Love

Justin Lewis

Dr. Matt Johnson

Oral Interpretation

March 26th, 2012

1. According to Carl Jung the term "cultural shadow" is born in response to the limitations os the conscious perspective of an era and often appearing in the guise of archetypal symbols. If the shadow of a cultural epoch is always repressed negation of what the collectivity consciously affirms, then the unconscious compensation off progress is the fear of being systematically replaced by technology. Whereas in an individual, the shadows erupts in dreams, in a culture, it does so through the visions and seers. The article also states that Jung regarded the cinema as one of the prime outlets for such vision, for it "enables us to experience without danger to ourselves all the excitements, passions, and fantasies which have to be repressed in a humanistic age."

2. The "Frankenstein myth" advocates that the machine is currently a largely unseen malignancy which will result in the degeneration or death of humanity in the future, but only if the prescription for remedy implanted within the myth itself is not needed. In each, the authors are able to interpret this foreboding through the use of agency and cultural shadowing.

3. In this article the authors compare in three contemporary films, Rocky IV, Blade Runner, and The Terminator, to see if they coincide with the dystopian view of technology's harmful effects on mankind, as evidenced in Shelley's Frankenstein. They refer to this as the Frankenstein complex, and outline four critical insights: that such stories attain mythical status; that they emanate repressed and unconscious fears; that their process of mechanization ultimately creates a state where machines are supreme beings and humans are enslaved by them; and that the stories reflect a patriarchal bias.