Thursday, March 23, 2006

Monsters and Cyborgs: Is there a difference?

After viewing the film The Bride of Frankenstein, reading Haraway, and reading the paper by Theodora Vacarescu I believe there is a difference between the monster and the cyborg. There are however many similarities such as they both do not have the relationship with parents particulary the "father", both are creations of a woman, and are products of technology and science. Also in the paper by Vararescu she discusses that there is a possibility that the monster and the cyborg are not a male but could also be considered a female. But the western culture has characterized the monster as a male. Since the cyborg and the monster are creations they have artificial intelligence.
Despite all the similarities between the two, the film tells a different story of the monster. Frankenstein wants to become human like and tries to find one he can become friends with. But the people of the town will not accept Frankenstein because of his scary and hideous appearance. The only person who does come to accept him is the blind man because he does not know of the monsters appearance. I believe Frankenstein becomes evil in the film because of the people wanting and trying to kill him. Frankenstein was just looking for someone to care for and he recieved hatred instead. I believe he could see and distinguish the difference of good and evil at the end of the film. He allowed the one scientist and his wife go but kept the evil doctor, the bride and himself behind to be killed becausee he realized that is were evil belongs. Haraway, on the other hand, describes cyborgs as not wanting to become human like as Frankenstein did. For cyborgs would not be able to recognize the Garden of Eden. Therefore, no matter how many similarities are between the cyborg and the monster, I do not believe one can say the cyborg is a monster.

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