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Re-imagining Frankenstein. HUM 2052: Civilization II Spring 2015 Dr. Perdigao February 25, 2015. Frankenstein (1931, 1994). http://home.avvanta.com/~dr_z/Movie/Posters/Reprints/Images/frankenstein.jpg. http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000K3UQ.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif.
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Re-imagining Frankenstein HUM 2052: Civilization II Spring 2015 Dr. Perdigao February 25, 2015
Frankenstein (1931, 1994) http://home.avvanta.com/~dr_z/Movie/Posters/Reprints/Images/frankenstein.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000K3UQ.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif
Frankenstein (1931, 1994) http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/S2Art/RSP104~Frankenstein-Posters.jpg http://srv14.movie-list.net/bendermac/posters/mary_shelleys_frankenstein_ver2.jpg
Postmodern Play http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Dunechaser/Literature/shelley-victor.frankenstein.and.monster.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cMdbfkl3Rz4/R9tWt9ZbLUI/AAAAAAAAB7c/77NPWkkABI4/s800/mcfarlane+frankenstein1.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS0XceWlGAs
A Monster’s Education? http://search.barnesandnoble.com/10-Books-that-Screwed-Up-the-World/Benjamin-Wiker/e/9781596980556/?itm=1#TOC
Table of Contents Introduction: Ideas Have Consequences 1Preliminary Screw-UpsThe Prince 7Discourse on Method 17Leviathan 31Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men 41Ten Big Screw-UpsThe Manifesto of the Communist Party 57Utilitarianism 73The Descent of Man 85Beyond Good and Evil 99The State and Revolution 115The Pivot of Civilization 127Mein Kampf 145The Future of an Illusion 165Coming of Age in Samoa 177Sexual Behavior in the Human Male 195Dishonorable MentionThe Feminine Mystique 211Afterword: A Conclusive Outline of Sanity 227Acknowledgments 233Notes 235Index 251
CIV Readings • Krempe (47) • Waldman (49) • De Lacey • Agatha • Felix • Safie • “Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous, and magnificent, yet so vicious and base?” (122). • The Comte de Volney’s Ruins of Empires: philosophy of history • Plutarch’s Parallel Lives (100 AD) • Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) • Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) • “Romantic cyclopedia universalis” (271) (130) • “Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination?” (131)
Lessons • “I observed, with pleasure, that he did not go to the forest that day, but spent it in repairing the cottage and cultivating the garden” (114). • “I had admired the perfect forms of my cottagers—their grace, beauty, and delicate complexions: but how I was terrified, when I viewed myself in a transparent pool! At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity” (117). • De Lacey’s and Safie’s stories (125) • Persecution of Safie’s Turkish merchant father because of “his religion and wealth rather than the crime alleged against him” (125) in Paris • Perpetual exile for the De Lacey family due to involvement in plot—exile to Germany (128) • Justice system—inhumanity (Justine, Safie’s father, De Laceys)
A sequel? • “Unfeeling, heartless creator! You had endowed me with perceptions and passions and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind. But on you only had I any claim for pity and redress, and from you I determined to seek that justice which I vainly attempted to gain from any other being that wore the human form.” (141) • “My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor; and my virtues will necessarily arise when I live in communion with an equal. I shall feel the affections of a sensitive being, and become linked to the chain of existence and events, from which I am now excluded.” (150)
An equal? http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/MDimages/Copy_of_BrideofF.jpg http://www.monsterlandtoys.com/video/Bride%20of%20Frankenstein.jpg
Revisions • Henry Clerval—as Romantic (161), idea of India • Victor’s ennui • Idea of the female creation— “thinking and reasoning animal” (170); destroys her (175) • “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!” (172) • Elizabeth’s death (199) • Retells story to magistrate (202), “Chinese box structure” • “he or I shall perish in mortal conflict” (206)—as Beowulf?
Didacticism • Rewrites the story (213) • “When younger. . . I believed myself destined for some great enterprise. . . From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am I sunk” (214). • “Seek happiness in tranquility, and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries” (220). • Description of creature (221) • “Evil thenceforth became my good” (222): Milton • “I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filed with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness” (223). • “I shall collect my funeral pile” (225).