Frankenstein Blade Runner and Promethean Comparison (due tommorow)
Interviewer/Host: Hello and welcome to today's discourse! Joining us are Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and Ridley Scott, Director of the movie Blade Runner. As well as being one of the most famous and ground-breaking works in gothic literature, Frankenstein was in fact the one of the first science fiction novel ever written! Blade Runner is also a masterful work of science fiction, (loosely based of the novel Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K Dirk), it is renowned as a leading example of the neo-noir genre and the futuristic dystopian society. We will be discussing today the common themes in the aforementioned works of these two brilliant artists, notably their representation of the Promethean Myth. Prometheus, a Titan in Greek mythology, famously stole the fire from the gods, an act for which he and all of humanity were harshly punished.
Mary Shelly: Well, I was inspired by many things in my time including galvanism, romanticism and an idea of replacing got with science, but the main thing that inspired me ties in with all these context themes is the Promethean myth.
Firstly I will begin with galvanism. Galvanism, a name adopted from Galvani, a scientist who created a theory based on his research that life could be re-established by the use of an electric current running through the body. This theory was based on his experiment f making a frog leg twitch using an electric current. Though a wide assumption, this theory gave me an idea of composing a book that would make such a theory seem as real as it possibly could. Through Victor’s creation of the monster, I made it evident to the readers that the idea of creating life, even if successful, could create some sort of an abomination. One of the most important moments in the novel is when Victor begins to fear the monster after creating it. This moment of the novel was created to emphasise on the possibilities of the aftermath if such creature was created. This is also ironically contrasted with victors words “how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge” which he only discovers after he creates such a creature. This ties in with the promethean myth through birth of new technology, although fire is not so much technology but in the myth, it is a highly valued and rare artefact like thing. Both Prometheus and Galvani, which is viewed through victor, attempt to gift people with a valuable gift which reanimation and fire both are, and after being successful do they meet their demise through death and immortal torture. Such a myth is the sort of inspiration I needed to contrast the discoveries of my time to a story which has similar themes written centuries ago.
Romanticism highly influenced me through the society I lived in and basing my novel on such a theme extends the meaning of art to more than just paintings and music but the ability of what a person could do with creativity even if it is a novel. By creating the creature, it is evident that a new age of romanticism is taking place. A person does not only express himself through lifeless art by designs a person to his own imagination. The creation of the creature that Frankenstein achieves is somewhat legendary it is ironic to see that although art is the beautiful reflection of one’s self, the repulsiveness of the creatures emphasises on the creator being flawed. This conveys the idea that man should not tamper with knowledge that would disturb the natural course of life as it could have such a deep impact on the creator and the world to what he unleashes it. This is also expressed in the promethean myth as Prometheus tried to express his heroic like nature through the theft of the fire. The fire is symbolic for his heroic nature and bravery and this, similarly to art expresses who the person really is.
My last theme that i have used is the replacement of God to person who has matched people’s expectations of God. This is expressed through the level of science that people have reached and are now questioning God through trying to accomplish one of the reasons why people believe in God which of course is creation. By creating a human like creature, Victors emphasises the level that humans have reached and that God can be replaced as humans have the potential to be God like which would make God a useless entity. Similarly in the promethean myth, Prometheus stealing the fire symbolises the lack of needing Zeus as a God as mortals stealing the fire would show their potential to be independent.
Interviewee: What about you Scott, did a similar influence inspire you on such an amazingly detailed futuristic film?
Ridley Scott: Yes, actually I used a similar themes which also, like Mary’s, relate to the promethean myth. It seemed like a good idea by contrasting the same idea between a futuristic film and an ancient mythological story. The themes in the film that relate to Prometheus are the relationship of creator and created, overreaching, and similarly to Mary, the replacement of God in a setting of a Post – Christian era.
Firstly the overreaching is done by the character Tyrell, thus called overreacher, who overreaches the boundary of the normal order of nature and creates human and animal like creatures called replicants. As seen in the movie, the dystopic like planet that is seen from a bird’s eye view shot emphasises to the audience the lack of life in aspects such as nature. Then it is uncovered that there are many animal like creatures created by Tyrell that are similar in almost every way. This highlights the role of Tyrell as being a creator and replacing God’s role by creating creatures that are almost identical to their real life counterparts. This is similar to Prometheus, as he also tried to surpass the level of the Gods and replace the need of them by stealing the fire which was a symbol of his power and blessing humans with it.
The second is the relationship between creator and created. This concept is usually thought of as the creator being there for his creation and guiding it from birth until it is ready to fend for itself. Similarly, in the film, Roy is the best example for this concept as he goes to his creator, Tyrell to seek help with the extension of his life. Although being called his “prodigal” son, Tyrell refused to help him which crumbled their relationship. Similarly to Mary’s Frankenstein, the Roy takes revenge on his creator as though the roles of the created and creation changed. Suddenly, Tyrell the creator, was killed by the very thing he created and although indirectly, this too happened to Frankenstein and his creature. In the promethean myth, a similar occurrence takes place and for the theft of fire, Prometheus too is punished for what he has done.
Lastly, the replacement of God plays a large part of the film and the Promethean myth. In the film, the movie seems like a post-christian setting due to its lack of light and the creations of Tyrell. Tyrell replaced the need of God by synthetically replicating humans into clones by the name of replicants which serve as slaves on other planets and creatures, which are very common as almost all the real animals are extinct. By this it is evident that the role of God has been taken over by Tyrell Corporation and his abilities of creation have been simulated in an almost perfected way. Similarly as already discussed, the need of God is also replace in Prometheus as stealing the fire was one step closer to relieving Zeus of his position of ruling as they no longer needed him.
Interviewee: Well this has been such an interesting interview to hear from such famous authors and directors and get an understanding of the influence and basis of your creations. Thank you very much.
Task Criteria:
Compose a discussion between Mary Shelley and Ridley Scott where they explore the way/s they have used the Promethean Myth in their respective texts.
(Write 4-5 A4 pages)
