Texts In Time: Blade Runner + Frankenstein

Texts In Time: Blade Runner + Frankenstein

Module A: (Texts through time) FrankenBlade

Every text is a product of its composer’s age, reflecting upon the concerns and values of the social, historical and philosophical milieu. This is clearly the case with Marry Shelley’s epistolary novel, Frankenstein (1818), which draws upon the rise of Galvanism and the Romantic Movement in the 1800’s, to express concern for the emergence of an omnipotent science which threatens to challenge the accepted idea that creation is in the hands of God. Ridley Scott’s postmodern pastiche, Blade Runner (1992), also reflects upon the impacts of the irresponsible pursuit of science and technology on humanity. An analysis of both texts, in light of their differing context, reveals how Shelley and Scott seek to challenge the adequacy of contemporary moral codes by forewarning us of the consequences of defying the natural order and blurring the limitations of man.
Adopting the 19th century Romantic values of sublime nature, Shelley presents the negative impacts of the foreboding scientific and technological advancements on humanity. Written during a time of major scientific developments, including ‘Galvanism’, Galvani’s concept of electricity as a reanimating force, Frankenstein addresses the increasing potential to ‘infuse a spark of being into the lifeless’ and gives light to the prevailing 19th century concerns of breaching the fundamental order of nature. Her warnings of the danger of such actions are encapsulated in Victor’s desire to imbue life through the ‘acquisition of knowledge’ which is driven by his egotistical nature in achieving personal glory and fame. Shelley foreshadows the potential consequences of the “dangerous” and immoral crime Victor has imbued upon nature as a result of science. Victor’s creation shows striking resemblance to the ideas of the noble savage from the Romantic period, where the man is essentially good and the evil that he learns is because of actions in society....