Frankenstein

by Sidney Perkowitz

Overview

The tale of a tormented creature created in a laboratory began on a rainy night in 1816 in the imagination of a nineteen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Since its publication two years later, Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus has spread around the globe through every possible medium and variation. Frankenstein has not been out of print once in 200 years. “Frankenstein” has become an indelible part of popular culture, and is shorthand for anything bizarre and human-made; for instance, genetically modified crops are “Frankenfood.”Conversely, Frankenstein’s monster has also become a benign Halloween favorite. Yet for all its long history, Frankenstein's central premise—that science, not magic or God, can create a living being, and thus these creators must answer for their actions as humans, not Gods—is most relevant today as scientists approach creating synthetic life.In its popular and cultural weight and its expression of the ethical issues raised by the advance of science, physicist Sidney Perkowitz and film expert Eddy von Muller have brought together scholars and scientists, artists and directions—including Mel Brooks—to celebrate and examine Mary Shelley’s marvelous creation and its legacy as the monster moves into his next century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681776972
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	01/02/2018
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	26 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Sidney Perkowitz is a professor emeritus at Emory University. He is the author of Empire of Light and Universal Foam and has written for The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Discover, Physics World, Aeon and more. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Two Hundred Years of Frankenstein ix

PART ONE: THE ROOTS AND THEMES OF FRANKENSTEIN 1

1 “Hideous Progeny”: Telling a Tale of Monsters in Frankenstein

by Catherine Ross Nickerson 5

2 Franklin to Frankenstein

by Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham 16

3 Frankenstein: Representing the Emotions of Unwanted Creatures

by Laura Otis 18

4 Who Is a Monster, When?

by Steven J. Kraftchick 38

PART TWO: THE MONSTER, THE MEDIA, AND THE MARKETPLACE 61

5 Frankenstein at the Boundaries of Life, Death, and Film

by Evan Lieberman 67

6 Frankenstein, Young and Old: An Interview with Mel Brooks

by Kevin LaGrandeur 84

7 Since Frankenstein: Experimental Science and Experimental Film

by Alexis Gambis 105

8 Life After Death: A Love Story, “When Fargo Met Holly”

by Jaime Paglia 116

9 Monster No More: A Conversation with the Creators of Penny Dreadful and I, Frankenstein

by Eddy Von Mueller 126

10 The Face of the Fiend: Media, Industry, and the Evolving Image of Frankenstein’s Monster

by Eddy Von Mueller 136

11 Frankenstein’s Creatures: The Pleasures of Toys, Games, and Costumes

by Carol Colatrella 162

PART THREE: THE CHALLENGES OF FRANKENSTEIN: SCIENCE AND ETHICS 177

12 Frankenstein and Synthetic Life: Fiction, Science, and Ethics

by Sidney Perkowitz 181

13 What Would Mary Shelley Say Today?

by Jay Goodwin and David Lynn 205

Epilogue: The Next Two Hundred Years of Frankenstein 217

Editors, Contributors, and Interviewees 221

Bibliographies, Filmographies, and Notes 227

Acknowledgments 239

Editorial Reviews

02/01/2018
Perkowitz (physics emeritus, Emory Univ; Empire of Light) and Von Mueller (film studies, Emory Univ.), the editors of this title, feel Mary Shelley's Frankenstein deserves new attention on the occasion of its 200th birthday. To that end, they've marshaled an array of essays and interviews from various luminaries and organized them into three main areas: "The Roots and Themes of Frankenstein"; "The Monster, the Media, and the Marketplace"; and "The Challenges of Frankenstein: Science and Ethics." The roots/themes section gives a well-rounded grounding, delving into literary analysis as well as scientific context, while the science/ethics section bookends the volume with grounded speculation regarding future research. The meat of the volume is in the middle, the monster in the media and marketplace, and the jewel in this very enjoyable read is an interview with Mel Brooks about the making of Young Frankenstein. VERDICT Readers fond of Shelley's original work, as well as those who enjoy consuming the culture it's spawned and influenced, will find this a book to savor, and despite edited compilations not being the usual choice for book groups, this could be a stellar choice for any pop-culture savvy group that's recently worked with Shelley's title. Recommended.—Audrey Snowden, Milford Town Lib., MA

Library Journal

11/13/2017
The legacy of Mary’s Shelley’s Frankenstein is celebrated in this respectful anthology of 13 essays that explore the significance of the novel 200 years after it was first published. The essays are divided into three sections concerned with the novel’s historical context, many extraliterary adaptations, and contemporary scientific relevance. Catherine Ross Nickerson and Laura Otis provide excellent close readings of the novel that illuminate, respectively, the foundations of Victor Frankenstein’s rashness as a scientist and his irresponsible abandonment of his creation. The book’s longest section, concerned with Frankenstein-inspired media, features interviews with Mel Brooks (director and cowriter of Young Frankenstein) and John Logan (creator of Penny Dreadful) and an insightful essay in which editor Von Mueller notes that, over the course of a century, cinematic adaptations have deviated so much from their source “that an attempt at restoration is almost revolutionary.” The last, briefest section includes an essay from editor Perkowitz, a scientist, who places Frankenstein in the context of enduring concerns about the creation of artificial life. The selections range in tone from pop-culture journalism to scholarly appraisals, and though they come across as a scattered mix, they cumulatively make a fine case for the enduring value of Shelley’s timeless tale. Agent: Laura Wood, Fine Print. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Highly readable and entertaining, with a wealth of interesting information set in an accurate and sound scientific framework.  Deserves cult status. 

New Scientist (Praise for Sidney Perkowitz)

Perkowitz is a gloriously lucid science writer.

The Washington Post (praise for UNIVERSAL FOAM)

Highly readable and entertaining, with a wealth of interesting information set in an accurate and sound scientific framework. Deserves cult status.

New Scientist

For all the historical specificity of these references, the novel’s qualms about the underside of progress have never resonated more than in the 21st century. The issues raised by artificial life are no longer hypothetical. Genetic modification and robotics have made them urgent. Those analogies are delineated in Frankenstein: How a Monster Became an Icon. It includes a useful summary of current attitudes among scientists to techniques commonly known as ‘playing God.

The Economist

Those seeking to delve further will find intelligent essays on the novel’s origins, appropriations and scientific relevance in Frankenstein: How a Monster Became an Icon, edited by physicist Sidney Perkowitz and filmmaker Eddy von Mueller. Bringing together the 'two cultures' of art and science just as Shelley did in her novel, this collection also provides insights into this modern myth by those who have contributed to its expansion.

Wall Street Journal

“For all the historical specificity of these references, the novel’s qualms about the underside of progress have never resonated more than in the 21st century. The issues raised by artificial life are no longer hypothetical. Genetic modification and robotics have made them urgent. Those analogies are delineated in Frankenstein: How a Monster Became an Icon. It includes a useful summary of current attitudes among scientists to techniques commonly known as ‘playing God.’” —The Economist

“Those seeking to delve further will find intelligent essays on the novel’s origins, appropriations and scientific relevance in Frankenstein: How a Monster Became an Icon. Bringing together the 'two cultures' of art and science just as Shelley did in her novel, this collection also provides insights into this modern myth by those who have contributed to its expansion.” —Wall Street Journal

“A fine case for the enduring value of Shelley’s timeless tale.” —Publishers Weekly

“Very enjoyable. Readers fond of Shelley’s original work, as well as those who enjoy consuming the culture it’s spawned and influenced, will find this a book to savor.” —Library Journal

From the Publisher

05/01/2018
Coinciding with the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's legendary science fiction novel, Frankenstein, this anthology contains 13 essays that celebrate and investigate the work and its cultural legacy. Penned by scholars, artists, filmmakers, scientists, and others, the entries are grouped into three broad subject areas: Shelley's original text and its thematic roots, contemporary media interpretations of the story, and how Frankenstein explores science and ethics. One of the collection's strengths is its examination of visual iconography of various media adaptations, including Mel Brooks's 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein and James Whale's classic 1931 film, which starred Boris Karloff as the monster. Indeed, the volume gives equal attention to Shelley's novel and Whale's movie, which is arguably more firmly embedded in popular culture as the "true" Frankenstein narrative. While this title is a fine example of the ways in which multiple layers of meaning can be parsed from a single text, it is disappointing that the views represented are overwhelmingly male and Western. A broader diversity of voices and/or cross-cultural and feminist analysis would have been welcome. VERDICT Of interest to advanced students of literature, media, popular culture, and especially film.—Kelsy Peterson, Forest Hill College, Melbourne, Australia

School Library Journal