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FRANKENSTEIN
(Investigator 45, 1995 November)
On a stormy
night in
Switzerland in 1816
four people swapped ghost stories. They were English poet Lord Byron,
the
poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his new wife Mary Wollstonecraft and
Byron's
friend Dr Polidori. That night the idea for the story of Frankenstein was born. The book was
published in
1818. In the
story
a student named Frankenstein used corpses from cemeteries and
dissecting
rooms to construct a monster which he then animated with electricity.
In 1823
Frankenstein
appeared on stage in
five versions including an opera. In 1910 came the
first
screen version. Subsequent movies were: 1915
Life Without
Soul
1920 Il Mostro di Frakestein 1931 Frankenstein 1935 The Bride of Frankenstein 1939 Son of Frankenstein 1942 Ghost of Frankenstein 1943 Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman 1944 House of Frankenstein 1945 House of Dracula 1948 Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein 1957 The Curse of Frankenstein 1957 I Was a Teenage Frankenstein 1958 Frankenstein-1970 1958 The Revenge of Frankenstein 1959 Frankenstein's Daughter 1964 The Evil of Frankenstein 1966 Frankenstein Conquers the World 1966 Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster 1966 Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter 1967 Frankenstein Created Woman 1967 Mad Monster Party 1970 Blood of Frankenstein 1970 Dr Frankenstein on Campus 1970 Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed 1970 Horror of Frankenstein 1971 Lady Frankenstein 1973 Frankenstein: The True Story 1973 Flesh For Frankenstein 1974 Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell 1974 Young Frankenstein 1977 Frankenstein – Italian Style 1977 Victor Frankenstein 1981 Frankenstein Island 1985 The Bride 1986 Gothic 1986 The Vindicator 1988 Frankenstein General Hospital 1988 Haunted Summer 1990 Bride of Re-Animator 1990 Frankenstein Unbound
Constructing a
monster
from bits from
various
corpses and giving it life with electricity is and will be a
technological/scientific
impossibility. However something similar – a creature created via
cloning
combined with gene manipulation – may be possible.
If you've seen more than six or seven of the movies you might ask yourself: "Why do I find this so fascinating?" (B M)
Re: Article of Frankenstein (Investigator 46, 1996 January)
The concluding paragraph on page 51 reads,
"Constructing a monster from bits and pieces from various corpses and
giving
it life with electricity is and will be a technological/scientific
impossibility."
Really?!
In view of the advances
made in medical
technology
over the past couple of decades how can the writer be so absolutely
sure?
Severed body parts, including fingers, toes, ears, penises, arms and
legs
have all been restored to their owners. Organ transplants are
commonplace.
Bones, skin and cartilage can be grown and grafted. Seen recently on TV
– a
human ear being grown on the back of a hairless mouse, and baboons' and
pigs' hearts about to be transplanted into humans. Tissue and organ
rejection
has been the major problem in the past, but has increasingly been
overcome.
Using "bits and pieces" to repair or even create a body may not be as
far-fetched
as the writer would have us believe!
Harry Edwards
NSW |