Monsters And Angels
For the next book, we’re leaving the past behind and voyaging to a mysterious island in the present. Ninth in a series of fifteen.
Halam, Ann (2002). Dr. Franklin’s Island. NY: Dell Laurel-Leaf. 246 pages.
Summary and evaluation: Semirah Garson is shy and not at all good with people. So she is somewhat surprised find herself on an expedition to Ecuador with fifty other British Young Conservationists. Even if she has a tough time, Semirah, who goes by ‘Semi,’ is determined to enjoy trip. Very soon she realizes making friends will be the least of her problems; the plane carrying the expedition crashes and Semi, along with Arnie and Miranda, is cast ashore on an island, an island belonging to the Dr. Franklin of the title. And the good doctor is in need of subjects- human subjects – to take part in his latest experiment.
If Dr. Franklin’s Island was assigned to us as a science fiction read, and Peeps as horror, why did I find the former much more creepy? I’m going to say it’s because Peeps is about vampires, which don’t exist, while Dr. Franklin’s Island is about a man so consumed by his cause, conveniently justified by the great notion of ‘progress’, that he is able to treat other people as less than human, as objects. And the world is full of people like that. Dr. Franklin sees nothing wrong with the horrific things he does to his prisoners; indeed he is happy to chat with Semi and Miranda and tell them in great detail what he has in store for them. He has no shame, and so it easy to imagine Dr. Franklin not just as a ‘mad’ scientist but as an SS officer executing civilian hostages, or as a Wall Street executive cashing out his bonus while his employees’ pension fund goes up in smoke. As I said, the world is full of people like Dr. Franklin.
In a brief ‘about-the-author’ style note at the end of the book, Halam mentions that Dr. Franklin’s Island was inspired by The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells. I haven’t read Wells’ book (though I have seen the awesomely bad movie based on the boo – you know, the one with Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando). Based on what I know about the earlier title, Halam has inverted the mad scientists’ work: Dr. Franklin seeks to change people into animals, while Dr. Moreau wanted to change animals into humans. In Well’s book the transformation is presented as a very bad thing, but in Halam’s novel the change is presented differently. The process is horrible and scary (and creepy to read about) but the result is, well, enjoyable for the test subjects. Being a person changed into a fish or a bird is not bad in-and-of-itself; it’s the captivity and lack of control that pain Semi, Miranda and Arnie.
Booktalk hook: It would hard – really hard – to beat the blurb on the back of the book i.e ‘what would it be like to watch your friend change into a bird, knowing you’re next?’ I would play on that statement and read aloud the particularly horrifying passage where Miranda really starts to change.