Friday, September 20, 2013

Elephant Man

Have seen clips from the film and heard quotes and other dialogue spoken over my lifetime but have never took the time to sit down and read it until now.  I don't want to give the story away but it's a fascinating tale of a man John Merrick who developed facial distortion in his youth and became an outsider or outcast among society.  All he wanted was to fit in with said society but in doing so he changed his unique qualities in a sense to become like us.  What's so special about us?  There's kind of a similar reference to this in the book between Treves, Merrick's friend & Gomm where Treves asks is there something wrong with us?  It kind of highlights the fact that we ourselves are not that fantastic meaning we are human, we make mistakes, we are imperfect. 

I think the book highlights Merrick wanting to fit in to society but truth be told he really is like everyone else in society.  Other than his deformities and probably being denied a proper education because of them, he is just like everyone else.  They saw him as something different and to most different can be or is scary and therefore people steer away from it or make it a negative thing.  He's probably your favorite character in the story aside from Merrick because it kind of had a Of Mice & Men feel like Lennie & George.  You feel for Lennie's disability & George's frustration in keeping George safe and taken care of.  Merrick just wanted a "normal" life.  To lay with a women, have friends and be treated as an equal.  To a certain degree he was treated like an equal with presents and his "friends" who would visit but it seemed more like charity then true kindness.  The book is a great read and what's even more interesting is that your reading true tale so that brings the content of the book to a higher level in terms of understanding how thinking was back then and has it changed that much?

I recommend this book highly and I think the next step for myself would be to see this in actual play format.  To see this performed live would be a delight. 

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