From Marcus Munafo
The Frankenstein metaphor is used with increasing frequency to describe the
work of scientists that the public find troubling
(“Beastly work”, 30 September, p 48).
This has always surprised me. In the novel, the creature created by Dr
Frankenstein is not in itself the problem. Rather, the disaster that follows is
a consequence of the reaction of ordinary people, including Dr Frankenstein
himself, to that which they do not understand. If anything, the novel is a
metaphor for the damage that can be done by a misguided emotional reaction to a
neutral scientific advance.
This more accurate metaphor certainly has a place in the debate on
genetically modified food and vivisection, among others, but perhaps not in the
way that those opposed to these might hope.
Institute of ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû1000¼¯ºÏ Sciences, University of Oxford
