Thoughts after reading Frankenstein

Because of the terrible weather brought by the hurricane and not being able to go anywhere, I stayed home and finished Frankenstein, which I had been putting off for several months. I was attracted to this book because I felt that its writing background was somewhat similar to today. Although the monsters created in the book were unreal at that time, today, we also have science fiction films such as The Terminator, Ex Machina, Her, etc. that are also “unreal”. Coupled with the vigorous development of AI from tech industry, it seems that artificial intelligence is really not that far away. The academic community’s attitude towards AI has long been divided into optimistic and pessimistic groups. One believes that mankind will be destroyed by the AI that they created, while the other believes that AI will greatly improve people’s lives. The author of this book, Mary Shelley, is obviously a pessimist.

The book’s portrayal of the protagonist Victor Frankenstein and the monsters he created is so profound that for many times I found it too verbose. On one hand, there are too many words, and on the other hand, I’m not used to the old English phrases. After all, it’s written such a long time ago, 200 years I believe. From the perspective of the monster, his ugly shape and complex composition are destined not to be accepted by society. He was abandoned by doing good, and even so by doing evil. In the end, he did not even get the blessings from his creator, and so he joined Victor on the road to tragedy. From Victor’s point of view, fate has tightly tied him to his monster, and a wrong step leads to another wrong step. This is exactly what AI pessimists would image.

I couldn’t agree more with the analyses of the themes and motivations at the back of the book. Here I am going to translate some excerpts into Chinese.

Written at a time when scientists felt empowered to unlock the mysteries of nature and establish mastery over it, Frankenstein warns of the danger of interfering with natural law. Advances in electricity, chemistry, and biology, along with the birth of the age of machines, made the future seem full of limitless possibilities to many of Shelley’s contemporaries. Frankenstein seems to caution us that there are some things man is not meant to know, and that pursuit of certain kinds of knowledge could be disastrous.

创作于一个科学家们觉得自己有能力解开自然谜题并掌控自然的年代，Frankenstein 对干预自然规律的危险性做出了警告。电力、化学、生物等领域的突破，加上机器的诞生，对Shelley同时代的人来说，未来看起来充满了无限可能。Frankenstein似乎在警告我们有些东西人类不应该去了解，有些知识或许是毁灭性的。

The novel’s characters Frankenstein and Walton illustrate two paths in the pursuit of forbidden knowledge. Both Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton try to reach beyond the current human limitations despite the dangers involved. Frankenstein’s quest leads to the destruction of everything he holds dear, including his own life, and it is only after hearing the tale and witnessing Frankenstein’s doom that Walton pulls back from his own dangerous quest.

小说人物Frankenstein和Walton描述了追逐被禁止的知识的两条路经。尽管危险重重，Victor Frankenstein和Robert Walton都试图超越当时人类的极限。Frankenstein的旅途最终毁灭了他所珍视的一切，包括他自己的生命，而在听到故事并见证Frankenstein的厄运之后Walton才取消了自己危险的任务。

By trying to create life, Victor destroys lives, many more than just his creation’s and his own. When his overreaching destroys him, Frankenstein has only himself to blame. He recognizes his responsibility for his own destruction, exhorting Walton to learn from his example. “Seek happiness in tranquillity, and avoid ambition,” he warns with his last breath.

Victor试图创造生命，但最后却毁灭了许多生命，包括他自己和他自己创造的。当他的执着摧毁他时，Frankenstein只能责怪他自己。他意识到是自己一手毁灭了自己，并劝告Walton吸取他的教训。“宁静致远，避免野心”这是他临终前的忠告。

The novel’s subtitle, The Modern Prometheus, underscores the point. Prometheus stole fire from the gods for the betterment of mankind, and as such, he is seen as heroic. But the wrath he brought down from the gods of Mt. Olympus makes him a tragic figure.

小说的副标题，现代普罗米修斯， 强调了这一点。普罗米修斯为了人类的福祉从众神那儿偷了火，因此在人们心中他是英雄。但他招致了天神的震怒，最终成为一个悲剧人物。

The counterweight to Knowledge in the story is Nature. Romantic artists valued the beauty and perfection they saw in nature, which they believed no man-made device could rival. Shelley uses natural settings in Frankenstein to contrast with the creature as the unnatural product of science. Nature is also shown with the power to destroy those who upset its balance, as with Victor’s illness and death, and with the ice that threatens Walton and his crew. Redears come away from the story with the sense that Nature will not tolerate interference in its realm.

故事中与知识对应的是自然。浪漫的艺术家们重视自然之美，他们认为人造设备无法与之媲美。Shelley在 Frankenstein 中用自然环境来映衬出怪物本身是科学所生的非自然产物。自然也有能力摧毁那些破坏其平衡的人，就像Victor的疾病和死亡，以及威胁Victor及其船员的冰山。读者看完后的感受是自然不会容忍任何人对它的干扰。

The struggle between passion and reason is another form of the science versus nature theme. Thinkers of the Enlightenment believed that there was order in the universe that could be understood through careful application of the scientific method. The Romantic point of view was a backlash against the cool detachment of the Enlightenment. Romantics believed that human progress would happen through radical change and emotional expression. Victor, the rational mind, arrogantly creates the monster and then abandons it. For him, science replaces emotion. The creature has the passionate motives, first seeking acceptance and then revenge. Of the two, it is the feeling, self-examining creature who has the truer understanding of his own predicament in the end.

激情与理性之间的斗争是科学与自然主题的另一种形式。启蒙运动的思想家们认为宇宙中的秩序可以通过谨慎地应用科学方法来理解。浪漫主义强烈反对启蒙运动的绝对理性。浪漫主义者们认为人类的进步是通过激进的变化和情感表达来实现的。Victor，一颗纯理性的头脑，傲慢地创造了怪物并抛弃了它。对他而言，科学取代了情感。怪物的一切动机则充满激情，首先寻求接受然后再复仇。在这两者中，是情感驱动的、自我反省的怪物最终对自我困境有更深的理解。