Frankenstein & Blade Runner: The Importance of Memory

" ... In the novel, the Creature undergoes traumatic experiences that reflect a condition that relates to understanding one’s self throughout the novel. In this case, the Creature is constantly trying to define himself as he suffers through multiple traumas. In psychoanalytical terms, a trauma always comes “second” (Amfreville 5). In other words, trauma does not exist
until a second traumatic event awakens the first and thus is recognized or, known again, as traumatic ... "

"We all have memories, as far as I can remember. But where do these memories come from and how do they get made? ... "

"Memories make us who we are. They shape our understanding of the world and help us to predict what’s coming. For more than a century, researchers have been working to understand how memories are formed and then fixed for recall in the days, weeks or even years that follow ... "

BBC Bitesize presents their analysis of Frankenstein which includes plot, characters, themes and more.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the most widely read novels of all time. Its two central characters, the scientist Victor Frankenstein and the being he creates, have gained mythic status in their own right. Engaging with the novel's characterization is crucial to gaining a real understanding of its themes and contexts, including education, gender difference, imperialism, personal identity, revolutionary politics, and science. This study includes: an introductory overview of the novel, including a brief account of its historical and literary contexts; its reception history; discussion of the major themes and narrative structure; detailed analysis of, the representation of main characters, such as Walton, Frankenstein, and the creature; and a conclusion reminding students of the links between the characters and the key themes and issues."

" At its core ... Shelley's Frankenstein is a contemplation on what it means to be human, what it means to chase perfection, and what it means to fear things such things as ugliness, loneliness, and rejection ... "

"As rogue replicant Roy Batty reflects on imminent death at the end of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, he expresses regret that his memories will be lost forever ‘like tears in the rain’. A connection between Batty’s world and that of the archivist does not readily come to mind during this climactic encounter between Blade Runner Rick Deckard and the leader of a group of Nexus 6 biorobotic androids. Yet Roy’s emotional soliloquy points to the important role of the archivist in the preservation of memory, and its place as a defining element of human identity ... "

" ... In Philip K. Dick and Philosophy thirty Dick fans and professional thinkers confront the fascinating and frightening ideas raised by Dick's mind-blowing fantasies ...

"Perhaps nothing is more emblematic of Ridley Scott’s 1982 dystopian film Blade Runner than the Voight-Kampff test administered by the movie’s titular law enforcers, including Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard. The series of questions in the fictional test ... are designed to separate out humans from replicants by provoking a physiological response indicating empathy. Only true humans, not replicants, feel that emotion ... "

"The opening scene of Blade Runner presents us with the vision of a futuristic city that breathes fire, lightning and smoke like a fantastic and primeval dragon; but then it also ruptures this atavistic vision by conjuring multiple spaceships from an imaginary of the ‘future’ that whiz past our point of view. And then we are presented with our ‘point of view’- an all-seeing eye that fills up the frame and brackets the scene we have witnessed before as if reproducing our own experience of watching the scene ... "