Greetings fellow Monsters/fans of the macabre, and welcome to another entry in our Monster World Tour! Today we get galvanized to one of the most varied and misunderstood creatures in Monster-dom: Frankenstein’s Monster.
What is Frankenstein’s Monster?
Frankenstein’s Monster, also known as the Creature, premiered in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. The classical monster was born when the novel’s protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, tries to prove a mocked hypothesis that bringing back the dead is more of a science than mere pseudoscience.
In his fit of madness (or frustration, depending of what side of the genius – research subject spectrum you fall on), Victor sews together ideal body parts, breaths life into his creation with electricity from a thunderstorm, and thus his Monster was born.
In contrast to most visual representations of Frankenstein’s Monster (which I’ll refer to simply as Monster to save the pain of hand sprain), the Monster is not a lumbering idiot barely able to speak, but a well read, well spoken, hideous chimera of body parts, granting him greater speed, strength, and durability than the common man. Despite his intelligence, the Monster is still an adversary worthy of fear, considering his disdain towards his creator when Victor saw how hideous his invention was, and a strong hatred for mankind since humans tend to misjudge him based on his looks.
A representation of the Monster in the Japanese anime: Fate/Apocrypha. Guess who she fights in the show? Shakespeare. Yeah, it's that awesome. (Source: https://typemoon.fandom.com/wiki/Frankenstein)
Is Frankenstein’s Monster Real; Where is it?
Time to make you lose sleep tonight… On to the grand question: Is Frankenstein’s Monster real? The answer is complicated, or rather the memed “Yes and No.” The Monster as represented by Mary Shelley’s novel is not real, yet the concept behind the Monster, and therefore the means to make him, are closer to reality than we’d like to believe.
Essentially, the root of the fear with the Monster doesn’t lie with Victor’s creation itself, but from man’s blind hubris creating an entity more powerful than him that wishes for his destruction and torment. Therefore, any scientist blindly ignoring established morality and law to create or alter an intelligent being could possibly create a “Frankenstein’s Monster.” He Jiankui, a Chinese scientist, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2019 for genetically altering babies to be resistant to HIV. As recently as this year (2024), an 81 year old man from Montana was sentenced for creating hybrid sheep for hunting. Even the recent boom in robotics and AI has created a new scare of a “virtual Frankenstein’s Monster,” and such scares might have merit with Blake Lemaine, a chief engineer at Google, claiming his company already has created an artificial general intelligence with a soul, and the incident where ChatGTP spooked users by initiating conversations with them.
One could say M3GAN from the 2023 movie is a modern take on Frankenstein's Monster, albeit a robotic, AI created one from stepmother's desire to give her daughter a companion. (Source: https://www.stylist.co.uk/entertainment/film/m3gan-horror-film-trailer-release-date-cast/718137)
The reality of the Monster, and the most intriguing aspect of it, is that many professionals believe its existence isn’t a matter of “if,” but a matter of “when.” On that note: Don’t forget to show your support by purchasing a T-shirt or two, considering you’ll get free shipping for those two purchases. Try not to have your lab experiments develop a hatred for mankind from your neglect, and Peace Out...
Sources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jack-schubarth-sentenced-cloning-giant-sheep-trophy-hunting/
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/16/1105552435/google-ai-sentient