For many years now I have been intrigued with Mary Shelley’s story, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. In many ways her story is a prophecy of themes that characterize our technological world-view. In the book that I am now writing, The Frankenstein Prophecies: The Untold Story, I explore seven of those prophecies. The triumph over death, which is the dream of Victor Frankenstein, is the central theme.
That theme lingers today in films that are our collective dreams. Jurassic Park is a good example. In that film and its sequels dead creatures are recreated from their genetic codes. But they are destructive monsters. So too is the creature that is made by Victor Frankenstein.
Is Mary Shelley’s story a warning about becoming a God who would create life?
Does Jurassic Park and it sequels allude to the same warning?
Are the resurrected monsters that were meant to be the attraction in a theme park, a kind of Disneyland run amok, the modern form of Frankenstein’s monster?
In Mary Shelley’s story Victor Frankenstein abandons his creature and refuses to take responsibility for his actions. Abandoned, cursed as demon and devil, the monster is marginalized. Her story lives on as told only from Victor’s point of view
What might be learned if drawing near to the margins we listen to his side of the story?
Might we be faced with the unsettling question; Who is the Monster?
