2-face 4-eva

»In the acclaimed painting An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1769), Joseph Wright of Derby depicted a natural scientist evacuating air from a jar containing a live bird. This experiment was first conducted by Robert Boyle in the seventeenth century and became a staple of popular scientific demonstrations, often performed before large audiences. The air would be pumped out and the bird would begin to expire; sometimes air was released back into the jar to revive it, sometimes not.«

the fact that victor is especially fascinated by an experiment which bridges the gap between life and death to create a kind of quantum state somewhere in-between + he considers this a "natural phenomenon"...i know this phrasing probably mainly refers to the proof of the existence of air and the reliance of most living beings on the presence of this invisible, seemingly indetectable substance to survive (which offers so many avenues of exploration in itself), but i can't help but interpret it also as victor viewing an existence in this superposition as natural in the sense of it being something he relates to.

the obvious analogy is of course to equate the creature with the bird and put victor in the place of his fellow scientist, but i think there's also a case to be made that on some level, victor sees himself as the bird, too. is himself intimately familiar with being suspended in the tension between dissolution and reclamation of the self & at the mercy of the whims of forces outside of his control. death and loss have been intricately weaved into the tapestry of his life from very early on, sickness and incest permeating his family tree and co-existing there with seemingly unconditional love and support—one does not, in fact, oppose the other. on the contrary. his adoring family leaves no room for even the mere consideration of a life outside of their designs, and the workings of his mind (which could very well, from a modern perspective, be considered affected by something we might today call bipolar disorder) have accustomed him to making a home at the junction of paralysing despair and compulsive frenzy. the air might be released back into the jar, it might not.

The creator and the Creature

Hire me, DC.

i’m sorry but who the FUCK is calling J&H fans that dawg 😭

Robert’s just like ‘sure bro whatever you say’

here’s the full vid if you’re interested

Stupid F:TMP shitposts bc I’m too tired to draw properly today