CULTURE

Are We Designed to Play God?

How authors have long tried to describe the thin line between science and conscience

Photo by Sidral Mundet on Unsplash

Science. The bolt of lightning. The creation. Chaos. Pandemonium.

In Mary Shelley and the Birth of ‘Frankenstein’ (1818) author Marc Barham raises an interesting thought framed by Mary Shelley’s masterpiece Frankenstein.

Author Shelley was ahead of her time. Was she guided by her intuition to write the story, or did her fiction inspire reality? What’s certain is her horror novel is no longer a figment of a writer’s imagination. We are now living in the era of “Frankensteinism.”

It isn’t all that surprising that Mary in ‘Frankenstein’ is asking us all (including herself as well) an existential question,

‘How far is too far?’ — Marc Barham, Mary Shelley and the Birth of ‘Frankenstein’ (1818)

Shelley’s life was marred by turmoil within her community, marked by an illicit affair, suicide, and ostracization, as she wrote Frankenstein. The creation in her novel mirrored her struggles with alienation and social injustice. Yet, it also embodied themes of evolution and innovation. Barham writes:

‘Frankenstein’ does demonstrate to us that aspiration and progress are…