A Tale of two steins

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A Tale of two steins

• Ein. . .

• Franken. . . (creature)

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• Cultural icon 1 Einstein
• Image of a genius, benevolent and wise.
• Science as dispelling ignorance and advancing
  prosperity.
• Esoteric secrets of the atom and secrets of the
  universe.
• Practical scientific agriculture, biomedical
  research, hi-tech educational methods.

• Cultural icon 2 Frankenstein
• Image of a monster, made by an evil genius.
• Technology gone awry, threatening new ways of
  death, destruction, and horror.
• Esoteric nuclear madness/ war, genetic
  engineering.
• Practical pollution by pesticides and
  herbicides, unnatural monsters of biotechnology,
  corrupting influence of TV and internet.

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Mary Shelly and Percy Shelly

• Mary was sixteen and Percy was twenty-one,
  married, with two children. Their emotional
  involvement was so strong that Percy threatened
  suicide when faced with separation.
• In 1814 Percy abandoned his family, the couple
  renounced their parents, and they fled to the
  continent. They are known to have traveled down
  the Rhine River.
• The summer of 1814 was dark and dreary all over
  Europe. Mary wrote Frankenstein as her entry
  in a ghost story competition.
• She was 20 years old and pregnant when the book
  was published in 1817.

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There is a real Castle Frankenstein

• Castle Frankenstein in Darmstadt overlooks the
  Rhine River near Frankfurt.

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And there is a real person who is the basis of
the Frankenstein myth

• Johann Konrad Dippel 1673-1734, German theologian
  and alchemist, whose interest in alchemy led him
  to search for the elixir of life and the
  philosopher's stone.
• It is said that he was interested in creating
  artificial life.
• He was also alleged to have practiced
  grave-robbing.
• Dippel was obsessed that he was on the verge of a
  scientific breakthrough and would conquer death
  itself.
• Dippel's Oil, a concoction of bones, blood, and
  other bodily fluids distilled in iron tubes and
  other alchemical equipment, was intended as the
  elixir of life.
• He offered his formulas to the king in exchange
  for Castle Frankenstein.
• It is said that Dippel signed his name
  "Frankenstein" after his place of residence.

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And there is a real person who is the basis of
the Frankenstein myth

• Johann Konrad Dippel 1673-1734, German theologian
  and alchemist, whose interest in alchemy led him
  to search for the elixir of life and the
  philosopher's stone.
• It is said that he was interested in creating
  artificial life.
• He was also alleged to have practiced
  grave-robbing.
• Dippel was obsessed that he was on the verge of a
  scientific breakthrough and would conquer death
  itself.
• Dippel's Oil, a concoction of bones, blood, and
  other bodily fluids distilled in iron tubes and
  other alchemical equipment, was intended as the
  elixir of life.
• He offered his formulas to the king in exchange
  for Castle Frankenstein.
• It is said that Dippel signed his name
  "Frankenstein" after his place of residence.

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FRANKENSTEIN Critical Questions for Discussion

• Usually in a novel there is a protagonist with
  whom you might identify.
• With whom do you identify in this novel?
• Was Victor a Bad Scientist?
• Was the Creature a Monster or merely a pitiful
  Creature?
• Did you feel compassion for Victor or for the
  Creature?
• Why did Victor remain silent when others were
  threatened or killed?
• Compare and contrast Victor and the Creature.
• How does Walton's polar quest help to frame the
  book?
• Was Walton's quest similar to Victor's?
• What light does the biography of Mary Shelley
  shed on this novel?
• What was Mary Shelley's hideous progeny? The
  Creature or the novel?
• What are some major ways of understanding the
  Frankenstein story?
• What can we learn from this book? About science?
  About human nature?
• Add critical questions of your own here. . .

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Frankenstein

• A metaphor for our own cultural crises.
• A work or agency that proves troublesomely
  uncontrollable, especially to its creator.
• A nightmare (love does not conquer all).
• Faust, Prometheus, modern Prometheus. Paradise
  Lost without angels, devils or god. A secular
  myth of creation of mortal bodies with
  electricity. To attempt to transcend death by
  material means is literally chimerical (Life
  Extended).

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Themes

• Birth and creation without women or God.
• Overreaching ambition and pathological science.
• Moral isolation with secret, dangerous guilt.
• Playing god without caring for creation.
• Technology out of control.
• Doppelgängers Victor/ Walton/ Clerval/ Marys
  father // Elizabeth/ Justine/ the bride/
  creature/ Mary.
• Injustice and unjust society.
• Politics of man creating the ideal man (or
  monster?)

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Ancient Jewish story of the Golem

• In response to persecution, citizens of a small
  town beg the rabbi for help.
• Using esoteric knowledge, the rabbi animates a
  clay figure --a Golem -- for protection (a good
  and noble motive).
• Golem runs amuck, out of control, starts doing
  harm indiscriminately.
• Story is a model for the sort of fears that
  people have of very powerful technology that they
  don't understand, e.g. genetic engineering or
  nuclear power.
• Good intentions can have bad consequences.
• Our fear of esoteric technology is much stronger
  than any reassurances that experts can provide.
• No one should play God.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vrdj8iRSh9wI

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Playing God (Evan Almighty)
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Playing God(Bruce Almighty)
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• Playing God in the Garden
• by Michael Pollan
• http//www.organics.org/features/god_garden.htm
• "The scientists are trying to play God!
• by Ben Bova
• http//www.benbova.net/playing.html
• Scientists playing God
• by John Cornwell
• http//www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/archive_db.cgi?
  tablet-00424

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GATTACA
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Brave New World (1932)Aldous Huxleywww.huxley.ne
t

• A satirical piece of fiction, not scientific
  prophecy.
• Serves as a symbol for the false promise of
  universal happiness.
• How can a future where everyone is happy become a
  dystopia?
• Huxley exploits the anxieties about both
  Communism and Fordism.
• Insipid happiness from Pavlovian-style
  conditioning and eugenics.
• Happiness from mass-produced goods, "the
  feelies", and soma?
• Soma an opiate for the masses? Prozac-like
  psychic tranquillizer?
• BNW is a benevolent dictatorship a totalitarian
  welfare-state.
• Is a version of BNW in our future through
  improved pharmacotherapy and genetic
  engineering?
• By abolishing pain and suffering, does BNW also
  eliminate the emotional peaks and valleys of
  life?

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1984by George Orwell (1949)

• A dystopian novel setting forth Orwells fears of
  an intrusively bureaucratized state of the
  future.
• On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the
  poster with the enormous face gazed from the
  wall. It was one of those pictures which are so
  contrived that the eyes follow you about when you
  move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption
  beneath it ran.
• "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a
  boot stamping on a human face--for ever.
• Oceania Inner Party (1), Outer Party (18), The
  Proles
• Winston Smith works in the Records Department of
  the Ministry of Truth rewriting and altering
  records, including newspaper stories.
• Keeps an illegal diary and opposes the Party, but
  pointless to resist.
• "War is Peace", "Ignorance is Strength, "Freedom
  is Slavery."
• Animal Farm (1945), a modern beast-fable
  attacking Stalinism.