Victor Frankenstein was the creator of the monster and not the monster itself. Prometheus’ gift of fire to humans was offset by Pandora’s box. Sisyphus’ condemnation to keep rolling the rock up the slope may not be as absurd as it initially looks. Before we integrate the market’s “defiance”, let’s review some facts.
The novel Frankenstein was originally published anonymously because its author (Mary Godwin) at the time if its writing (1816) was living in Geneva with the (now) famous poet Percy Shelley. After their marriage, the book was published again under the name of Mary Shelley. The novel has been in print for 200 years now. Percy and Mary Shelley lost a child, and that premature death may well have influenced her and the theme of bringing the dead back to life. Of course, her upbringing – her father William Godwin was a famous social critic notorious of his criticism of clerics and his advocacy of political anarchism, while her mother Mary Wollstonecraft was a leader in the early feminist movement – was instrumental in her own defiance. Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the monster, desires to defy the norms of nature, to break boundaries, to explore new frontiers of knowledge, to overcome the limitation of death, to create life, and to proclaim in a hubristic way his superiority.
The creature he creates (life/thesis) turns out to be a monster (anti-life/anti-thesis) that haunts him and his loved ones. The creation was born in an unnatural way and Victor Frankenstein did not share anything about his creation with classmates (he was still a medical student), family, or the scientific community. His creature missed the motherly love (Mary Shelley had lost her mother a few days after her birth) and Victor’s dereliction of duties is indicative of those who have fiduciary responsibilities and become MIAs (missing in action), while the people rely on them and their leadership responsibilities. Victor is not only careless but also a coward as he runs away from his monster creation. The monster that was created boasts that he expects to be worshipped while searching for eternal life.
‘Frankenstein Impulse’ reflects the desire to alter nature, to achieve something unique, to defy the normal. The problem, of course, is that when this desire is solely motivated by hubris and selfishness while ignoring moral and ethical issues, it results in personalizing power which ends with us creating monsters who in turn, instead of advancing life, simply destroy it.
The subtitle of the book is “The Modern Prometheus”, which brings us to the point of reviewing some facts about Prometheus.
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is synonymous with creation, civilization, science, progress, and defiance. He stole the fire from the gods and gave it to the humans. Zeus – despite the fact that he became who he was because of Prometheus as the latter supported him to prevail over the Titans – condemned him in a torture where he was bound to a rock and every day an eagle would come to eat his liver which in turn would grow back overnight due to his immortality (being a Titan himself, he descended from the fathers of the gods). Once Prometheus gave the gift of fire to the humans, Zeus sent Pandora to them. Pandora carried a jar. The jar contained plagues and diseases and once the jar was opened, humankind started going from mischief to sorrow, with Hope trapped inside the jar (as Zeus ordered Pandora to shut the jar before Hope could escape).
The gift of progress by Prometheus (thesis) comes along with the anti-gift/jar (anti-thesis) carried by Pandora. Prometheus was bound (the title of Aeschylus’ first tragedy) to a rock and needed Hercules to unbind him (which is the title of Aeschylus’ second tragedy). The release of Prometheus by Hercules could be perceived as the beginning of reconciliation between Prometheus and Zeus but that tragedy by Aeschylus (titled Prometheus the Fire Bringer) has been lost and never found.
Back in the 1990s, we created a framework that nurtured a monster called derivatives. That monster could have been contained but those in charge refused to do so, in a similar manner to Victor Frankenstein and his dereliction of fiduciary duties. The problem was that not only did they refuse to contain that monster, but also fed him abundantly between 2001-2006. The result, of course, was the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The curious thing is that since then we refuse to acknowledge the cause of the crisis. We do our best to address the symptoms, provide lots of anesthesia to the monster/Frankenstein using QEs that defy norms and the natural order of things while feeding an underclass with bitterness and telling them to keep looking for scapegoats. Politicians exploit this disenchantment, and complacency becomes the new norm in a society that has been losing its capacity to think and capture the vision that Prometheus’ unbinding is producing. The net result down the road could be what the engine of finance always produces in similar circumstances when unsustainable liabilities are backed by fiat instruments.
The question then is what has happened to the rock where Prometheus was bound? Oh, that’s the beauty of the story: That’s the Sisyphus rock, and that’s our own story. We want it all and we want it our way. We are the craftiest of the species, we want to defy the odds while also deceiving Thanatos in Hades/Tartarus. Sisyphus bound Thanatos (death) using the chains that were destined to bind him. Thanatos was defeated, and no one died on earth. However, that was unacceptable for the forces of destruction, and hence Ares intervened (otherwise war would have no meaning since no one could die) and freed Thanatos, so that war and its engine could bear some fruit. Therefore, Sisyphus was turned over to Thanatos and was condemned to endlessly carry a rock up to a steep hill, only to see the rock rolling down again to the base of the hill.
Albert Camus saw in the myth the absurdity of life and of carrying out aimless tasks. These perceived useless efforts could also represent our unending frustration due to the pointless and what seems to be a wasted and meaningless life. However, the sun keeps shining, rising in the east only to sink in the west.
In all of these Sisyphus is happy. Every time he reaches the top of the mountain he demonstrates that not only he is stronger than the rock, but also he has an opportunity to break down the hill so that one day there will be no hill, and thus he can conspire with Prometheus to let Hope out of Pandora’s jar and then together bind Thanatos and the monster of Frankenstein back in Tartarus. After all, he has done that before.
As a conclusion, we will let James Gillray’s painting titled “Midas, transmuting all into paper” (dated to 1797) do the closing for us. It might well be an epitome of historical defiances.
Victor (as in Frankenstein), Prometheus (and Pandora), and Sisyphus (and the Rock): Defiance, Derivatives, and Midas
Author : John E. Charalambakis
Date : November 13, 2018
Victor Frankenstein was the creator of the monster and not the monster itself. Prometheus’ gift of fire to humans was offset by Pandora’s box. Sisyphus’ condemnation to keep rolling the rock up the slope may not be as absurd as it initially looks. Before we integrate the market’s “defiance”, let’s review some facts.
The novel Frankenstein was originally published anonymously because its author (Mary Godwin) at the time if its writing (1816) was living in Geneva with the (now) famous poet Percy Shelley. After their marriage, the book was published again under the name of Mary Shelley. The novel has been in print for 200 years now. Percy and Mary Shelley lost a child, and that premature death may well have influenced her and the theme of bringing the dead back to life. Of course, her upbringing – her father William Godwin was a famous social critic notorious of his criticism of clerics and his advocacy of political anarchism, while her mother Mary Wollstonecraft was a leader in the early feminist movement – was instrumental in her own defiance. Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the monster, desires to defy the norms of nature, to break boundaries, to explore new frontiers of knowledge, to overcome the limitation of death, to create life, and to proclaim in a hubristic way his superiority.
The creature he creates (life/thesis) turns out to be a monster (anti-life/anti-thesis) that haunts him and his loved ones. The creation was born in an unnatural way and Victor Frankenstein did not share anything about his creation with classmates (he was still a medical student), family, or the scientific community. His creature missed the motherly love (Mary Shelley had lost her mother a few days after her birth) and Victor’s dereliction of duties is indicative of those who have fiduciary responsibilities and become MIAs (missing in action), while the people rely on them and their leadership responsibilities. Victor is not only careless but also a coward as he runs away from his monster creation. The monster that was created boasts that he expects to be worshipped while searching for eternal life.
‘Frankenstein Impulse’ reflects the desire to alter nature, to achieve something unique, to defy the normal. The problem, of course, is that when this desire is solely motivated by hubris and selfishness while ignoring moral and ethical issues, it results in personalizing power which ends with us creating monsters who in turn, instead of advancing life, simply destroy it.
The subtitle of the book is “The Modern Prometheus”, which brings us to the point of reviewing some facts about Prometheus.
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is synonymous with creation, civilization, science, progress, and defiance. He stole the fire from the gods and gave it to the humans. Zeus – despite the fact that he became who he was because of Prometheus as the latter supported him to prevail over the Titans – condemned him in a torture where he was bound to a rock and every day an eagle would come to eat his liver which in turn would grow back overnight due to his immortality (being a Titan himself, he descended from the fathers of the gods). Once Prometheus gave the gift of fire to the humans, Zeus sent Pandora to them. Pandora carried a jar. The jar contained plagues and diseases and once the jar was opened, humankind started going from mischief to sorrow, with Hope trapped inside the jar (as Zeus ordered Pandora to shut the jar before Hope could escape).
The gift of progress by Prometheus (thesis) comes along with the anti-gift/jar (anti-thesis) carried by Pandora. Prometheus was bound (the title of Aeschylus’ first tragedy) to a rock and needed Hercules to unbind him (which is the title of Aeschylus’ second tragedy). The release of Prometheus by Hercules could be perceived as the beginning of reconciliation between Prometheus and Zeus but that tragedy by Aeschylus (titled Prometheus the Fire Bringer) has been lost and never found.
Back in the 1990s, we created a framework that nurtured a monster called derivatives. That monster could have been contained but those in charge refused to do so, in a similar manner to Victor Frankenstein and his dereliction of fiduciary duties. The problem was that not only did they refuse to contain that monster, but also fed him abundantly between 2001-2006. The result, of course, was the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The curious thing is that since then we refuse to acknowledge the cause of the crisis. We do our best to address the symptoms, provide lots of anesthesia to the monster/Frankenstein using QEs that defy norms and the natural order of things while feeding an underclass with bitterness and telling them to keep looking for scapegoats. Politicians exploit this disenchantment, and complacency becomes the new norm in a society that has been losing its capacity to think and capture the vision that Prometheus’ unbinding is producing. The net result down the road could be what the engine of finance always produces in similar circumstances when unsustainable liabilities are backed by fiat instruments.
The question then is what has happened to the rock where Prometheus was bound? Oh, that’s the beauty of the story: That’s the Sisyphus rock, and that’s our own story. We want it all and we want it our way. We are the craftiest of the species, we want to defy the odds while also deceiving Thanatos in Hades/Tartarus. Sisyphus bound Thanatos (death) using the chains that were destined to bind him. Thanatos was defeated, and no one died on earth. However, that was unacceptable for the forces of destruction, and hence Ares intervened (otherwise war would have no meaning since no one could die) and freed Thanatos, so that war and its engine could bear some fruit. Therefore, Sisyphus was turned over to Thanatos and was condemned to endlessly carry a rock up to a steep hill, only to see the rock rolling down again to the base of the hill.
Albert Camus saw in the myth the absurdity of life and of carrying out aimless tasks. These perceived useless efforts could also represent our unending frustration due to the pointless and what seems to be a wasted and meaningless life. However, the sun keeps shining, rising in the east only to sink in the west.
In all of these Sisyphus is happy. Every time he reaches the top of the mountain he demonstrates that not only he is stronger than the rock, but also he has an opportunity to break down the hill so that one day there will be no hill, and thus he can conspire with Prometheus to let Hope out of Pandora’s jar and then together bind Thanatos and the monster of Frankenstein back in Tartarus. After all, he has done that before.
As a conclusion, we will let James Gillray’s painting titled “Midas, transmuting all into paper” (dated to 1797) do the closing for us. It might well be an epitome of historical defiances.