward other people. I think this is something that has come up multiple times, such as with the Mary Shelley stories, as it may be related to the idea of the mad scientist. It is also really telling about the character of the doctor and why he would feel ‘kidnapping’ people to experiment on was okay to do. It also seems to bring about the question of if this influenced the want to isolate this experiment because something like this could not have happened with assistants and other around. Maybe it is the type of experiments that push mad scientists toward isolation rather then them wanting isolation to focus on their work. 

[sciencefictionthoughts]

The Five Senses

Saved by Lucilla

"It was on that day that they parted, after more than an hour of mutual misunderstood reiteration. He, she said, was brutal. And, besides, it was plain that he did not love her. To him she seemed unreasonable, narrow, prejudiced, blind to the high ideals of the new science.(4)."

"He knew that she had come back to him.(12)."

The relationship between Boyd Thompson and Lucilla really stuck out to me in The Five Senses as it seems almost like Lucilla could represent Thompson’s morals. The relationship between the two seems to be brought up at major points in the story, as after leaving her he begins experimenting even more and she is the one who saves Thompson after everyone thought he was dead. Lucilla seems to act like his morals or ethics to me as he leaves her to create what where considered unethical experiments while after resuming his relationship with her, he stopped those experiments at least as far as the reader knows. The relationship between these two seems to be the deciding factor in the fate of Thompson and is perhaps one of the best examples of how not being isolated can save the lives of scientists, especially mad ones. 

[sciencefictionthoughts]

The Five Senses

Isolation

“His big laboratory was silent and deserted. His assistants were gone, his private pupils dispersed. He was alone with the tools of his trade. (5).”

Like Victor and other mad scientists we’ve looked at, Boyd Thompson also isolates himself from those around him. While he is a bit of an outlier for continuing to have a laboratory and assistants, he still hides and isolates himself when testing on himself his experiment. He hides the human tests from his assistants even though they’re working with him. Thompson also isolates from those around him, like his fiancée, and while he may have his assistants there is nothing to show he truly let them in. This isolation may perhaps be the cause of some of Thompson’s bad decisions. 

[sciencefictionthoughts]

The Third Drug

Isolation

“I had a laboratory in those days —and assistants. They called me the Prince of Vivisectors."(6)“.

This quote stood out in particular as it seemed to fit well with a recurring theme that we have seen isolation, especially surrounding mad scientists. The doctor gave up a laboratory and more to continue experiments in isolation. This really seems to further the idea that mad scientists seems to seek isolation, particularly when starting new experiments. The doctor left his laboratory to hide his experiments and ended up not even having backing of any kind to the point that he was ‘kidnapping’ people off of the street to experiment with. This complete separation and isolation for experimentation reinforces the mad scientist status for the doctor. 

[sciencefictionthoughts]

[sciencefictionthoughts]

[sciencefictionthoughts]

Oversaturated

Photo Credit to David Keochkerian 

I decided that I would try to describe each of these books as a type of photography. This is what I decided for The Five Senses and The Third Drug.

 Oversaturate photography is not actually a photography style, as far as I am aware though is used in certain styles, but rather a problem that photographers can have. Saturation refers to the intensity of color in photography. Oversaturation can make photographs look artificial or garish as the color intensity can be uneven or too much, however it can also be used for effect. This overabundance of color past normal saturation reminded me of the Edith Nesbit stories.

This oversaturation reminded me of the Edith Nesbit stories because of how they are trying to push past standard human existence. It also reminded me of perhaps what these characters would see or experience pushing past the bounds of normal human existence or how a brain would rationalize the experience. The intensity present in these photographs just felt like the experiences that these characters went through, something more than natural yet also somehow understandable. Oversaturation just really felt like the experience of pushing the bounds of human nature and therefore like the Edith Nesbit stories.