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On April 26 at 7.30pm, CNIO and ‘la Caixa’, along with author Fernando Marías, will celebrate Victor Frankenstein as the embodiment of the scientific search for the unknown
CNIO Director Maria A. Blasco, molecular biologist and biochemist; Lorenzo Luengo, fiction and nonfiction author; and Cristina Higueras, novelist, actress and theatre producer, will discuss aspects of science and the philosophy of science that engage the attention of modern men and women
The event is part of the activities organised by the CNIO and ‘la Caixa’ for Books’ Night, with the aim to bring science – an integral part of our culture – closer to society
Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley’s enduringly popular classic and one of the masterpieces of modern science fiction, was published 200 years ago. Since then, the focus of critical attention has been on the monster rather than the scientist Victor Frankenstein. Actually, more often than not, Frankenstein has been judged unfavourably.
On April 26 at 7.30pm, in the context of Books’ Night, the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) and ‘la Caixa’ will hold an event at CaixaForum Madrid under the title La ciencia actual rescata a Victor Frankenstein. Mary Shelley, una amante de la ciencia (Modern science rescues Victor Frankenstein. Mary Shelley as a lover of science). Science and literature will meet to look at Victor Frankenstein from a different angle, as a character that embodies the scientific search for the unknown. The idea of holding a panel discussion was suggested by Amparo Garrido, CNIO Coordinator of Institutional Image and Cultural Activity, and Fernando Marías, author, screenwriter and editor, who will be the panel moderator. The panel will be made of CNIO Director Maria Blasco, molecular biologist and biochemist; Lorenzo Luengo, fiction and nonfiction author; and Cristina Higueras, author, actress and theatre producer. Admission is free (limited seating).
In 2018, Fernando Marías was the editor of Frankenstein resuturado, a collection of essays on the creature created by Victor Frankenstein. Marías also leads Hijos de Mary Shelley, a multidisciplinary project that has drawn novelists, poets, drawers, playwrights, musicians and filmmakers since 2011 to discuss the novel by Mary Shelley.In the words of Amparo Garrido, “we feel empathy and compassion for the creature, because he is an outcast, he is rejected. He is desperately lonely, an orphan… And there is something in him that is fascinating. I guess it has to do with the unconscious, with a child’s repressed requests… But what about the contrasting rationality of Victor?”.
For a long time now, Victor has appeared in numerous theatre plays, movies, comic books, TV shows, video games, etc. as the crazy megalomaniac who is incapable of reining in his boundless delirium.
According to Maria Blasco, “Mary Shelley was really interested in science. She was familiar with the major subjects of research at the time, from Darwin’s theory of evolution to the experiments showing that muscle tissue could respond to external electrical stimuli. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein is a dreamer, a young scientist who wonders whether man can create life and escape death. The idea behind the panel discussion organised by CNIO and ‘la Caixa’ is to revisit the figure of the foresighted man of science that Mary Shelley immortalised in her book.”
Maria Blasco, Lorenzo Luengo and Cristina Higueras will discuss issues that concern us all: What scientific and medical advances might be considered to be in line with Victor’s far-sighted approach? How many scientists have been insulted, ill-treated, imprisoned or burned at the stake for being unprejudiced and proposing challenging theories? Are we likely to avoid the inevitability of death?
“Victor Frankenstein is more modern than ever before,” says Blasco. “He relies on science to understand the world and believes in curiosity as a source for transforming nature. He wants to understand the principle of life. In his words, which are Mary Shelley’s, in a scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder. Our insatiable curiosity in science and the natural world has led us to where we are standing now. From this point we can walk towards a future of wellbeing driven by knowledge.”
Maria Blasco is CNIO Director and Head of the Telomeres and Telomerase Group. She has published more than 250 papers in international journals. Her achievements have earned her numerous national and international awards, such as the Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award, the Swiss Bridge Award for Research in Cancer, the Körber European Science Prize, the EMBO Gold Medal, the Rey Jaime I Award in Basic Research, the Lilly Foundation Preclinical Research Award, the Santiago Ramón y Cajal National Award in Biology and the Scientific Merit Award of the Generalitat Valenciana. Blasco holds three honorary degrees from Carlos III University of Madrid, the University of Alicante and the University of Murcia.
Lorenzo Luengo is the author of novels and essays. He is a contributor to El País and Leer, and a literary consultant at the publishing house Seix Barral. He has won the Ateneo de Sevilla Award for Best Novel in 2013. His latest book, El dios de nuestro siglo, was published by Seix Barral in 2017. Luengo is the translator of Lord Byron’s diaries (Galaxia Gutenberg, 2018) and the latest Spanish version of Mary Shelley’s celebrated novel.
Cristina Higueras is a renowned actress and theatre producer who is also a member of the Spanish Academy of Film Arts and Sciences. She is the author of novels such as El extraño del ayer and El error de Clara Ulman, both published by La Esfera de los Libros. El error de Clara Ulman can be read as a peculiar enquiry into Victor Frankenstein’s concerns from the perspective of modern science.
The event is part of the activities organised by CNIO and ‘la Caixa’ with the aim to bring science – an integral part of human culture – closer to the community.
La ciencia actual rescata a Victor Frankenstein. Mary Shelley, una amante de la ciencia (Modern science rescues Victor Frankenstein. Mary Shelley as a lover of science)
Date: Friday, 26 April 2019 at 7.30pm
Venue: CaixaForum Madrid. Paseo del Prado, 36. Madrid
Free admission/Limited seating
https://caixaforum.es/es/madrid/fichaactividad?entryId=895564