Science Fiction Prototypes to Promote a New and Better World? Dr Frankenstein and ‘The Creature’, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Yanis Varoufakis’ Another Now

Abstract

The Doppelgänger theme inhabits Frankenstein (the Doctor and his ‘Creature’), Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Jekyll and his inner-self Hyde), and Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present (an entire group replicated in an alternative world). Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and R.L. Stevenson’s Jekyll are mirror images, too, both a warning to ‘medical men’ not to take upon themselves a role akin to God. Dr Frankenstein’s creation turns serial killer, enacting revenge against his creator. Dr Jekyll, having transported himself into his own creation, Mr Hyde, is eventually subjugated and suffers defeat. Ego-centrically orientated, if seeking to create a better world by forging better versions of man, for both, then, the experiment falls short. Yanis Varoufakis’s vision  of two dimensions, the inhabitants of each reflecting those of the other, raises the question whether it is preferable to live in a perfect world, or to strive for good in an imperfect one. What of the authors, separated by centuries yet pursuing identical themes through sci-fi with gothic and Victorian literary allusions? Positioning collective action as the superior method for finding the way to that better world, Shelley sees both Frankenstein and Walton, the principal actors binding the plot, as failed men. Frankenstein fails through egoism: one man, acting by himself, will change the world. The fictional teller of the tale, Walton, correspondingly seeks fame through the ‘go it alone’, ‘do it all oneself’ model in his journey north. The sailors, refusing certain death in icy Arctic winds and waters, demand he turn back: finally, Walton obeys. For Shelley, this is no failure or defeat: collective action, not individual posturing, will make the world better. Likewise, Stevenson’s ego-driven Jekyll fails, hoist on his desire to win the goal for himself, separating good from evil in man, but left with evil triumphant. For Varoufakis, socio-economic cooperation means the making of a better world, but what if all do not wish to live in it? This article critiques Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stevenson’s Jekyll as meddling with nature to their detriment, being protagonists of a sci-fi genre that expands on the dramatic consequences of man’s ego-centric interference with nature. Yet, as Varoufakis’ Another Now asks, is the better world indeed, once found, a triumph of ‘good’ over collective activism and individual desire for a worthwhile life?