discussion post

Horror or Science Fiction?:

Frankenstein is often credited with being a founding work of science fiction, while also serving as a classic of horror fiction. Some people argue that it does not really count as science fiction, since the science involved is largely fantastic, non-technological and never described in any detail. It might as well just be magic. Stories of magically created golems go far back into folklore, and this is just one of those. This is really just the story of a big scary supernatural critter chasing people around. Others argue that he novel DOES qualify as science fiction, since it establishes the genre of the artificial human. Works about robots (I Robot) androids (Blade Runner, Terminator) and genetically engineered humans all emerge from Frankenstein. Weigh in on this debate. Do you think the work functions primarily as science fiction or as horror? What themes in the novel point toward one genre or the other? Compare it to contemporary popular novels or films to make your point. (Please write an initial post of roughly 100 words, and respond to another student’s post with roughly 50 words.)

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I think the work functions primarily as a science fiction, for the reason that the entire idea of this work is about a scientist resurrecting dead tissue and create a fresh consciousness from the assimilation of body areas from numerous exclusive donor bodies.

(137 words)