@dalias @futurebird @llewelly @illumniscate People usually assume the story is just a "science goes too far and plays God" narrative but it's a lot more subtle and complex than that. Victor Frankenstein is this pampered heir who has been raised in the most sheltered environment imaginable, has never experienced anyone telling him no, and is really pissed off when he goes to university and learns that science tells you no a lot. Who is this gross ugly troll of a professor telling me no? I want beauty and ultimate forbidden knowledge and a world that tells me yes!
So he goes off on his own and in a more realistic scenario, he'd just fail utterly, but what if, what if... (Mary Shelley had already internalized the "one free assumption" rule of science fiction.)