[Minor spoilers.]
I saw the movie first. It's one of my all time favorite movies, extremely underrated by most people. I went out of my way to look for a book in the hopes to get a little more insight into it. You'd be surprised how many obscure Disney films have novels based on them. That was a big thing back in the day. I'm a nut for trying to find old books based on obscure movies that I grew up with, and this was no exception.
"The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" tells the story of a campus nerd named Merlin Jones. He is very smart and curious about the laws of reality in just about every field of science. Despite being a bonafide nerd, he attracts a very pretty young woman named Jennifer who stands by his side for the entire story, defending his crazy ideas at every turn. Other very important characters of note is Norman the school bully, Judge Holmsby who has to contend with the problems Merlin's experiments lead to, and Stanley who is a chimpanzee.
The story is broken up into two main scientific experiments: The ability too read minds and hypnosis. I like the contrast of the two. One is all about invading the privacy of a man's thoughts, and the other is about outright controlling them. The book also considers the moral implication of both as well as dealing with the evils we may be hiding deep inside ourselves.
The hypnosis elements are particularly well-explained. There has long been a belief that no one can be hypnotized to do something outside of their own moral code. You can make someone squawk like a chicken, because, as embarrassing as that might be, it's not really a moral strike on their conscience. However if you ask someone to murder someone, they should not actually be convinced to do it since they are not so inclined to commit the act.
But this book suggests that some people might have things that they would do if it were not for the fact that they live in a law-bound civil society. One might be hypnotized to commit a crime by dint of the fact that they actually really want to. Something about this rings true, and I couldn't help but be impressed by the whole concept of it.
The moral implications of reading another person's mind was thought provoking as well. It shows that people's thought are not always as straight forward as you might think. There are surface thoughts that often slip into various forms of distraction and day dreams. A person's real thoughts can often be hidden a few layers deep. In the case of the book, Merlin could only catch the surface thoughts with led him down a misleading path. It was clever.
Another notable aspect of the story that really amused me was the relationship between Merlin and Jennifer. They had the solid foundation of a male/female relationship. Despite always being distracted by his scientific research, they loved each other. She was a pretty woman too. Most of the nerd stories I have seen usually doesn't pair the nerd with a woman like this with the relationship being this strong. I was impressed how naturally it flowed.
The book carries the plot of the movie pretty well, but it is presented oddly out of order. The odd thing is that everything sort of still happens the same way despite things being switched around. Two teachers were combined into one in the film (which wasn't really a bad idea honestly.) In the movie, the story covers mind reading first and then moves into its hypnosis phase, where the book does it in the opposite order. It still somehow works out with the same result.
As a final caveat, probably the most amusing scene in the book was when Merlin, who was tired of seeing the local dog chase his cat "Mittens" up a tree, hypnotizes the feline into thinking it's a lion. The cat then begins to roar and chase the dog up a tree. Although it does later backfire, leading Mittens to chase an unfortunate mailman up that same tree. It's silly, because how would the cat understand English? But I still enjoyed the comedic scene regardless.
I recommend "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" if you are interested in an amusing story that won't tax your brain too much. As silly as some of the premises are, it still brings up a few thought provoking questions about human morality. Great movie; great book.
This blog was written on January 26, 2022.
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Especially interesting that though the story was a comedy, it did take the science of its fiction seriously. Yeah, the goofy things were supposed to be goofy, but the concepts and their connotations were explored. MERLIN JONES was meant to be more than a stream of cheap gags.
ReplyDeleteIt goes out of its way to give you something to think about. I suppose the original writers mused over these ideas. As it turns out, it ended up being one of the most inspirational books I have read... but I am probably an unusual case.
DeleteSurface thoughts would be easier to read, because they are what a person is thinking. Going deeper would mean delving into what they remember and the feelings associated with such. The mind reader could be easily deceived by their own interpretations.
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating, isn't it? We don't normally consider these things.
DeleteInteresting thing about the rules of hypnosis, it does indeed ring true that if an act is within someone's heart they can be persuaded to commit it with hypnosis. I'm glad the book lives up to the movie. It's been awhile since I saw the movie but I remember it was fun.
ReplyDeleteIf you get a person to believe they can do certain things safely, then they might actually do it!
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