"It's a familiar tale: A creator, gripped by frenzied ambition, tips over into madness while constructing a being like none before. Then a creature, trapped in a body it cannot make sense of, is animated. Bewildered by its existence, it's overwhelmed by despair, loneliness or rage. Then a creature, trapped in a body it cannot make sense of, is animated. Bewildered by its existence, it's overwhelmed by despair, loneliness or rage. Some become vengeful enemies, some killing machines, some lovers."
"Ever since the mad scientist Frankenstein cried, It's alive! in the 1931 classic film directed by James Whale, pop culture has never been the same. Few works of fiction have inspired more adaptations, re-imaginings, parodies and riffs than Mary Shelley's tragic 1818 Gothic novel, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, the tale of Victor Frankenstein, who, in his crazed quest to create life, builds a grotesque creature that he rejects immediately."
Frankenstein centers on a creator whose frenzied ambition produces a grotesque being that is immediately rejected. The created being experiences bewilderment, despair, loneliness or rage and often becomes vengeful, violent or a tragic lover. The narrative crystallized into a cultural archetype after the 1931 film's iconic "It's alive!" moment and has inspired hundreds of film and TV adaptations across genres since a 1910 silent screening. Mary Shelley's 1818 Gothic novel frames themes of creation, responsibility, exile, and the human condition that remain adaptable and resonant in contemporary reinterpretations, including recent streaming versions.
Read at www.nytimes.com
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