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A review by sidharthvardhan
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
3.0
"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking."
- H. L. Mencken
In Plato's Republic, there is a discussion about 'Ring of Gyges' - the ring gives its owner the power to be invisible. The guy who brought up the question says that no intelligent person can resist the temptation of misusing such a power because morality is after all a creation of society. Socrates disagreed and gave a really long discussion gave a lame ideal-world kind of reply.
Wells' Invisible man sometimes smells of being inspired by the legend of ring but it is story of different sort - of first the blind obsession and second, madness arising out of when that blind obsession is frustration. The protagonist here didn't had the power, rather was struck with his invisibility.
I could have like this one more if it was a bit shorter. At times, Wells gets carried away with describing too much of disturbances the scientific invention or discovery caused to common people. One more thing I couldn't understand was why wouldn't invisible man create some invisible clothes for himself - and save himself from all the public nudity especially with most of story happening in winter or rains.
Like all Wells' great ideas, it has inspired many other works - including Mr. India, one of favourite movies from childhood. The movie is going to get a reboot with Johnny Depp as invisible man.
Anyway, coming back to argument of Ring of Gyges - I think the argument works only for the people with slippery sense of morality. It won't change an inch of a person of high and strong morals and dignity like me. There is no way it would make me do anything wicked .... I mean yeah, I may use it to steal for food for poor kids but that is a social service you see .... okay, I might steal a bit of food for myself too as a reward for all the hard-work I did .... books, okay, but Amazon is a multi-billionaire corporation and you can understand, we are all readers here - and as you can see I'm sticking to bare necessities here .... an apple mobile, a guy has needs you know... come to think of it, I don't mind Sony's play-station but it is a big company and I fed the poor children part time, remember ... Well okay, slap a couple of people standing in rows at back of their heads - just for laughs, you know - innocent humour.... maybe also ...
- H. L. Mencken
In Plato's Republic, there is a discussion about 'Ring of Gyges' - the ring gives its owner the power to be invisible. The guy who brought up the question says that no intelligent person can resist the temptation of misusing such a power because morality is after all a creation of society. Socrates disagreed and gave a really long discussion gave a lame ideal-world kind of reply.
Wells' Invisible man sometimes smells of being inspired by the legend of ring but it is story of different sort - of first the blind obsession and second, madness arising out of when that blind obsession is frustration. The protagonist here didn't had the power, rather was struck with his invisibility.
I could have like this one more if it was a bit shorter. At times, Wells gets carried away with describing too much of disturbances the scientific invention or discovery caused to common people. One more thing I couldn't understand was why wouldn't invisible man create some invisible clothes for himself - and save himself from all the public nudity especially with most of story happening in winter or rains.
Like all Wells' great ideas, it has inspired many other works - including Mr. India, one of favourite movies from childhood. The movie is going to get a reboot with Johnny Depp as invisible man.
Anyway, coming back to argument of Ring of Gyges - I think the argument works only for the people with slippery sense of morality. It won't change an inch of a person of high and strong morals and dignity like me. There is no way it would make me do anything wicked .... I mean yeah, I may use it to steal for food for poor kids but that is a social service you see .... okay, I might steal a bit of food for myself too as a reward for all the hard-work I did .... books, okay, but Amazon is a multi-billionaire corporation and you can understand, we are all readers here - and as you can see I'm sticking to bare necessities here .... an apple mobile, a guy has needs you know... come to think of it, I don't mind Sony's play-station but it is a big company and I fed the poor children part time, remember ... Well okay, slap a couple of people standing in rows at back of their heads - just for laughs, you know - innocent humour.... maybe also ...