#where did

~ THE ROOTS OF HORROR SCI-FI: FRANKEINSTEIN ~

Mary Shelley’s “FRANKEINSTEIN” (at the beginning called also “The Modern PROMETHEUS”) is considered the first science fiction (an horror sci-fi, a gothic fiction). The first Alien movie was an horror science fiction too, and this prequel saga seems to bring us back in time, at the time of the Frankeinstein’s monster. That’s not a new topic in sci-fi movies, not a new topic for Ridley Scott himself: Blade Runner (for example), already has some references to Mary Shelley’s novel. What connections can we find between the story that unfolds in Prometheus and Alien Covenant and the story of Frankeinstein? The novel is about a young university student, Victor Frankeinstein, that has always wanted to discover “how nature works”. He’s no “mad scientist”, he’s no mad man. He’s so brilliant and passionate in his studies, that suddenly finds himself with an incredible power in his hands: the power to create life from death (David is pretty obsessed with the connection life-death, destruction-creation too, and he creates the fagehuggers with Elizabeth’s dead body). Frankeinstein decides to use his power to accomplish the most difficult and glorious goal, building a man (not a more simple animal). Frankeinstein is moved by scientific curiosity, by the desire to solve the problems that afflicts mankind (death, illness… ) and by the desire to make creatures that would have rejoiced him as their creator, a good creator. That makes us think a bit about Weyland, because he solved lots of the problems of mankind and because he built a man (David) that could call him his creator. That makes us think a bit about David too: David created the Xenomorph because he wanted to give life to some creatures that would have considered him their “father”. We already have two “scientists” in this story. But David is also Weyland’s monster. In Mary Shelley’s novel, all the problems begin because Victor, soon after he has given life to his creature, rejects him because he’s an hideous wretch. The story is the tragedy of the monster who is so ugly that all men fear him and force him into solitude. The monster is forced to learn how to live by himself, because his father abandoned him. The monster then turns his creator life’s into a nightmare, killing all his beloved ones for revenge. Weyland knows the story of Frankenstein. Weyland thinks to be far better than Victor: he didn’t created a monster, he created David, a very handsome android, and he gave him all the gifts he could (David doesn’t age, he can’t die, he can’t “feel the heat of the stars or the cold of the moon”). Weyland is a creator who did all he could do for his creature. Weyland is a “winner”, he built “better worlds”, so, he also creates “better men”. But that doesn’t change the crucial problem of the “monster”: Weyland doesn’t love David. He wants to be called “father”, he says that David is the most similar thing to a son to him, but yet, David feels, right from the start, that he’s no really a “son” to him, as a son should be, as a son generally is.

David: “Am I?” Weyland: “Perfect?” David: “Your son”

As soon as David is “born”, Weyland is satisfied to see that he’s perfect, his “living” Michelangelo’s David statue is no Frankeinstein’s monster. But David is interested in something else: he wants to know if he’s really a son to him. He soon realizes that he’s not. He’s not loved. David is the symbol of Weyland’s godly status, he’s the piece of finest art that makes Weyland a creator, that makes him worthy to “enters to Walhalla”.

Weyland (to the Engineer, in a deleted scene of Prometheus): “Do you see this man? My company built him from nothing. I made him, and I made him in my own image, so he would be perfect, so he would never fail. I deserve this, ‘cause you and I… we are superior… we are creators… we are Gods. And Gods never die”

The most important question of humanity: where did we came from? It’s the question that permeates all Prometheus movie and that opens Alien Covenant. Weyland asks that question when David is born. David makes that question himself, inside of him. But David finds the answer in few minutes. David has his creator in front of him. “Where did I came from”, “who I am”, “where am I going” are the questions that give meaning to human life; mankind looks for an answer to these questions. In Mary Shelley’s novel, the monster asks these questions to himself a lot of times, because at the beginning he doesn’t know who he is or who created him. He really wants to know. The novel shows us that the question “where did I came from” is connected to another extremely important question that is basically the other face of the medal: “WAS I LOVED?” Weyland explains David that without an answer to the question “where did I came from” life is meaningless, all the works of art are meaningless. Unfortunately, David already has the answer: he comes from Weyland. And here’s the next question connected to the first one: “was I loved?” No. David is not loved by the man who brought him to life. All the answers David gets are extremely disappointing. David’s life is meaningless. Few minutes after his birth, David learns that he’s born to serve Weyland. He’s Weyland’s work of art and his key to find his creators, and no more. During his life, David see how humans have no kindness towards him, because he’s a robot, a machine in human shape. David is no “monster”, he’s handsome, but people are scared by him because his humanity is unnatural. He’s like the David of Michelangelo “so human but not really human”. He’s too similar to them. They find that resemblance creepy. That’s a huge frustration: what’s the purpose to be so handsome and clever if David can’t be treated by humans as an equal? But David is disillusioned. He knows the truth right from the start.

Frankeinstein’s monster: “You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow-creatures, who owe me nothing?”

The monster has been rejected by the one who created him, he wasn’t loved by him, so, he can’t hope to be loved by people not related to him. That’s also David’s situation. That’s the problem of Prometheus movie: humans look for their creators, for different reasons, the creators can make them happy, that’s what they hope. When Holloway starts to fear that he will never manage to talk to the Engineers, he gets drunk. Holloway wats to ask to the Engineers why they created mankind. David already has the answer in the answer his creators gave him: “we made you because we could”. Stop. No love. No meaning of life (Alien universe is a very dark and sad universe). Victor Frankeinstein made his creature for the same reason too: he finds the power to do it, he does it, without a second thought. David hates both humans and Engineers because they both create with irresponsibility. The monster of Frankeinstein decided to identifies himself with Satan against his God (Victor), even if he should have been his Adam. David identifies with Satan too in Alien Covenant. They both red Paradise Lost and got inspired by that poem. They both are lonely, even if Milton’s Satan has his fellows devils. So, David is a true mix of Lucifer and Frankeinstein’s monster, because he’s really evil deep inside him, but at the same time, he truly feel the need to be loved, (even if maybe he can’t fully acknowledge that, always for pride. Frankeinstein’s monster is ready to leave all his evil thoughts in exchange of love, but I think David isn’t interested in accepting love alone, at all, it seems to me that David wants to go on on his way no matter what). This Alien prequel saga is FULL OF FRANKEINSTEIN’S MONSTERS: David is Weyland’s monster, but humans are the monsters created by the Engineers: mankind too looks for the creators but he’s sadly rejected by them. Weyland searches immortality as a gift from his creators, Elizabeth searches answers.

Elizabeth: “I need to know why!”

That’s something that Frankeinstein’s monster too could have said.

What David choses to do in this situation?? His life has no meaning, and he’s superior to every other creature in the galaxy. When Weyland dies, David decides to become an “artist”, and to fill the void of his existence becoming a creator himself. A better creator, a better father than the previous ones. To create is a way to say to the universe you truly existed. David is built fearless. David can’t get tired. David has all the time he needs to try to accomplish his goals. David decides to basically START ALL OVER AGAIN. David decides to reset the entire universe and write something new… also because “nothing is written”, not “for some men”, the ones who are “the dreamers of the day”, that are “dangerous men” (David doesn’t sleep and ends up believing to be able to dream, to metaphorically dream, so, he literally dreams with his eyes open… ) At first, he decides to do that with the “cooperation” and the company of Elizabeth (Elizabeth is also the name of Victor Frankeinstein’s girlfriend, and she’s killed by the monster), the only human that showed him kindness, the woman he truly loves in his amoral and flawed way, but she refuses to be part of David’s “second Eden” and David ends up killing her to prevent her leaving him (one of the crucial problem of Frankeinstein’s monster was finding a way to have a female companion). David “moves forward”, David decides to become “the new Engineer” and to erase the previous “dying species” to substitutes them with his creations. His sons. The ones who “trust him”. The alien monsters who will never suffer because they are ready to survive no matter what (a bit like David himself), monsters that maybe are “perfect” because they don’t ask fundamental questions anymore, because they are “unclouded by conscience, remorse or delusion of morality”.

(Sorry for the long post ☺️)

(Table of Contents:

https://gothic-fiction-in-space.tumblr.com/post/164533391538/table-of-contents-1-the-romanticism-of-alien

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