The Promethean Daemonic from Frankenstein's Creature to Ridley Scott's Alien

This article traces the association of the Promethean with the daemonic in sf from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) to Ridley Scott's recent films, Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). It explores the logic by which Promethean optimism - that is to say, the progressive belief in...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inFoundation (Dagenham) Vol. 47; no. 130; pp. 20 - 33
Main Author Gordon, Ashley
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dagenham Science Fiction Foundation 01.01.2018
Subjects
Aesthetics
Ambiguity
American literature
Anthropocentrism
Anthropomorphism
Belief & doubt
Bloom, Harold (1930-2019)
British & Irish literature
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834)
English literature
Existentialism
Fate
Grammatical aspect
Heroism & heroes
Jewish literature
Literary characters
Literary devices
Logic
Mythology
Narrative techniques
Philosophers
Philosophy
Politeness
Science
Scott, Ridley
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1797-1851)
Symbolism
Unexplained phenomena
New York
United States > US
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:This article traces the association of the Promethean with the daemonic in sf from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) to Ridley Scott's recent films, Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017). It explores the logic by which Promethean optimism - that is to say, the progressive belief in science as both enlightenment and salvation, as symbolized by the classical legend of Prometheus stealing the secret of Are from the gods to give to humanity - gives way to what Eugene Thacker has called the 'horror of philosophy'. Shelley's novel is perched ambiguously between both optimism and scepticism, as registered by her use of the older, Latinate 'daemon' to describe the Creature, meaning originally a benign supernatural being. The Creature, though, is viewed by all the other characters in terms of the Middle French 'demon', meaning an evil and possessive spirit. Shelley therefore conflates the etymology of both words, an elision exacerbated in the Alien films where the Xenomorph, in keeping with Thacker's philosophical turn, is wholly malevolent. The article will conclude by briefly suggesting how a new breed of Neo-Prometheans have theorized a recuperation of the myth as imperative to living with the existential crises of the twenty-first century.
ISSN:0306-4964