Science Fiction and Frankenstein's Creature
by Michael Doyle

Though literary snobs can find it less than delectable
Science Fiction has grown up as quiet respectable
Snobbery has ever been fashionable even at Halloween
Still science fiction's limitations certainly don't mean

That there is nothing really scary or horrific to say
When it comes to the darkness that is coming our way
It's a different headspace when it come to the movies
Is it just the special effects that make them great to see?

Science fiction is not something from pure fantasy
Rather instead it comes from speculation on what will be
There is plenty of practical magic and a bit of travesty
But only what be foreseen as at least strong possibility

That is the rub of science fiction; its real plausibility
Be it animals, robots or the horrors found in future society
Mixed together, science fiction is what hasn't happened yet
But should it happen will be something we'll never forget

Since Giordano Bruno was burned at the most unholy of stakes
Those who have opposed speculation have embraced mistakes
Believing in a universe with infinite possible meanings 
Is the right and privilege of being a truly living human being

Modern science fiction modernizes along side true science
And the speculations it opens as a sheer matter of conscience
Monsters as old as literature can be natural or magical creatures
All of which have become an ageless literary standard feature

The monsters of today come from the law of unintended consequence
The lessons given and learned by man are a matter of recompense
The seeds we sow are those sown as a matter of humanity's hubris
The likes of this are often overcome by our darkest nemesis 

The arrogance of mankind brings mad scientists as a sort of cliche
But the possibility of nuclear war has perhaps a lot more to say
Galvani's electrical experiments seemed to bring a frog to life
This in turn bred the path toward Frankenstein and his wife

Mount Tambora's eruption brought a cloudy year of endless rain
That made summer's quest something that proved n vain
In a particular instance, this evolved into contest of ghost story
That would since provide Mary Shelley her proven glory

In the depths of nightmare came the creature of her imagination
Brought back to life through the force of electrical reanimation
There on the dark and stormy night was the culmination of a spree
A teller of scary stories let her speculation run wild and free

This story is a story centered and focused on rationalism
As a scientist goes to study the forces behind magnetism
The story of Victor Frankenstein centers on natural philosophy
Agrippa's chimerical whimsy had exploded into  practicality

Mathematical disdain threw out the worn out mystical alchemy
In favor of those things resembling true science in its philosophy
This was a key moment in the abandonment of supernaturalism
In favor of  what can be thought of as scientific optimism

The creature himself was a thing of gothic horror preconceived
Toils that crept through the unhallowed grounds became believed
A demonical body became brought to life through electricity
Rejected as he was, the creature fled to other possibilities

All of this leads the creature to learn of the human cost
Lessons learned through John Milton's classic Paradise Lost
Outcast as he was, the creature sought a normal life
Asking his creator to be kind enough to create then a wife

A scientific life divorced from any sense of studied morality
Is one that leads to the worse sense of mankind's fatality
The story that we know today is one of absurd distortions
It bares little resemblance in its sense of proportion

It is a puzzling part of our inner need for the irrational
That all future movies would become based on the supernatural
This cross-current is what often becomes of the rational fate
Technology's price for Frankenstein's children is learned too late

(c) October 21, 2024   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved