Crazy science

They may come up with a disease that can’t be cured, even a monster. Is this the answer to Dr. Frankenstein’s dream? So were the words of the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, warning against a proposed DNA laboratory at Harvard University in the early 1970s. Today, we almost expect to hear references to “Frankenstein” — … Read more

Frankenstein influence on art and society

The concept of the ‘mad scientist’ creating a creature/monster/weapon that eventually falls out of his control, leading to the scientist’s eventual defeat or ruin, is a common narrative trope in science-fiction / horror tales. For example, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde also features a scientist destroyed by a … Read more

The Frankenstein Complex

In Isaac Asimov’s robot novels, the Frankenstein complex is a colloquial term for the fear of robots. Asimov’s stories predict that the phobia will be widespread against machines that resemble people . It is similar in many respects to the uncanny valley hypothesis which was first coined in 1970 by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori . … Read more

Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster

Frankenstein and Dracula both deal with the issues of death and resurrection, creation and transgression, and the blurring of the boundaries between life and death. This common linkage with death and resurrection increased with time. James Whale emphasizes the significance of digging in a Christian cemetery in his Frankenstein (1931). The pronounced crucifix and an … Read more

The Death of Gothicism

Mary Shelley’s classic defies strict categorization as either Gothic, Romantic or Science Fiction. While containing elements of each, it moves beyond these genres and transcend time. Despite being very much rooted in the Nineteenth Century, it is thoroughly applicable to our current Twenty first Century. Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus has inspired other literary works … Read more

The modern Prometheus

In Greek mythology, Prometheus, a Titan, stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to humanity, for which presumption he was eternally punished by Zeus, king of the gods. In Roman legend Prometheus also created mankind out of clay. In Hebrew legend the golem was a clay man, animated through cabalistic magic to perform certain … Read more