Frankissstein

“It is you, sir, who are made from us, Sir. The gentleman laughed at me indulgently. They respect me, up to a point, but we have arrived at that point. We are talking about the animating principle, says Byron, slowly and patiently as if to a child. Not the soil, not the bedding, not the container; The life-spark. The life-spark is male.”

Mary’s repetition of “sir” indicates her indignation at Byron and Polidori’s sexism. Their response, spoken “as if to a child,” shows the lack of respect they have for Mary, simply because she is a woman. Their basic argument, that the “life-spark” is male, provides their justification for this disrespect, as well.

“Memphis and Frankenstein are both two hundred years old. Your point? Tech. AI. Artificial Intelligence. Frankenstein was a vision of how life might be created—the first non-human intelligence. What about angels? (Claire looks at me, serious and certain. I hesitate…What is she saying?)”

Claire’s insistence that angels are a form of non-human intelligence throws Ry off balance, as he was just talking about two real events in human history: the founding of Memphis, Tennessee, and the publication of Frankenstein. To Ry, creatures like angels are mythological, and so they do not belong in a discussion of science.

“Anyway, torso, torso, another torso (he swipes impatiently). Here we are! See how they attach the arms? Lovely slim arms. Then the legs. Look at the length! The shape! Slightly longer than they would be if she was human. This is fantasy, not nature, so you can have what you want. Hair goes on last, after the eyelashes. See the eyes? Like Bambi for boys.”

Ron’s list of pictures of sexbot pieces reads like a catalog from the same kind of morgue that Ry uses to source Victor’s body parts. Ron’s exuberance contrasts the disgust most people would show if they were looking at real dismembered human bodies. Ron highlights the difference between his work and Victor’s, noting that sexbots are “fantasy” and even implying that they are not exactly modelled after human beings.

“Life, Doctor Lawrence argued, is based in nature. There is no ‘super-added’ force such as the soul. Human beings are bone, muscle, tissue, blood, etcetera, and nothing more. There was an outcry, of course: No difference between a man and an oyster? Man is nothing more than an orangutan or an ape, with ‘ample cerebral hemispheres’?”

Dr. Lawrence’s argument aligns with the thoughts Victor expresses later on, disregarding the sanctity of human life as expressed by those who disagree with Lawrence. The idea of placing humans on a continuum with apes and oysters is regarded as an affront to religious traditions holding that humans are modelled after the divine. This tension between scientific and religious worldviews is one expression of the novel’s interest in the nature of humanity and the soul.

“The alchemists sought three things, said Shelley: the secret of turning lead into gold, the secret of the Elixir of Eternal Life, the homunculus. What is an homunculus? I asked. A creature not born of woman, he answered. A made thing, unholy and malign. A kind of goblin, misshapen and sly, infused with dark power.”

The homunculus foreshadows Frankenstein’s monster in Mary’s novel, but it also hints at the problem with created life. Like alchemy and immortality, the homunculus is an impossible creation, and attempts to create such a creature are widely seen as blasphemous. Percy describes the homunculi as inherently evil, reflecting this religious overtone.

“If data is the input and the rest is processing, then humans aren’t so special after all. And is that so terrible a piece of knowledge? Perhaps it comes as a relief. We haven’t been wonderful as Masters of the Universe, have we? Climate change, mass extinction of fauna and flora, destruction of habitat and wilderness, atmospheric pollution, failure to control population, extraordinary brutality, the daily stupidity of our childish feelings…”

Victor’s argument is essentially anti-human, as he does not just argue in favor of AI, but against humanity’s presence on the Earth. His argument is valid in the sense that such devastating effects are the result of human interference, but, as with his other arguments, he foregoes the value of human life, focusing only on the negative.

“I like my chest the way it is now; strong, smooth and flat. I wear my hair tied back in a ponytail like an eighteenth-century poet. When I look in the mirror I see someone I recognize, or rather, I see at least two people I recognize. That is why I have chosen not to have lower surgery. I am what I am, but what I am is not one thing, not one gender. I live with doubleness.”

Ry’s euphoria at his own body emphasizes the importance of embodiment in affirming one’s gender. Clothes, hairstyles, and body shapes and sizes all affirm the identity of the person occupying the body. As Ry notes, however, Ry’s body is somewhere between the sex and gender binaries—a position that sometimes leads others to react with confusion and discomfort.

“I am part of a small group of transgender medical professionals. Some of us are transhuman enthusiasts too. That isn’t surprising; we feel or have felt that we are in the wrong body. We can understand the feeling that any-body is the wrong body. Transhuman means different things to different people; smart implants, genetic modification, prosthetic enhancement, even the chance to live forever as a brain emulation.”

This conflation of transhuman and transgender identity in Ry is the root of much of the controversy surrounding the text. As Ry notes, not many transgender people identify their gender identity with the transhumanist movement. It is important to remember that transhumanism is an ideology, while being transgender is an aspect of a person’s identity. The conflation of being transgender with a transhumanist is often considered degrading and dehumanizing by trans people.

“In the progress of my story I am educating my monster. My monster is educating me. The progress of my story forces me to question what such a being might desire. Might such a being long for a mate? Could such a being reproduce? And would the progeny be ghastly and deformed? Or human? And if not human, then what life form would a life form such as this recreate?”

The questions Mary asks reflect the science fiction of her novel, as it has come to be understood. The duality of teaching her creature and learning from her creation is a common theme in discussions of creativity, and Mary is embarking on an existential exploration of her own thoughts on what it means to be human, to be alive, and to give life meaning. Fitting with Mary’s desire for children, she thinks of her monster as a being that would also like to reproduce.

“Perhaps, I said, it is women who bring knowledge into the world quite as much as men do. Eve ate the apple. Pandora opened the box. Had they not done so humankind is what? Automata. Bovine. Contented pig. Show me that pig! said Claire. I shall marry that pig! Why must life be suffering? Authors note: THIS IS THE MOST PROFOUND THING CLAIRE HAS SAID IN HER LIFE.”

Mary’s argument, here, presents a basic reversal of chauvinism to show how the “evil” women in mythology can be re-read as heroines. Claire’s response to the idea of men that are stupid and happy is a specific insult to Byron, Percy, and Polidori, all of whom are miserable in their own intelligence. The author’s note adds to the novel’s implication that Claire, like Ron Lord, is not particularly intelligent.

“Really, Ry, when you consider the human as a collection of limbs and organs, then what is human? As long as your head is on, pretty much everything else can go, can’t it? And yet you dislike the idea of intelligence not bound to a body. That is irrational of you. We are our bodies, I said.”

This passage shows the direct conflict between the physical affirmation of transgender identity and the extremity of transhumanist ideology. Victor’s insistence on the irrelevance of the body runs counter to the basic human understanding of how the body and mind form a cohesive, social unit. While the brain may be able to function without a body, Ry questions how this brain would self-identify in the physical world.

“They are responding to an electrical current, that’s all. It may be possible in the case of accident and limb severance to reattach the original and program it to respond more or less like an existing limb. Similarly, it may be possible to add an artificial digit to an injured hand. Some of the hands you see there are hybrids in that way. It’s horrible, I said. You’re a doctor, he said. You know how useful horrible is.”

Victor’s hands, which Ry sees as “horrible,” are frightening because they are an affront to the sanctity of the human form. Victor gives an excuse for how the hands will serve to benefit humanity, even acknowledging that ethics are a hindrance to scientific progress. Nonetheless, the discussion Victor and Ry have is one that occurs throughout history, with some people favoring ethics and others progress.

“You make it sound like a Hammer Horror movie, said Victor. What else is it? I said. What is death? Said Victor. Ask yourself that. Death is organ failure due to disease, injury, trauma or old age. Biological death marks the end of biological life. Isn’t that what they teach you at medical school?”

Victor specifically calls out Ry’s medical education, saying that death is the end of life. However, his implication is that medical schools are incorrect, as Victor intends to extend life beyond physical death using modern technology. Victor thinks Ry may have misunderstood his purpose, but Ry is seeing precisely the horror of Victor’s envisioned future.

“He said, Medical ethics don’t allow any experiments on the human brain; The scanning technology is so invasive it results in death—but what if the person will die in any case? The terminally ill making a sacrifice for humanity. Why can’t I work on that brain? The killer on death row could be offered the chance of a final act of reparation. I could scan his brain. What loss to the world is this serial killer? Victor! Stop it!”

In this passage, Victor tries to find ways around the established ethics of medicine, suggesting different sources for brains that he might experiment with. Ry is horrified, and Victor’s schemes begin to reflect his connection to Mary’s novel. Still, Victor’s suggestions for ethical brain sourcing reflect the constantly changing perception of medical ethics and morality.

“Ron said, You’re telling me that I will know I am dead and I will know there’s nothing I can do about it? I said, very possibly. I am sorry. Yeah, me too, said Ron. I tried to cheer him up. (Probably people shouldn’t talk about these things.) In the view of Alcor, death is not an event; Death is a process.”

Ron is afraid of death on its own, but the idea that he would remain conscious as he dies is more terrifying. Implicitly, Ron’s fears mirror the fears of the general population in the face of a future like the one Victor wants, in which people will continue to live without bodies. Though Ron’s overarching perspective on the physical body is controversial, he serves to show the attachment people have to their own bodies. Ry’s parenthetical notes about avoiding such discussions relates to the general practice of avoiding conversations on uncomfortable topics like death.

“No, said Claire. I pray. And I will pray for you, Mary. No one in the Bible is trans. The Bible was a long time ago, Claire, I said. No one in the Bible flies in a plane, drinks bourbon or eats grilled cheese. Or…Straightens their hair with hot tongs. You have lovely hair, said Ron. Everything changes, said Claire. I change. You change. God changes not.”

As with her comment about angels, Claire again presents her Christian view in a setting that directly contradicts it. Ry’s point about bourbon, grilled cheese, and hair-straightening only serves to allow Claire to change what she deems appropriate. It is important to note that transphobia is often derived from misunderstandings and false support from religious sources, and Claire fits into a modern paradigm of labelling transgender people as “un-Christian” or “blasphemous.”

“I have love, but I cannot find love’s meaning in this world of death. Would there were no babies, no bodies; only minds to contemplate beauty and truth. If we were not bound to our bodies we should not suffer so. Shelly says that he wishes he could imprint his soul on a rock, or a cloud, or some non-human form, and when we were young I felt despair that his body would disappear, even though he remained. But now all I see is the fragility of bodies; These caravans of tissue and bone.”

After the deaths of her children, Mary’s outlook on life and love diminishes. Like Victor 200 years later, she wishes humanity could live without the bodies they occupy, though for a significantly different reason. Victor desires immortality in a broad, grand sense, while Mary simply wants freedom from grief. Her version of transhumanism is less transgressive than Victor’s, but it shares the goal of eliminating death.

“In fifty years from now, brain emulation will be the new normal. And what does it solve? What do you mean, what does it solve? For the human race. All our faults, vanities, idiocies, prejudices, cruelty. Do you really want augmented humans, superhumans, uploaded humans, forever humans, with all the shit that comes with us? Morally and spiritually, we are barely crawling out of the sea onto dry land.”

In this passage, Ry turns Victor’s own argument against him. Earlier, Victor said humanity had failed, citing climate change, pollution, and war as reasons why humanity needed to give control over to AI. Now, Ry uses the same argument against Victor’s desire to make humans into bodiless, immortal beings, saying they would still be able to cause and continue the issues that made Victor choose AI.

“The world punishes men and women differently. There is scandal wherever Byron and Shelley go, but they remain men. They are not dubbed hyenas in petticoats for living as they please. They are not called unmanned when they love where they will. They are not left unprotected and penniless on a woman of theirs walks away without a thought.”

Mary sees, here, how she is treated differently because of her sex, framing discrimination in terms of punishment. When the men in her life have transgressed social boundaries, they are effectively rewarded for it, while Mary is excluded, insulted, and devalued. Her final point, regarding financial security, is especially poignant considering Mary’s dependence on Percy, then Byron, though she provides for herself and her son following Byron’s death.

“Now male, now not quite, now quite clearly a woman who will slip inside a boy’s body, who will sleep on their back like a new made sculpture with the paint not dry. Yes, that, and the pleasure of lodging myself inside you, and the weight of you sitting across me, your arms on either side of my shoulders, eyes closed, hair down. What are you?”

Victor’s romanticization of Ry, here, is explicitly a fetishization of Ry as a transgender man. Victor’s fascination with Ry is entirely physical, relating to how Victor can see Ry as both masculine and feminine. Throughout the novel, Victor treats Ry like “a boy” or “a woman” in the context of the social norms of both time periods. However, Ry is a complete person with feelings and thoughts, both of which are often ignored or hurt by Victor’s selfish behavior.

“I’m trans and that means a lifetime of hormones. My life will likely be shorter, and it’s likely that I will get sicker as I get older. I keep my maleness intact with testosterone because my body knows it wasn’t born the way I want it to be. I can change my body but I can’t change my body’s reading of my body. The paradox is that I felt in the wrong body but for my body it was the right body. What I have done calms my mind and agitates my chemistry. Few people know what it’s like to live this way.”

Again, Winterson’s portrayal of a transgender man has caused some controversy, and many reviewers cited his framing of trans existence as a “cost” or “payment” he must make to feel comfortable as inaccurate. In this passage, Ry is conceding that his body is “meant” to be female and that the body is somehow “agitated” by these changes, while many transgender individuals and allies would not view trans existence in this way. This portrayal of Ry’s experience paints his trans embodiment as not only unnatural, but also somehow dangerous as he asserts he won’t live as long and will get sicker—an assertion that is not true about trans people’s health or longevity.

“Why could he not love his own child? I took her hand. Your father, Byron, and my husband, Shelley, were remarkable men, my own father, William Godwin, was a remarkable man (she nodded), yet, my dear, being remarkable is no guarantee of human feeling.”

One element of the novel’s portrayal of men in science and art is that they lack compassion for others. Polidori is notably absent from Shelley’s list of men, and she does not yet know the kind of man Victor will become. However, these men, and even Ron Lord, will come to suffer from the same affliction. Mary and Ada, though, are involved in the same fields with the same interests, and yet they manage to retain their compassion for others.

“Here I am. Anonymous, unnoticed, walking through the streets, and I am present and invisible. The riot in my head is unseen. What I am thinking, what I am feeling, are private Bedlams of my own. I manage my own madness just as you do. And if my heart is broken it keeps beating. That is the strangeness of life. Message from Polly: Do you want dinner tonight? Maybe I do.”

Ry invested so much of his self and comfort in Victor, who ultimately abandons him. In the aftermath, Ry feels alone and disregarded, and, in that moment, he decides he might want to get to know Polly further. Given Polly’s expressions of romantic interest in Ry, the implication of this passage is that Ry will start dating Polly.