# Let us assume that Victor Frankenstein was real, and it all worked **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [March 12, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470 "2025-03-12T14:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/21 "2025-03-12T15:40:57Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Doesn’t China already do this in order to get organs for transplant? The key difference there is, in medical situations, one person can usually supply organs for several patients. A kidney here, a liver there, this one gets a heart, that one gets a lung. For a full-scale Frankie, you’d need multiple donors for one Frankie, which is much less efficient. Someone mentioned using people from colonies as supplies. At some point you have to ask, “Is this new technology really that much better than just plain old slavery?” ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/22 "2025-03-12T15:42:16Z")
Dean Koontz wrote a five-part horror series about the legend of Frankenstein being real. Koontz posited that Frankenstein was a hybrid evil sorcerer/ mad scientist who discovered how to create life by pursuing an abandoned alchemical alternative to the mainstream scientific method. In the series Victor is a narcissistic sociopathic sadist who, having first worked to extend his life into the 21st century, is now planning to exterminate the human race and replace it with his creatures. Other fictional examples: the Igors of Discworld, who it said sometimes literally have their uncle’s eyes. They can replace a lost limb or organ for you, at the price of signing up for the donor program. Also, meat golems are commonplace in the clockpunk/steampunk world of Girl Genius. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/23 "2025-03-12T15:44:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > You have just reinvented and justified slavery. And [_Universal Soldier_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Soldier_(1992_film)#Plot) would be a deep meditation upon the nature and morality of the servitude of the involuntary reanimated akin to _Platoon_ instead of being a pretty dumb Roland Emmerich action movie with a series of direct-to-video sequels. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/24 "2025-03-12T15:45:02Z")
If reanimated corpses retain memories from their previous lives, it would be developed as a police procedure. If the police found the body of a murder victim, they would reanimate it in order to get information from the victim about the murderer. And then have the victim testify in court. Murderers, knowing this, would have to take steps to prevent it. Either make sure to destroy their victim’s brains or prevent their victim from knowing their identity. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/25 "2025-03-12T15:46:07Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > #2 There is a line of erotica/romance novels aimed at and featuring gay men- and the Universal Studios Monsters, Frankenstein-The Dark Desires would be the volume you want. I have learnt something today. I now require a large bottle of gin to unlearn it. Stupid Lent. Back on topic: Didn’t the creature (Adam?) show signs of intelligence in Bride of Frankenstein? Even so, The Bride herself was certainly not a lumbering brute. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > You have just reinvented and justified slavery. With extra steps. 🙂 Homunculi, whether or not they could grow, would likely be used as slave labor. I could see a regulation requiring brains being at least a certain number of hours or days dead before use in a homunculus in order to prevent it from growing intelligent. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/26 "2025-03-12T15:47:57Z")
Hence the plot of iZombie. Liv gets flashes of memories from the victim’s brains she consumes. Brian ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/27 "2025-03-12T15:52:33Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > For a full-scale Frankie, you’d need multiple donors for one Frankie, which is much less efficient. Good point. It might still be worth it if you had a mostly intact corpse and just needed a few spare parts to replace whatever had caused the person’s death. If they did retain their memories, it could be used by rich people to make themselves effectively immortal. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/28 "2025-03-12T15:58:29Z")
It gets worse, I’m afraid. If slavery of the almost mindless post-dead is legalized, the slavery of the almost mindless humans would not be far behind. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/29 "2025-03-12T15:59:31Z")
What did I say? They are the target market. Growing up, I read Mendy And The Golem. It was a wonderful comic aimed at Jewish kids. On my last trip to Florida, I bought a DVD of the horror movie The Vigil. This movie is also aimed at a Jewish audience. The Dark Desire series presumably had some appeal to heterosexual female readers. This was around thirty years ago, so for whatever reasosns there were not as many heterosexual women consuming porn aimed at a gay male audience. The book line was definitely written for and marketed to gay men. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/30 "2025-03-12T16:00:16Z")
I was going to shoehorn in a _Robocop_ reference somewhere. The advantage of that technique is, you don’t even need _all_ the parts, much less ones from multiple corpses. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/31 "2025-03-12T16:06:18Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > If they did retain their memories, it could be used by rich people to make themselves effectively immortal. Some of the later movies implied that the monster was re-animated, not just by electricity, but by a mysterious ray that not only animated the tissue, but made it immortal. Re-animating a corpse was just an early experiment. The doctors’ ultimate goal was to make normal people immortal, and nearly invulnerable. Somehow, none of the doctors ever lived long enough to get to Step Two. But if they did, they would start selling immortality, and the Monster would be just a historical curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/32 "2025-03-12T16:07:10Z")
Recall that zombies (those from Haitian folklore, before George Romero) were reanimated corpses used as slave labor. No assembly required, just re-animate a complete body. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/33 "2025-03-12T16:20:28Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > The Dark Desire series presumably had some appeal to heterosexual female readers. This was around thirty years ago, so for whatever reasosns there were not as many heterosexual women consuming porn aimed at a gay male audience. The book line was definitely written for and marketed to gay men. Fair enough. > [@mbh](#): > > Some of the later movies implied that the monster was re-animated, not just by electricity, but by a mysterious ray that not only animated the tissue, but made it immortal. Re-animating a corpse was just an early experiment. The doctors’ ultimate goal was to make normal people immortal, and nearly invulnerable. > > Somehow, none of the doctors ever lived long enough to get to Step Two. But if they did, they would start selling immortality, and the Monster would be just a historical curiosity. Yeah, that would be a different story entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/34 "2025-03-12T16:20:29Z")
Can reanimated bodies be re-reanimated if they die? You could end up with the undead being used for dangerous jobs, ala the current film Mickey 17. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/35 "2025-03-12T16:28:39Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > The movie version, at least the one I’ve seen, was slow, inarticulate, and clumsy. Other than brute strength jobs, he would have no productive use. Sure, but the doctor stitched in an ‘abnormal’ brain. But imagine if he’d used Einstein’s gray matter instead—who wouldn’t want a towering green genius mixing test tubes in the lab? In any event, I’d take my newly improved Frankenstein monster out for Trick-or-Treat. I’d coach him to grunt, _‘More… MORE!’_ whenever he spots candy. That’s one surefire way to fill our bags. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/36 "2025-03-12T16:30:53Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > That’s one surefire way to fill our bags. HA! I have to give you credit. That’s a much better use of his talents than digging ditches. LOL ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/37 "2025-03-12T16:43:12Z")
One clarification: Are we including the best sequel, with the same director and same stars as the doctor and monster, “The Bride of Frankenstein”? Because in that movie the monster was headed to be close to the way the monster was in the book, very capable of learning fast and speaking better than in the original movie. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/38 "2025-03-12T17:15:10Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Someone mentioned using people from colonies as supplies. At some point you have to ask, “Is this new technology really that much better than just plain old slavery?” AIUI, the reanimated would be stronger and more durable, incur no food costs, have longer lifespans with no decrepitude, and less intelligence in the matter of escaping or general disobedience. On the other hand, lack of intelligence is a limiting factor in what work can be demanded. But it’s not an either/or. Having worked their slaves to death, slavers could simply reanimate them. You might think this would reduce the overall demand for slave labour, but Jevon’s Paradox suggests otherwise. All of this also implies of course an anti-reanimation movement on moral grounds, so a USA vs Confederate zombies Civil War is very much on the cards. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/39 "2025-03-12T17:36:39Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > You have just reinvented and justified slavery. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > If slavery of the almost mindless post-dead is legalized, the slavery of the almost mindless humans would not be far behind. “Reinvented?” It’s set in the 1700s. Slavery of regular humans is still completely legal. If anything, reanimating the dead as “mindless labor” might well be considered an _anti-slavery_ measure. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470/40 "2025-03-12T17:37:58Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#): > > AIUI, the reanimated would be stronger and more durable, incur no food costs… Pretty sure Frankenstein’s monster eats. He’s not undead, he’s a corpse brought back to life. He still has standard biological functions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/let-us-assume-that-victor-frankenstein-was-real-and-it-all-worked/1015470.md?page=3)