"Do you see a modern relevance or resonance with the story of Frankenstein? The idea of someone trying to play God and bring something into the world, perhaps against better advice.
I happen to not believe that the novel is anti-science. The Goodwin-Shelley household of Mary’s youth was really pro-scientific. I think that Frankenstein is actually closer to Paradise Lost. It’s man rising up to God and saying, “Why am I here when I didn't ask to be born?” Which is a very romantic—and by romantic, I mean the Romantic movement—question.
Yeah. Victor is someone who believes very much in science, but he’s also tragic. He almost doesn’t ever confront what he’s done.
In fact, there is a big harangue Victor does in the book toward the sailors saying, You should follow your captain all the way. He is not repentant.
Now, in my opinion, the arrogance of Victor is very common now: the tyrant that believes himself to be a victim. But that is true, or has been true since the beginning of time.
What would be some examples for you?
Absolutely everyone from political figures to Silicon Valley tech bros. You name it. Including artists and film directors. The fact that we enthroned tyranny as a form of certainty, as if it was an attribute. I think the people I most admire are people that are riddled with doubts. Certainty and self-victimization oftentimes go hand-in-hand."
https://www.wired.com/story/guillermo-del-toro-hopes-hes-dead-before-ai-art-goes-mainstream/
That story is really deep; it has so many layers, so many ways to look at it.
You can even look at it as a racist story about a man who creates a new race and then tries to destroy it out of fear of the different.
Or a father that can't bear the responsibility of parenthood.
