“It’s funny. Have you ever read the
original story, Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde?”
“The original? By Stevenson? No, I
guess I haven’t.”
“It’s funny. The original story
doesn’t have anything to do with seeking to separate a man’s good and evil sides
or anything like that. It’s just a mystery story about the relationship between
this respectable doctor and his ugly new friend. Who is this Hyde person, where
did he come from, why does Jekyll insist that everyone be nice to him and let
him have his money? People think Hyde must be blackmailing him, but Jekyll
doesn’t act the least bit like a man being blackmailed, he just acts like a man
who is enjoying indulging his new best friend.
“So, the drug Jekyll is taking isn’t
revealed to the reader at first?”
“Right, not until the end. It isn’t
until Jekyll is caught out and he has killed himself that he leaves a note
explaining how he created a drug that can change his appearance. It was only
because he didn’t worry about Hyde’s reputation that he acted so wild as Hyde –
he’d always wanted to carouse that way, and had done some of it in secret over
the years, and now he could do all he wanted.”
“Ah. And Hyde ran wild, and became
more and more brazen, and violent.”
“Yes, eventually he did things as
Hyde that could send him to prison, so he knew he had to stop using that
identity, but by then, he was changing without taking the drug, at random
times. He was trapped, so he killed himself. But again, none of this had
anything to do with Hyde being a separate person, it was just a disguise.”
“Weird. Funny how the story has
changed so much.”
“Yeah. Also, Hyde was shorter than
Jekyll, not bigger, as he is often depicted.”
“Hah. In The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen, Hyde is their Incredible Hulk. He even has a
line, I guess Jekyll has a line, saying Hyde used to be shorter than him”
“Perfect example. I read that
series, I loved it, but it’s got a Jekyll and Hyde who’re totally different
from the original.”
“I do like the ways in which the
story changes and slides around. It’s fun. But I didn’t know how different the
origin was.”
“Neither did I. I read the original
while because I’m working on a story in which Jekyll is an elderly man working
on a rejuvenation formula that will take a few years off and extend his life a
bit, but it winds up turning him into a young man who doesn’t look anything
like himself, can’t pass himself off as Jekyll’s son or disguise himself as the
aged Jekyll, so he is obliged to take on an entirely new identity. It’s different
enough from the original that I could take away the Jekyll and Hyde element
entirely, but I kind of like it.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“I hope it will be. By the way, I
found out from the foreword to the book that Stevenson intended the name to be
pronounced ‘Jee-kull’, but even I’m not such a pedantic twit that I’d try to insist
on it now.”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pbeile/3142891992/
[I have a feeling that link may not
be good indefinitely, so I’m putting the whole poem, Question by
Mae Swenson, below.]
Question
Body my house
my horse my hound
what will I do
when you are fallen
Where will I sleep
How will I ride
What will I hunt
Where can I go
without my mount
all eager and quick
How will I know
in thicket ahead
is danger or treasure
when Body my good
bright dog is dead
How will it be
to lie in the sky
without roof or door
and wind for an eye
With cloud for shift
how will I hide?
From Another Animal
The Magic Eight-Ball says: "Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken."
