Alex Jones speaks during a rally for candidate Donald Trump near the Republican National Convention in July 2016. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
Confrontational characters spouting conspiracy theories and promoting fringe ideas have been with us since the invention of American broadcasting. First on radio, then on television, the American audience has consistently proven eager to consume the rants of angry and bitter men. Before Alex Jones and InfoWars, there was Glenn Beck. A decade ago, Beck was hawking his conspiracy theories on HLN and Fox News. Beck eventually left HLNand lost the Fox News job, just as the inflammatory Morton Downey Jr. lost his lucrative syndicated broadcast decades earlier. And before Morton Downey Jr., there was Joe Pyne, the war hero who eventually ended up railing against “hippies, homosexuals and feminists” on the airwaves in the 1960s. Before Pyne, there was Father Coughlin, “the radio priest.” Coughlin was eased off CBS in the 1930s when he refused to allow the network to vet his inflammatory commentary. You get the idea. Alex Jones is not unique. Nor do I believe, as a historian of American media, that he will be the last of his kind.
Father Charles E. Coughlin broadcasts in Royal Oak, Michigan, in 1936. (AP photo) Public airwaves in private hands
Earlier this week, Jones’ InfoWars content was banned by Apple, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and other web content distributors. It apparently violated policies against hate speech and inciting violence. Whether you agree or disagree with the decision to constrict the reach of Jones’ toxic InfoWars videos, the upholding of these speech policies by commercial corporations represents a thorny historical issue in existence since the inception of broadcasting in the U.S. Traditionally, it’s not been state censorship that’s cleansed American public debate. Rather, since the advent of electronic communication, commercial corporations have often acted out of fear of reprisal - from both the government and the public. The U.S. regulatory system for broadcasting began in 1912, when the Commerce Department assumed an administrative role that up until then had been haphazardly applied by different governmental agencies. That system lasted until it was struck down by a U.S. federal court ruling in 1926, which resulted in Congress establishing the the Federal Radio Commission the next year and its successor, the Federal Communications Commission in 1934. Each regulatory entity generally ceded supervision of broadcast content to independent, commercial entities acting as licensees of the airwaves. This means the U.S. government has entrusted, and continues to entrust, private corporations with structuring public debate and discussion. Regulators are empowered to act but rarely do because the expectation that independent outlets remain responsible and civic-minded is deeply ingrained in the American system.
Screenshot from InfoWars website, August 6, 2018. (InfoWars) The web is governed by different protocols than broadcast media. The web was invented to share information widely and open up new spaces for community interaction, exchange and engagement that the old mass media made difficult (if not impossible). The web’s inventors saw their role in contrast to broadcast media: as facilitating rather than censoring. The regulatory system that specifically indemnifies and protects them from content posted under their banners is a recognition of this status. So, despite this new, open, democratic and accessible ideal of the web – the opposite of corporate-owned traditional broadcast media – the fact that mass web access to the American public remains largely controlled by corporate gatekeepers such as Facebook and Google may seem surprising. Yet history, in the guise of Alex Jones and InfoWars, seems to have cast these social media and search engine giants into a more traditional role. Google and Facebook might not want to police the marketplace of ideas, but it appears that they have little choice at this point. The creation they spawned is now littered with crackpots and conspiracy theorists, and it’s been exploited by a foreign government to damage the American political system. But strong believers in the unfettered exchange of ideas as embodied by the First Amendment can take comfort in knowing the moves to limit peddlers of hate and lies like InfoWars won’t actually change much. There will be another Alex Jones in existence eventually. It’s the American way.
A 1955 flyer alleging water fluoridation was a communist plot. (Wikipedia) In societies where everyone knows their place – say, in the caste system of India or the traditional aristocratic hierarchies of Europe – the lack of personal opportunity and social mobility often creates apathy and acquiescence. But in the United States, where everyone is officially born equal, we are supposedly empowered to make of ourselves what we will. Whether it’s unscientific anti-vaccination theories, anti-Semitic rantings, or baldfaced scientific racism, anybody can be an “expert” in America simply by proclaiming their expertise. Though this expertise might be assisted by celebrity, it’s in no way beholden to education or class. That’s the American way.
Failure begets conspiracy thinking
The Alex Joneses, Glenn Becks and Father Coughlins in our media world represent fissures in our dominant ideology of success. When the American Dream isn’t working out well, scapegoats must be found. And a large audience of disappointed people looking for excuses will always exist. Their civics textbooks and teachers taught them that hard work, diligence, obedience to authority and responsible living inevitably results in economic prosperity. But it often doesn’t work out that way. They feel lied to, and InfoWars exists to confirm their suspicions. Because there will always exist a rabble to be aroused, this is the space that rabble-rousers historically exploit. They speak to – and claim to speak for – not simply the downtrodden and downwardly-mobile; they also speak to those feeling wronged and forgotten. They simultaneously soothe and stoke the anxieties and insecurities of Americans living in a world that’s increasingly complex and beyond comprehension. Author Julia Belluz interviewed Jones’ fans and wrote, “I learned that Jones’s listeners felt let down by government, medicine and the media.” People turn to Alex Jones and Glenn Beck for the same reason they tuned in the earlier incarnations – to obtain answers that explain their experience. That’s a rational choice that sadly often results in an irrational outcome. The conspiracy theorists are always very good at giving details, but they tend to be far less effective at imparting information and knowledge. Alex Jones promotes InfoWars as educational, but its pedagogical function resembles nothing so much as Trump University, which was sued by New York state for “… making false promises to convince people to spend tens of thousands of dollars … for lessons they never got.” Trump settled that suit. Whether Jones believes his theories or not – and there exists some question about this – InfoWars looks like little more than a classic American con job. Even Alex Jones’ attorneys have argued that “no reasonable person” could believe what he says. That’s ultimately why Jones is just a symptom. Conspiracies are interwoven into the fabric of our national culture, and, as Jesse Walker pointed out in “United States of Paranoia,” they are so cyclical and persistent as to be thematically detectable across centuries. As long as insecurity and anxiety can be exploited, there will be new versions of InfoWars to pollute our nation. How’s that for a conspiracy theory?
Super LTD recently announced it has acquired ACTIVE MEASURES, a film from director Jack Bryan that details a decades long connection between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, including shocking new reporting on Trump's dealings with Russian mob figures, and expert analysis on the largest and most effectively executed espionage operation in history—Russia's meddling in the 2016 US Presidential Election.
The film made its world premiere at this year's Hot Docs, and will be released on August 31, day and date with exclusive theatrical engagements in New York and Los Angeles and on digital platforms.
In ACTIVE MEASURES, Bryan exposes a 30-year history of covert political warfare devised by Vladmir Putin to disrupt, influence, and ultimately control world events, democratic nations through cyber attacks, propaganda campaigns, and corruption.
In the process, the filmmakers follow a trail of money, real estate, mob connections, and on the record confessions to expose an insidious plot that leads directly back to The White House.
Unravelling the true depth and scope of "the Russia story," as we have come to know it, it is a jarring reminder that some conspiracies hide in plain sight.
ACTIVE MEASURES is essential viewing in today's world.
⏩ The film features original interviews with experts on Russia and Putin, including: Senator John McCain, Hillary Clinton, former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Steven Hall (former CIA Chief of Russia Operations), author Michael Isikoff, John Podesta (Chair, Hillary for America, Founder, Center for American Progress), Jeremy Bash (former CIA Chief of Staff and Pentagon Chief of Staff), James Woolsey (former CIA director), Evan McMullin (2016 Presidential candidate), and many more.
Produced by Shooting Films' Bryan, Laura DuBois, and Marley Clements, ACTIVE MEASURES was co-written by Bryan and Clements.
"When we embarked on this project we thought we'd find a scandal but what we uncovered was the greatest threat to democracy in almost a century. It is impossible to understand what is happening today unless you know how it started and why. Once you do the news becomes terrifyingly predictable," said director Jack Bryan.
➤ "Active Measures" is a Soviet term for the actions of political warfare conducted by the Soviet and Russian security services to influence the course of world events, in addition to collecting intelligence and producing "a politically correct" assessment of it.
From Universal Pictures Home Entertainment: Tales from the Hood 2
Starring Keith David ("Community," The Nice Guys), Tales from the Hood 2 introduces the audience to four new dreadful short tales, that follow the original film's cult classic roots.
Sparked with both humor and terror, this brand new movie is filled with even more gritty social commentary and cultural subtext that will provoke and haunt viewers, while putting them on the edge of their seats.
Horror is back in the hood! The sequel to the groundbreaking original film Tales from the Hood reunites executive producer and Honorary Academy Award winner Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Malcom X) and writers/directors/producers Rusty Cundieff ("Chappelle's Show," "The Wanda Sykes Show") and Darin Scott (Menace II Society, Caught Up) for an all-new gripping, horrifying and oftentimes devilishly comical anthology.
Keith David stars as Mr. Simms to tell bloodcurdling stories about lust, greed, pride and politics through tales with demonic dolls, possessed psychics, vengeful vixens and historical ghosts. Mr. Simms's haunting stories will make you laugh...while you scream.
⏩Tales from the Hood 2will make its world premiere at the 22ndedition of the Fantasia Film Festival inMontreal, QuebeconFriday, July 13.
"Tales from the Hood 2" (Still from the trailer)
Filmmakers:
Cast:Keith David, Bryan Batt, Lou Beatty Jr., Alexandria DeBerry, Bill Martin Williams, Martin Bradford, Kendrick Cross Casting By:Tracy Kilpatrick Music By:Frederik Wiedmann Costume Designer:Jillian Ann Kreiner Editors:John Quinn, Miriam L. Preissel Production Designer:Christina E. Kim Director of Photography:Keith L. Smith Executive Producers:Spike Lee, Robert Aaronson Produced By:Jim Steele, Rusty Cundieff, Elaine Dysinger, Darin Scott Written By:Rusty Cundieff & Darin Scott Directed By:Rusty Cundieff, Darin Scott
"Tales from the Hood 2" (Still from the trailer)
Technical Information Blu-ray:
Street Date:October 2, 2018 Copyright: 2018 Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Selection Number: 63198852 (US) / 63198851 (CDN) Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes, 9 seconds Layers:BD 50 Aspect Ratio:16:9 1.78:1 Widescreen Rating: Rated R for language throughout, violence, disturbing images, and sexual references. Sound: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, German and Latin American Spanish DTS Digital Surround 5.1 Language/Subtitles:English SDH, Cantonese, Complex Mandarin, Dutch, French Canadian, German, Greek, Latin American Spanish
Technical Information DVD: Street Date:October 2, 2018 Copyright: 2018 Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Selection Number: 63197417 (US) / 63197420 (CDN) Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes, 16 seconds Layers: DVD 9 Aspect Ratio:16:9 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen Rating: Rated R for language throughout, violence, disturbing images, and sexual references. Sound: English and Latin American Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Language/Subtitles: English SDH, Cantonese, Complex Mandarin, French Canadian, Latin American Spanish
The opening performance of the fourth season of Northern Lights—the free bilingual sound and light show presented against the backdrop of the Peace Tower and the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings—will take place at 10 p.m. on July 9, 2018.
Residents and visitors to Canada's Capital Region will be able to enjoy a unique sensory experience as they learn more about Canada's history and culture. Thirty minutes of spectacular effects and dazzling images will highlight the inspiring stories of the men and women who helped build our country.
The fourth season of the show will run from July 9 to September 3, 2018, with performances every night at 10 p.m. in July, 9:30 p.m. in August, and 9 p.m. in September.
⏩ This perfect evening activity is sure to delight audiences of all ages.
Quote:
"Every year, Northern Lights offers a memorable experience for residents and visitors to Canada's Capital Region. Parliament Hill is the ideal setting for this unique show, thanks to its history and what it represents. This summer, get together with family and friends to discover our country's history, and let yourself be transported by the magic of the show." The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage
Quick Facts:
Northern Lights broke records last year, during the Canada 150 celebrations. More than 314,400 people saw the show in 2017.
The show is expected to welcome its millionth visitor in its fourth season—a milestone that previous shows did not reach until their fifth season.
For the 2018 show, the national anthem has been updated with the new, gender-neutral version of "O Canada."
Manulife is the exclusive sponsor of Northern Lights.
The show Northern Lights is a free bilingual show presented nightly from July 9 to September 3, 2018. Show times: in July at 10:00 p.m., in August at 9:30 p.m., and in September at 9:00 p.m. This experience of sound and light is a thrilling thematic journey through Canada’s history. Combining bold digital technology with the architectural splendour of the Parliament Buildings, the show illuminates Canadian stories of nation-building, partnership, discovery, valour, pride and vision at the heart of our country. Audiences have been captivated by sound and light shows on Parliament Hill for more than 30 years. Key figures, events and achievements from Canadian history are brought to life using five distinct artistic styles. All are presented in spectacular detail, with stirring narration and an original score, against the backdrop of the Centre Block and Peace Tower. ⏩ The narrative unfolds through five thematic “books”: Book One: Foundations of the Nation. A fluid ink-in-water style is used to paint stories of how people from all over the world have expanded our foundations. From traditional indigenous ways of life and early European settlements to modern citizenship ceremonies, these stories are linked by our desire to call Canada “home”. Book Two: Strength in Partnership. Partnership and determination have made Canada strong. Using an illustration style inspired by classical paintings, this book explores alliances that have shaped our country. Book Three: Discovery and Adventure. A lithographic style takes us on a voyage showcasing the achievements of explorers, scientists and innovators whose quests into the unknown continue to inspire us to follow our dreams. Book Four: Valour. This powerful book combines dramatic performances with archival materials and charcoal drawings to honour the men and women who have served their country, both at home and abroad, in military conflicts since the First World War. Book Five: Pride and Vision. Inspired by the stained glass windows of the Memorial Chamber in the Peace Tower, this intensely colourful book celebrates the natural grandeur of our country and the diversity of her people. ⏩ For more info, visit Sound and Light Show on Parliament Hill
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on Republican Party leaders and elected officials to repudiate Donald Trump's "aggressively racist and misogynistic" rant at a rally last night in Montana.
⏩ In his speech, Trump repeated his use of the racist slur "Pocahontas" to target Sen. Elizabeth Warren, mocked the #MeToo movement and falsely claimed that an African-American congresswoman has a "low IQ."
Trump Unloads in Montana: President Mocks #Metoo, 'Low IQ' Maxine Watersand Elizabeth 'Pocahontas' Warren (Click here to watch the video)
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awadsaid:
"Republican Party leaders and elected officials should no longer ignore or excuseDonald Trump's aggressively racist, white supremacist and misogynistic views and policies. Instead, they must stand up for the integrity of their party and the unity of our nation by publicly repudiating an individual who does daily damage to his office and to America's founding principles. Last night's hate rally in Montana was reminiscent of the dark days of the 1930s during which demagogues promoted hatred of minority groups to advance their own twisted political agendas. As representatives of the party in control of all branches of the national government, it is up to GOP leaders to take a principled stance against the very dangerous and un-American views and policies championed by the current occupant of the White House."
CAIR has repeatedly expressed concern about Islamophobic, white supremacist and racist Trump administration policies and appointments.
The Washington-based civil rights organization recently applauded the decision by members of the United Nation's International Organization for Migration (IOM) to reject President Trump's nominee for the position of director general to lead the organization because of his history of Islamophobic statements.
CAIR has reported an unprecedented spike in bigotry targeting American Muslims, immigrants and members of other minority groups since the election of Donald Trump as president.
Earlier this year, CAIR released its 2018 Civil Rights Report, "Targeted," which showed a 17 percent increase in bias-motivated incidents against American Muslims from 2016 to 2017, and a 15 percent increase in the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes in that same time period.
There’s nothing broken that needs to be fixed. (Fotosr52/Shutterstock.com)Conversion therapy – sometimes known as “reparative therapy” or “gay cure therapy” – claims to alter a person’s sexual orientation from gay to straight. The practice is based on the mistaken idea that gay people suffer a traumatic experience early in life that has damages them and that homosexuality is a “reparative drive” to overcome this early trauma. In the UK, practitioners are legally allowed to promote and provide conversion therapy. But, hopefully, not for much longer. The UK government has announced plans to ban conversion therapy as part of its LGBT action plan. Attempts to “cure” homosexuality were not always couched in the language of therapy. In the early 20th century, medical professionals believed that homosexuality was a birth defect. One “treatment” involved replacing a testicle of a homosexual man with one from a heterosexual man. Later methods included lobotomies and chemical castration – a method used on Alan Turing, the Enigma codebreaker. Homosexuality later came to be seen as a condition that could be “treated” psychologically – although this doesn’t mean that the methods used were any more humane. In the 1950s and 60s, when homosexuality was still illegal in the UK, the NHS routinely used aversion therapy on men convicted of homosexuality in an attempt to turn them straight. If they volunteered for this treatment, they could avoid a prison sentence. Volunteers – if they can be called that – were shown pictures of naked men and given either electric shocks or drugs that induced vomiting. The aim was to make them respond negatively to their homosexuality and thus to be “cured”.
The late Joseph Nicolosi, who popularised conversion therapy in the US, explains his technique to Stephen Fry.
Not a psychiatric condition
Homosexuality was removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual in 1987 and from the World Health Organisation’s classification of mental disorders in 1992. Progress in this area has been slow.
In 2015, a memorandum of understanding stating that conversion therapy is unethical and potentially harmful was signed by representatives from the NHS, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the major counselling and psychotherapy organisations in the UK.
Being gay is not a disease and there is no sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed by “conversion therapy”. Also, “treating” homosexuality sustains the prejudice and discrimination that gay people already face in society.
Gay people who seek to change their sexuality do so because of internalised homophobia and because of the dangers and pressures arising from this external prejudice and discrimination. An example of the potential harm is seen in a 2002 study
of 202 men, which found that the practice had led 34 of them to attempt suicide either during or after “conversion therapy”.
Co-opting the language of sexual fluidity
These days “conversion therapy” is generally advocated by religious groups, such the Core Issues Trust, a UK organisation that “works with people who seek to change from a ‘gay’ lifestyle to a gender-affirming one”.
In common with National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality in the US (an organisation that advocates the use of conversion therapy in the US), the Core Issues Trust advocates for the right of people to have access to this service if they want it. They use the language of rights, autonomy and client choice, arguing that a ban would deny them a “human right to treatment intended to help them shape their lives as they wish”.
They have also co-opted the language of sexual fluidity as justification for their assertion that the practice works. This misunderstands what is meant by sexual fluidity.
People are born with both a sexual orientation and a degree of sexual flexibility that varies from person to person. Some people are fixedly gay or straight, but others are more fluid and can experience attractions that run outside of their general sexual orientation. Sexual fluidity is the capacity to experience sexual attraction that runs counter to your orientation.
There is now mounting evidence that gay people are born gay, as a clear link has been found between sexual orientation – at least in men – with two regions of the human genome.
Which way now?
After years of campaigning and legal pressure, the UK government is finally going to follow the example of some other European countries and states in Canada, Australia and the US, and ban the practice of “conversion therapy”. It will be interesting to see how the debate develops as the legislation proceeds through parliament.
The NHS and the major psychiatric, counselling and psychotherapy organisations are already opposed to the practice. But if the counselling profession remains unregulated – meaning anyone, including religious groups and individuals, can offer “counselling” – how will the ban be enforced? The battle is not yet won.
Elle Fanning as the author Mary Shelley. (IMDB)The lives of young Romantic artists continue to fascinate filmmakers, from Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986) about Lord Byron, to Jane Campion’s Bright Star (2009) about John Keats. With the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein upon us, a new film focuses on its author, Mary Shelley. Frankenstein was conceived by the 18-year old Mary Shelley while she was with her stepsister Claire Clairmont, the poets Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Byron’s physician John Polidori. The setting was grey, wet Geneva, in the so-called “year without a summer”, 1816, when the volcanic ash of a huge volcanic eruption in Indonesia blotted out the sun, wreaking havoc across the globe’s climate system. Crops failed, livestock died, famine was widespread, and the apocalypse appeared nigh — a perfect setting for a ghost story competition. Unable to go boating or walking, and cooped up inside Byron’s chalet by the lake, Polidori drafted The Vampyre. But Mary Shelley (played by Elle Fanning in the film) won the competition with Frankenstein, her “hideous progeny” as she called it — the moving tale of the mad scientist Frankenstein and his abandoned, unnamed creature. While the poetry of Shelley and Byron is not much read today, Frankenstein is one of the world’s most popular and admired books.
Mary Shelley is the latest release by director Haifaa al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker, best-known for her critically acclaimed Wadjda (2012). Al-Mansour directed Wadjda via walkie talkie from the back of a van in Riyadh because Saudi women are forbidden to mix publicly with men. Unsurprisingly, the film focuses on her country’s gender oppression: 10-year old Wadjda longs to own a bicycle so that she can race against her friend Abdullah but bikes are not for girls. Mary Shelley transposes these themes of gender oppression to the business of writing and literary celebrity in the early-19th century. The film opens to the sounds of furious scribbling and incantatory snatches of lurid gothic prose, composed and jotted down by Mary, the 16-year old daughter of two revolutionaries, the political philosopher William Godwin and the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. With her mother dying soon after childbirth, the young Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is growing up in a straitened, loveless household run by a shrewish stepmother (Joanne Froggatt). An avid reader, especially of ghost stories, Mary longs to be a writer herself, the challenge being to find her own voice. To assist her in this quest, the radical, young (but married) poet Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth) arrives on the scene, drawn like a magnet to the child of two giants in his pantheon of free thinkers. After a brief courtship centred on Wollstonecraft’s grave and inspired by high-sounding poetry and the revolutionary ideals of sexual equality, free love and communal living, Mary elopes with Percy, taking Claire, her complicated and troublesome stepsister, along with her.
In its focus on abandonment and loneliness, and the ways in which free love and sexual liberation can go badly wrong for women, and even worse for their children, the film is fired by today’s #MeToo movement. Many of the painful, actual details of the writers’ lives are condensed, but the high cost of male libertinism is a message powerfully delivered by Al-Mansour. Percy’s abandoned first wife Harriet drowns herself, the narcissist Percy accuses Mary of hypocrisy when she refuses a sexual liaison with his friend Hogg, and Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge) monsters the pregnant Claire (Bel Powley) by describing their affair as a “lapse in judgement”.
Claire Clairmont (Bel Powley), Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth), and Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge) (IMDB)Although there are some good scenes on the fashionable science of galvanism, the film’s interest in the novel Frankenstein is marginal. Nevertheless it does something quite clever. It reads the miserable women as incarnations of Frankenstein’s cruelly abandoned creature. One of the film’s most original moves is to bring the controversial Claire Clairmont centre stage, where she always wanted to be. Bolder than her stepsister, Claire tired of having to share Percy with Mary so she targeted her own poet, one richer and more famous than her stepsister’s. Graphic evidence of Claire’s pursuit of Byron, the rock star of his generation, has survived in her extraordinary letters to him, the first of which warns him that “the Creator ought not to destroy his Creature” in refusing her proposed tryst. She got her way and while Byron later acknowledged Claire’s child as his own, he suspected the “brat” was Percy’s. Entangled sexually, Elle Fanning captures Mary Shelley’s quietly fierce but loyal nature. Although her idea of Heaven was “a world without a Claire”, she is always protective and compassionate towards her rival, an historical detail well conveyed by the film. Later in life, long after Shelley and Byron were dead, the now childless and still grieving Claire bitterly denounced both poets for their “free love” philosophy, a creed which made them “monsters of lying, meanness, cruelty and treachery”. Frankenstein is a book which lives in its present moment. In 1824, it was mobilised in the British Parliament to oppose the abolition of slavery. The fear was that the suddenly freed slave would resemble Frankenstein’s creature, a man in physical strength and sexual passion, but an infant intellectually. In our own times sympathy for the creature as victim often jostles with fear. Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad (2017), a novel set amid the violence of contemporary Iraq, features “Whatshisname”, a grotesque figure assembled from the body parts of suicide bombers and their victims. At first he seeks revenge for the dead that he embodies but he then turns to killing the innocent. Last year also saw the publication by MIT of an edition of Frankenstein for scientists, carrying extensive footnotes concerning the creator’s duty of care towards his creation, be that a robot or an atom bomb. Unfortunately, despite its powerful and innovative focus on the two injured women at the heart of this story, the film ends with a disappointingly conventional message. While Mary has found her authorial voice, she trails off into sentimentality when she reassures Percy (with a kiss) that, despite all the suffering entailed by his romantic idealism, she regrets nothing.
How’s that for a conspiracy theory?
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