Donovan's Brain

Donovan's Brain is a 1942 science fiction novel by Curt Siodmak.

The novel has become something of a cult classic, with fans including Stephen King. King discusses the novel in his own book Danse Macabre and the line Cory uses to resist Donovan is repeated to similar effect in King's horror novel, It.

Plot

The novel is written in the form of diary entries by Dr. Patrick Cory, a middle-aged physician whose experiments at keeping a brain alive are subsidized by Cory's wealthy wife. Under investigation for tax evasion and criminal financial activities, millionaire megalomaniac W.H. Donovan crashes his private plane in the desert near the home of Dr. Cory. The physician is unable to save Donovan's life, but removes his brain on the chance that it might survive, placing the gray matter in an electrically charged, oxygenated saline solution within a glass tank. The brainwaves indicate that thought—and life—continue. Cory makes several futile attempts to communicate with it. Finally, one night Cory receives unconscious commands, jotting down a list of names in a handwriting not his own—it is Donovan's. Cory successfully attempts telepathic contact with Donovan's brain, much to the concern of Cory's occasional assistant, Dr. Schratt, an elderly alcoholic.

Gradually, the malignant intelligence takes over Cory's personality, leaving him in an amnesiac fugue state when he awakes. The brain uses Cory to do his bidding, signing checks in Donovan's name, and continuing the magnate's illicit financial schemes. Cory becomes increasingly like the paranoid Donovan himself, his physique and manner morphing into the limping image of the departed criminal. Donovan's bidding culminates in an attempt to have Cory kill a young girl who stands in the way of his plans. Realizing he will soon have no control over his own body and mind, Cory devises a plan to destroy the brain during its quiescent period. Cory resists the brain's hypnotic power by repeating the rhyme "He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts." With Dr. Schratt's help, he destroys the housing tank with an ax and leaves the brain of Donovan to die, thus ending his reign of madness.

Adaptations

The novel has been adapted for the screen several times, most notably as The Lady and the Monster (1944), Donovan's Brain (1953), and The Brain (1962).

In 1982, the LP album release of the 1944 radio version of this story (from the series Suspense and starring Orson Welles) won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

Influence and Imitations

Imitations of the story have included the Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain" and the character of Uncle Irvin in The City of Lost Children, the 1995 fantasy film.^{[1][dead link]}

In the 1983 film The Man with Two Brains, the protagonist Dr Michael Hfuhruhurr (played by Steve Martin) claims that the film adaption of Donovan's Brain is his favourite film and later discovers a colleague who is able to keep brains alive in jars. Hfuhruhurr subsequently falls in love with one of the brains.

The title is satirized in an episode of Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, called "Donovan's Brainiac", where the nephew of Dr. Donovan uses the brain of the Legion Ex Machina's Number Five in a robot he built for a science fair.

A reference to the title can also be found at the end of the Larry Niven short story "Becalmed in Hell," in which the character Eric, who lives as a brain and spinal cord on life-support, and works as the directly connected controller of a NASA exploratory vessel, signs a telegram "DONOVAN'S BRAIN".

Another influence that can be seen is in an episode of the 1960s TV Series The Avengers. The mind of an evil genius is kept alive by repeatedly taking control of the mind and body of victims, a feat which is accomplished with the assistance of a mad scientist doctor and nurse. The evil genius uses mind control (along with a computer like contraption that keeps his brain alive in his otherwise dead body) and amplifies the power of his brain waves to control other people.

See also

Novels portal

• Hauser's Memory

References

1. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}

External links

• Orson Welles on Suspense Archive.org hosts MP3 recordings of the 1944 radio version.
• Radio adaptations of Donovan's Brain on Suspense