Monos and Daimonos

Monos and Daimonos
The horror story I read most recently was Monos and Daimonos by Edward Bulwer Lytton. I was hoping for an 'attacked by tentacled monster' type of tale and ended up with something completely different. Not that I am complaining; at least it is better than that atrocious story I read last week (looking at you, Mr Blackwood).

Monos and Daimonos is a weird little story about a recluse. Well, it's this young man who is brought up, away from the bustling crowds, on an isolated island. He doesn't give much details about the spot except to paint it as a somewhat bleak location. Oh and he is with his father, a man who is not exactly chummy with him. In fact, it looks like they didn't like each other, which admittedly was more so from the father's side than the son's.

So, his dad passes away and the guy ends up living with another relative. This means he has to mingle with the rest of society. Which turns out to be a daunting task for him. Folks don't like him, he doesn't get along with people and he keeps craving solitude all over again.

Therefore, he says to himself, hell with with, let me seek peace all by my lonesome all over again. That's what he thought. Turns out it was not going to be that easy. The main protagonist ends up meeting this horrid, annoying character on a ship. The weird guys seems way too attached to the main guy which disturbed him greatly. After all, that man was annoying, why is he following him despite his obvious dislike for him?

Yea, that's when there is a shipwreck and our guy ends up on an island. Sans crew and staff of the ship. Excepting the annoying presence of his new found friend. This freaky guy attaches himself to our equally weird hero and there seems no escape from him. And things are about to get ugly.

Like I said earlier, the story wasn't the usual 'build up suspense' and 'splash a bit of gore' type of story. Nonetheless, Bulwer-Lytton's writing style made this an interesting read. What was fascinating was the author's point about mankind's evil nature. I'm not sure about the underlying theme of this sotry but it was definitely one of these two. Through this story, the author suggests that almost everyone has a dark side and being alone simply makes this side worse. Or, he is stating that being alone is never good for anyone because it makes people evil (irrespective of whether they originally had an evil side or not).

I guess he was berating anti-social tendencies (ooh emo kids will hate this one) and stating that you need to be among people in order to be a good person? And feel human? He has a point but not all recluses are bad, you know. Sure, your tables manners will definitely improve but sometimes the recluses just need their personal space. This is definitely a weird story with an even weirder theme.