The Skull Beneath The Skin: Culture & Immortality
In the early modern age, scientists began to equate electricity with life-force leading to the branch of pseudo-science known as Vitalism. By accident, Luigi Galvani discovered that running an electrical current through the nerves and muscles of a dead frog you could make the corpse animate in the form of spasms or twitches. This discovery led to the creation of one of the great literary archetypes; Frankenstein’s Monster. It was written when the Shelleys were staying with Lord Byron then exiled on the banks of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Trapped indoors, a challenge was laid down as to whether any of them could come up with an original ghost story. Inspired by a nightmare she’d had, Mary Shelley created Frankenstein, Polidori; The Vampyre. Thus two of the most abiding monstrous icons came out of the same drink-fuelled wager…
In a excerpt from his book Memento Mori – A Cultural History of Death, Darran Anderson examines our attempts to defy death in culture.