Frank.. Frankie... Frankenstein..!
Assalamu Alaikum my dear reader friends!!
I've been so intrigued to write a post on this wonder novel, "Frankenstein", written by Mary Shelley in 1818. I came across this absorbing article in The New Yorker, which was published to honour the bicentennial of this globally acclaimed book "Frankenstein". [Thank you Dr. Anwar for sharing with us the article @Readers' Rendezvous]. The article speaks of the motif behind the emergence and the reign of the novel, which has triggered criticism of many sorts, all these years.
Being a scholar who's got "a nose for the new!", I couldn't resist but buy myself a copy of this critically devoured novel. Some say, the book was inspired from a short-fiction writing competition, held within the literary elite including Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley and John Polidori. Some biographers have made a note that Mary Shelley has etched this story as an aftermath of her first-born baby's death. Hence, "the monster" in the novel is unnamed, and is regarded as an immature "infant" in the first half of the novel.
"I sympathized with and partly understood them, but I was unformed in mind; I was dependent on none and related to none... Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination?"
--The unnnamed monster.
In the later half, it is observed to be a fiend behaving like a cursed "slave".. of his master..of his creator.. and of his destiny..
"I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested yet could not disobey."
--The unnnamed monster.
The story of this unnamed monster begins with a series of letters posted by Robert Walton to his sister Margaret, in the early chapters of the novel. He's on an expedition to the North Pole. During this adventurous voyage, he encounters this weird and vicious creature on a raft of ice. Bewildered Walton, also happens to meet Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist, in the same vessel that he's traveling. There starts a beautiful kinship between Walton and Frankenstein. Observing the passion for exploration in Walton, Frankenstein begins to narrate his pitiful tale of life and death, to warn him of the hazards of unprecedented knowledge and zeal.
What later unwinds is a theater of intense suspense, adventure, drama, sympathy, thrill, admiration, knowledge, aesthetics, and the sensibility of life. One can never miss any perspective in "reading-between-the-lines" of this legendary masterpiece. Instead of giving you all a review of the plot, dear friends, I thought that I could decode the maze in which the plot is constructed. A maze, which is evident to the extent of my knowledge.
So here it goes:
An interview about creating a "chemical brain", in the e-magazine of New Scientist(Sept.2018), sparked a quintessential thought in my "natural brain".. [Thank you millions, Prof. Premjith, @Readers' Rendezvous, for your precious share!]
It was about a Chemist named Cronin, at the University of Glasgow, who wants to create a "chemical brain".. Shocker, ain't it?!
Cronin says that he wants to create an artificial life using a radical new approach. Though he's quite a bit unsure about his experiments, he's confident that some day he will create an artificial brain with his team of 50 scientists.
"There are four missions in my lab: to build a robot that can do all of chemistry (and digitize it--we call it the "chemputer"), to create artificial life, to understand information, and to make a chemical brain... I want to make a chemical brain.. to uncover the missing science, and perhaps make different types of non-biological, or "inorganic" intelligence," says Chemist Cronin.
This Transhumanist kind of approach to create a challenge to Humanity, is never a new posit, as it has been already prophesied in this spectacular piece of fiction, "Frankenstein". It definitely strikes a chord in us, when we realize such an "uncanny" evolution in advancing scientific inceptions.
Well.. well.. well..! Such a news of an unnatural invention did resonate in me a powerful quote from the book "Schismatrix", written by Bruce Sterling:
"Mankind's a dead issue now, cousin."
The origins of biocapitalism has undeniably buried us alive... It so disrupts the intellect.. the very thought of such horrific upsurges creates a tremor in the soul! Are we so dead that we replace ourselves with our photochemical reflections? At this point, let me highlight a farsighted inference that Mary Shelley has made, as a warning for the whole of Humanity...
"...a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror."
--Victor Frankenstein.
These devils that Frankenstein speaks of referring to the children of the monster(in case he gets one), remind us of the robotics and AI of today. Thus, "Frankenstein" is no doubt a predecessor to SciFi and an unblemished form of early "Scientific Romances", like that of Wells, Verne, Poe, and Mark Twain.
I was even remembering "the era of Blips", as informed to us by renowned cultural critics, Arthur Kroker and David Cook. They argue that a blip subject, "is ephemeral, electronically processed and unreal." The blips are contained in a system where electronics and information are constantly imploded. In the same way, "the monster" in "Frankenstein", seems to enslave his own master. The master is the blip.. A creator in the clutches of his own creation:
"Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!"
--Victor Frankenstein.
The uncanny effect, supplied with an abundance of animosity, did enhance in me a quest to connect "Frankenstein" with Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus"!! Their life and death are similar in vein, as both of them were over-zealous.. abhorrently passionate.. and drastically full of flaws..! Strange, yet lucky enough, I could find that the intellectual and well-read monster, does mention about the Fallen Angels in a mode of aspiring purgation from loneliness in the novel:
"Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone."
--The unnamed monster.
Thus the book "Frankenstein", has been utilized in every way to redesign the prospects of future. Scientists and students of Technology/Robotics are recommended to read "Frankenstein" in order to develop a morale in their creation. Though this information is a little bit convincing, I found from the archives of The Times of India, an appalling article that intensely disturbed me..!! The article spoke of an artificial brain called the "organids", which is being created by fusing Neanderthal brain stem-cells with Robots by a few scientists!! Science for me is a source of developing civilizations, but it's really heart-wrenching to accept the fact that it is hacking civilizations.. We might never know, when we may actually be transformed into cyborgs..! Maybe in the nearest future??!
What do you think about this post? Please leave a comment below..!
Signing off,
With love,
Rasheeda Madani.
Being a scholar who's got "a nose for the new!", I couldn't resist but buy myself a copy of this critically devoured novel. Some say, the book was inspired from a short-fiction writing competition, held within the literary elite including Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley and John Polidori. Some biographers have made a note that Mary Shelley has etched this story as an aftermath of her first-born baby's death. Hence, "the monster" in the novel is unnamed, and is regarded as an immature "infant" in the first half of the novel.
"I sympathized with and partly understood them, but I was unformed in mind; I was dependent on none and related to none... Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination?"
--The unnnamed monster.
In the later half, it is observed to be a fiend behaving like a cursed "slave".. of his master..of his creator.. and of his destiny..
"I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested yet could not disobey."
--The unnnamed monster.
The story of this unnamed monster begins with a series of letters posted by Robert Walton to his sister Margaret, in the early chapters of the novel. He's on an expedition to the North Pole. During this adventurous voyage, he encounters this weird and vicious creature on a raft of ice. Bewildered Walton, also happens to meet Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist, in the same vessel that he's traveling. There starts a beautiful kinship between Walton and Frankenstein. Observing the passion for exploration in Walton, Frankenstein begins to narrate his pitiful tale of life and death, to warn him of the hazards of unprecedented knowledge and zeal.
What later unwinds is a theater of intense suspense, adventure, drama, sympathy, thrill, admiration, knowledge, aesthetics, and the sensibility of life. One can never miss any perspective in "reading-between-the-lines" of this legendary masterpiece. Instead of giving you all a review of the plot, dear friends, I thought that I could decode the maze in which the plot is constructed. A maze, which is evident to the extent of my knowledge.
So here it goes:
An interview about creating a "chemical brain", in the e-magazine of New Scientist(Sept.2018), sparked a quintessential thought in my "natural brain".. [Thank you millions, Prof. Premjith, @Readers' Rendezvous, for your precious share!]
It was about a Chemist named Cronin, at the University of Glasgow, who wants to create a "chemical brain".. Shocker, ain't it?!
Cronin says that he wants to create an artificial life using a radical new approach. Though he's quite a bit unsure about his experiments, he's confident that some day he will create an artificial brain with his team of 50 scientists.
"There are four missions in my lab: to build a robot that can do all of chemistry (and digitize it--we call it the "chemputer"), to create artificial life, to understand information, and to make a chemical brain... I want to make a chemical brain.. to uncover the missing science, and perhaps make different types of non-biological, or "inorganic" intelligence," says Chemist Cronin.
This Transhumanist kind of approach to create a challenge to Humanity, is never a new posit, as it has been already prophesied in this spectacular piece of fiction, "Frankenstein". It definitely strikes a chord in us, when we realize such an "uncanny" evolution in advancing scientific inceptions.
Well.. well.. well..! Such a news of an unnatural invention did resonate in me a powerful quote from the book "Schismatrix", written by Bruce Sterling:
"Mankind's a dead issue now, cousin."
The origins of biocapitalism has undeniably buried us alive... It so disrupts the intellect.. the very thought of such horrific upsurges creates a tremor in the soul! Are we so dead that we replace ourselves with our photochemical reflections? At this point, let me highlight a farsighted inference that Mary Shelley has made, as a warning for the whole of Humanity...
"...a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror."
--Victor Frankenstein.
These devils that Frankenstein speaks of referring to the children of the monster(in case he gets one), remind us of the robotics and AI of today. Thus, "Frankenstein" is no doubt a predecessor to SciFi and an unblemished form of early "Scientific Romances", like that of Wells, Verne, Poe, and Mark Twain.
I was even remembering "the era of Blips", as informed to us by renowned cultural critics, Arthur Kroker and David Cook. They argue that a blip subject, "is ephemeral, electronically processed and unreal." The blips are contained in a system where electronics and information are constantly imploded. In the same way, "the monster" in "Frankenstein", seems to enslave his own master. The master is the blip.. A creator in the clutches of his own creation:
"Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!"
--The unnamed monster.
The story grows gripping, occult and heart-breaking towards the end of the novel. Yet, we are supplied with a spontaneous overflow of doubts and thrills. Whenever Frankenstein sympathies with the "inhuman ogre", I was totally stupefied. One can never think of forgiveness at such a spine-chilling juncture. The horridity of the ogre is complemented with a surplus amount of wit and eloquence, due to which Frankenstein confesses to Walton, that he had to let the monster free.
"His words had a strange effect on me. I compassionated him and sometimes felt a wish to console him..."--Victor Frankenstein.
The uncanny effect, supplied with an abundance of animosity, did enhance in me a quest to connect "Frankenstein" with Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus"!! Their life and death are similar in vein, as both of them were over-zealous.. abhorrently passionate.. and drastically full of flaws..! Strange, yet lucky enough, I could find that the intellectual and well-read monster, does mention about the Fallen Angels in a mode of aspiring purgation from loneliness in the novel:
"Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone."
--The unnamed monster.
Thus the book "Frankenstein", has been utilized in every way to redesign the prospects of future. Scientists and students of Technology/Robotics are recommended to read "Frankenstein" in order to develop a morale in their creation. Though this information is a little bit convincing, I found from the archives of The Times of India, an appalling article that intensely disturbed me..!! The article spoke of an artificial brain called the "organids", which is being created by fusing Neanderthal brain stem-cells with Robots by a few scientists!! Science for me is a source of developing civilizations, but it's really heart-wrenching to accept the fact that it is hacking civilizations.. We might never know, when we may actually be transformed into cyborgs..! Maybe in the nearest future??!
What do you think about this post? Please leave a comment below..!
Signing off,
With love,
Rasheeda Madani.
Courtesy: The New Yorker/ The Times of India/ New Scientist/ lareviewofbooks.org
Books: 1. The Postmodern Scene- by Kroker and Cook
2. Schismatrix- by Bruce Sterling
3. Doctor Faustus- by Christopher Marlowe
Image Courtesy: Google
It is shocking and downright scary to think of fusing human of fusing human intelligence with technology. Who knows what it may lead to! Great article Ma'm!
ReplyDeleteSuper ma'm..It has really been an altogether new approach to this evergreen fiction which has enthralled generations.The flip side of the scientific advancement has been diligently delineated. Congrats Ma'm
ReplyDeleteRasheeda mam yet another thought provoking blog with a marvelous approach to the thought provoking novel....which envisages the over ambitious human nature with vivid refereence to transhuman ideotypic approach is well handled in your natural style
ReplyDelete