The real experiments that inspired Frankenstein
When Mary Shelley published her iconic novel in 1818, raising the dead seemed to be the near-future.
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been reimagined onscreen hundreds of times and is a staple of pop culture. The prevailing takeaway is science-gone-wrong and the dangers of pursuing the unnatural. But contemporary readers, surrounded by Enlightenment-era scientific breakthroughs that were beginning to shift the definition of death, would have read the story as frighteningly plausible.
Electricity was being used in a scientific practice called “galvanism,” which seemed to show some promise in reanimating body parts of recently dead animals and humans. Shelley even references galvanism in the 1831 edition of the book, citing it as an example of how this experiment could be a possibility.
Watch the pilot episode of History Club here: • How this family built ...
Sources:
Sharon Ruston’s “The Science of Life and Death in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein:”
publicdomainreview.org/2015/1...
Kathryn Harkup’s “Making the Monster:”
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/making-...
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If you want to learn more about this story, definitely check out Sharon Ruston’s online article, “The Science of Life and Death in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” and Kathryn Harkup’s book, “Making the Monster.” Their amazing research helped inform a lot of this piece, and I am very grateful that they also took the time to Skype with me about this story. Stay spooky. -Coleman
Epic
History Club: Every passing Second
Vox hi vox!
HISTORY CLUB: “It’s almost like we filmed it this way”
Here my first attempt for a catch phrase: "History Club, where nothing remains mystery."
"We might be able to resurrect people. Let's try it on a murderer."
“We might be able to resurrect people. Let’s try on someone innocent firstly, by killing them.”
@Funk O'Maticand we have a winner!
I wonder... if the experiment had worked, what would they do with him? killing him again I guess
Gibran Jalil Espinosa Pawling the judge will be like ‘I shall sentence you to death for the second time’
ALIRO LOVE well, that actually makes sense
"Welcome to history club. Welcome to history club. Because history repeat itself" Meh
Michael Louis I’d remove the second “history club”
@@greensphinx but that's the joke
I am using this in my classroom! No one will get it but me (history teacher) but eh whatever!
jessicaXhtx UNLESSSS... someone from here is in your classroom O
jessicaXhtx omg Jessica my history teacher o.O
So Frankenstein was just an Enlightenment-Age version of Black Mirror then?
The Gr8 Poseidon basically “wot if your mum ran on lightning” instead of batteries
Delete this
That exactly.
"We live in a society" in a few thousand words.
What’s Black Mirror?
fun fact: The year Frankenstein was written there was no summer in Europe because of a volcanic eruption. That's why the arctic and snow/ice is all through the book. Also the famouse stratovarius violins were made from trees from that period because the lack of a summer season gave the wood unique properties
Nice.
Was it Krakatoa?
@@euphorium5768 yes i believe
@@euphorium5768 Krakatoa was errupted on 1814, the sun was never seen for 1 year since then, so it can be true
The eruption of Krakatoa wasn't until 1883
History Club: We got sidetracked on Wikipedia for a few hours and 289 tabs later here we are
Tyler Durr would be accurate except they had only two sources for a nine minute long video!!!!
Wikipedia is from the devil and also heaven sent. Imagine that!
Wow, way to call me and my hyperfixations out
Lol morality completely thrown out the window.... XD Me: why not a innocent person instead..? Society:are u Mad!! That would be Unethical!! don't be daft!!!. Me: ...unethical...?
Trust me 10 hours later I’m reading a half complete book from the 1600s
History Club: look forward to looking back.
Matthew Anderson ooo that’s good
GENIUS!
That's amazing
oh, that's soo good!!
Oohh I like this! 👌🏾
I love when you say: "1818 readers wouldn't have seen it that way". Did you know that the same thing goes for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? It had to do something with the veeery beginning of psychology. I'd love to see an episode about that too :)
ooo I actually never thought about that... what do you mean? I'm reading it for a history project so I'm intrigued haha
@@meghai5618, I know it's very fascinating, isn't it? I think you can read more about it here: www.academia.edu/1004785/Freud_s_Personality_Theory_in_Literature_The_Strange_Case_of_Dr.Jekyll_and_Mr._Hyde_-_The_Portrait_of_Dorian_Gray_ or just search for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde psychology. :) I hope your project goes well
@@antoniograniero1442 thank you!!
Freud’s theories were published just a short while after strange case of dr jeckyll and mr Hyde so I’m not sure if Freud influenced Stevenson.
Great suggestion!:)
I feel like you guys were almost mocking Galvani for his understanding of an electrical life force but our nervous system is essentially electrical (just using ions as opposed to electrons). Interesting that we see Galvanism as so distinct and different from current medical practices, though not identical, electrical cardioversion is an application of electric to revive the dead / apparently dead.
Daniel Rchrdsn and he was a lot closer than Mesmer and his animal magnetism
Umm, not quite. And you seem to be conflicting between the nervous System and the heart, which either one uses current differently. Neurons use electricity to propagate a signal within itself, specially at the axons, where there are tiny gaps in the “isolating” covering (Myelin), but to communicate to other cells they use Neurotransmitters. The Heart conductive System acts as a syncitium, where a bunch of cells connect their cytoplasm, effectivly acting as they where (Electrically at least) one huge cell.
@@luiskp7173 I'm aware that neuronal and cardiac tissue uses electricity differently. My point was that they both shift ions across a membrane to create a potential difference. Thanks for commenting anyway,
Daniel do you not like to use vowels in your last name? Furthermore how do you know so much about this topic? Who are you?
@@Yellow-Rose Who are you? Is your real name Yellow? What are your qualifications? Actually who cares
Dead man: People from 1800: “IM ABOUT THE REVIVE THIS MAN’S WHOLE CAREER”
Lollll
😂
2013:I'm about the *END* this man whole career!
Morkly I wish they could’ve revive Hamilton 😞
Kero Tea - That is... gold.
I think it is important to notice that it was written by a 19 yo. Remarkable.
A 19 yo who was on a summerholiday but had nothing to do because it was snowing outside.
I found that fact so amazing when I read Frankenstein as a 17 yo.
A 19 year old before social media, outrage culture, and trillions of forms of entertainment at her disposal. She probably could have done it when she was 12 without those distractions. There hobbies were going to bed early there was so little to do....
Well it isn't remarkable when you take into consideration that the average life expectancy at that time in Europe was 30 to 40 years old.
@@julianvdberg *raining outside. the whole story behind how the book came about needs its own video
you know what, they weren't wrong we use electricity to restart the heart and to revive people today with defibrillators
You fix an arrythmic heartbeat with a defibrillator, not restart the heart. Really common misconception fo sho.
drew’s right
@@uniquechannelnames but aren't there ways to restart a heart
And our brains only work thanks to electrical signals.
rejectedhex yes there are, but they’re tricky, and have a high chance of failure
So "Frankenstein" was basically the "Ex Machina" or "Her!" of its day. "20 minutes into the future", and deeply unnerving based on the current frontiers of development. That's really cool.
And in her introduction bit there, she muses that maybe the body parts for such creatures might be manufactured in the future... just casually predicting meat cyborgs and stories like Blade Runner in 1818
I've always said Ex Machina is my favorite film version of Frankenstein.
That’s because our world is controlled by black magic occultist... and one of the forms of magic they use is “revelation of the method” it’s taking images and imprinting them into the mind(through story telling) and then the mind projects that image as reality, end result it comes into manifestation... its called SPELL BOOKS for a reason... they hide and speak a completely different language and use cryptic meaning, images with hidden entities, symbols, all to trick the rest of us to play a role in there world of death, they use the idea of ‘hiding in plain sight’ they will speak through a SENTENCE or flashes of images in a video sequence(ANIMATION) really quickly to invoke and imprint into the unconscious mind... don’t believe me? I’ll give you just ONE example in this video go to clip 2:23... pause the video... and state into the upper left corner of the man in red dropping bird food into the cage and stare into the TWO flakes of bird food... WHAT do you see?
@@camerontaylor7471 what
@@camerontaylor7471 I see a snowman.
History club: Not fight club - we can talk about this one
I see I wasn't the only person to go the Fight Club route.
@@larry2331 you DO NOT talk about Fight Club
Sup babe
@@MickeyKnox I mean that's *rule № 1* ...... ha ha ha. Just kidding Laci, not trying to be mean 😊.
Yes
The first rule of history club is talk about history club or you'll be doomed to repeat it. Please spread the word.
I truly love this
When you realize this could mean the USSR will never be re established * sad communism noises *
If only the government would listen to this notion
They need to hang that up on the wall behind them
true a.f. though
Imagine spending your day off work and being so bored in the 1800s, That you decided just to watch a guy attempt to reanimate a dead corpse of a murderer as a form of entertainment.
Nothing weird, I go to funerals in our village when I'm bored
Public hangings were the movie theaters of centuries past.
Haha your profile picture fits perfectly with this episode. I'm watching the Ultimate version and it's pretty good
Someone falls into the pool: Scientist from that time: lets go, lets go
The novel of Frankenstein seems like the Black Mirror of it's time. Near-future tech with ominous nature.
Damien Jones omg true. I wonder what people in the future will make of Black Mirror!
Yeah. And if I was making a modern retelling of the story I would actually base if off technological advances we have done lately. Raising the dead is actually something we have come a bit closer to to doing lately. But of course it would be hard to actually retell the story and get the same sort of context today. Even if we are actually closer to the scenario in Frankenstein today people would likely view it as a less likely process of bring someone back. Of course one other way of doing it and still keeping the core aspect of the story intact is to actually do it as a retelling with AI. Since the story is not really about bring people back from the dead. But the responsibility we have as creators, as parents. This have been done to before. Though I have to say we tend to humanize the AIs a bit to much to make us side with the AI from the get go. But a more accurate telling would likely be that a very non-human AI is created that is viewed as a monster rather then the individual it is. I will have to stay that Star Trek actually explored this with the AI of Moriarty. A AI created by accident when Data needed a foe for his Sherlock Homes LARP session on the holodeck. It did not go down the same path as Frankenstein, but did explore the moral implications of creating a AI that is actually based off a villain. I can not help but to sympathise with Moriarty. One of the best characters in Star Trek in my book.
Excellent analogy
I instantly thought that too!!!
It's not alone in that... think of the Island of Dr Moreau, the Invisible man, Jeckyll and Hyde... War of the Worlds There has been weary and cautious narration around near future tech as long as people bothered to write about technology... Verne and the let's call it advancement-enthusiasm is only one side of the coin.
History club, 50% of us know what we are talking about.
Yep this one
Jose Padrino I study Frankenstein as part of my English Literature course so I have to know the contextual knowledge of Galvanism as well🙃
Perfect
Appearantly only 25% of us knows what we are talking bout
First rule of history club is that you do not talk about history club
In Spain there is a said “saved by the bell”, and out teacher taught us it exist exactly because of this mechanism.
Actually boxing
That’s the problem with idioms, the origin is often lost. Both make perfect sense.
I always thought it was because the Bell rings in american schools in movies. Never really thought about it though
As someone that had to read Mary Shelly's frankenstein high school I SERIOUSLY recommend reading the book before watching any adapted movie. It is a phenomenal book and not at all what most of us have as preconceptions of the story.
As someone who listened to a subpar collaborative volunteer free audio book of Frankenstein that still turned out fantastic, I highly recommend people to listen to an Audio book version, especially if narrated by professional paid actors.
I really like this new series, I feel like it has a lot of potential and I can’t wait to see more.
Ok
Ok
Ok
Ok
Ok
Horrors in real life can be even scarier than in fiction. In fact, they are.
The Drifter Within Woah that’s so profound, are you Ghandi?
@@cassanateli ye dat was so deep, im shivering
Don't know dude, a M'Nagalah is pretty scary if you ask me
OMG NO WAYY
I think the fact that they are real is what causes them to be scarier. And by that logic a fantasy tale could never actually be scarier than a real one
"Topic of what again?" "Drowning." *"Oh okay."* Me: Yup, that's a completely normal topic for us to talk about (The vid is great though, definitely an interesting topic)
"What are we talking about again?" "Invisible poisons." "Ah right." And that is a perfectly normal topic for me and my friends to talk about.
I thought galvanizing was putting a protective layer of Zinc over Steel or iron to prevent rust
Galvanism not galvanizing
Yeah I learnt about Galvanism in English then later galvanising in science and I was a bit confused to start with. But yeah they’re different
Please for the love of research cite your sources (articles, video clips and otherwise). You clearly researched, now just hyperlink to that research in the desciption for the rest of us that are hardcore enough to keep reading.
Hey Ben - linked Ruston and Harkup's work in the description. Check that stuff out! - Coleman
@@Vox very much appreciated! The content your channel produces generally piques my interest and I'm the type of person that buys books mentioned or watches documentaries shown, so thank you!
YES please do this for other videos too!!
@@Vox Thank you, VOX never disappoints.
Not all research can be accessed like that though.
History club, we reaserched what you didn't
How about “We research so you don’t have to”
Does this mean they research furry [REDACTED]?
Yes. Bring on the weird.
this reminds me of a little known feature in minecraft. if you have an ender dragon head, you can connect it to redstone (the energy source in minecraft) and the ender dragon head will move its mouth open and shut. edit: ender corrected itself to ended so i had to change it
“Shelley never characterized her protagonist as crazy” wHEEZE lmao you can hardly call Victor Frankenstein a protagonist, let alone s a n e. The man nearly worked himself to death for years in college (he was a dropout tho lmao) totally isolating himself and littering his apartment with *bits of corpses*, not to mention that GRAVEYARD ROBBING was part of his delightful hobby. ((Also there was no explanation of how he actually brought his creation to life, movie adaptations made that up. Probably influenced by galvanism, but still, it’s unclear whether Shelley was influenced by it much at all.))
didn't he sneak into the university and get a jar labelled strange brain or abnormal brain or something?
@@kaitlyn__L Young Frankenstein lol...
I’ve read the book twice it’s mostly him talking about his tormented life and how much he hated his creature. Frankenstein was rly messed up.
Additionally, he believed himself to be all powerful and was very egotistical. Yet, he ended up hating his creation immediately and didnt say its alive or anything.. the movies got it so wrong
The protagonist in a book isn’t always a figure of good or of morality. The protagonist is simply the character that is at the main helm of a tale and who is followed through most of the book. To go along with that, the antagonist is whoever is the main force opposing the protagonist
Catchphrase - Welcome to History Club. The past brought to life
Ikooko That’s a good one 👀
Lame
I kinda like this one.
Twist: life brought to the past.
Let's not forget what else was happening in Europe around the time Mary Shelly wrote that story. It was the 'year without a summer' and people were suffering greatly. Byron and Shelly and several others were spending a summer in Italy, IIRC, and they were experimenting with opium as a time killer. There was a 'bet' placed about who could write the best horror story and Mary ":won".
So Pompeii, and all,
History Club - Don’t throw it away, it belongs to today!
As someone who works in a morgue, I found this quite engaging
Should bring a taser to work sometime ;)
LazyLunatic we get taser leads still attached to bodies 😆
Has that ever happened at work? A dead body twitching or whatever? What's the lab protocol if that happens?
Crematoriums are more interesting ;););););)
It's actually quite shocking.
Welcome to History Club-no this won’t help you in your exams.
Um, I-... don’t expose my intentions please
Tries to squeeze it into my history exam on Britain.
I have exam tomorrow and I'm watching this video rn.... Welp
@@melealineberry4901 my exact thoughts
wow way to call me out for having my AP Bio exam tomorrow
Frankenstein isn't just a silly monster story: the novel is terrifying even by today's standards. So I couldn't imagine reading it at a time when people believed it could actually happen 😱
I like that a lot; precisely delivered serious information, cool interactions between you, timing, graphics and length. Good job! Looking forward to watching more of you.
Neanderthal: Frankenstein is the monster Intellectual: Frankenstein is not the monster Enlightened Scholar: Frankenstein is the monster
@@poweroffriendship2.0 Well, both become monsters arguably. Neither start out as one.
@@poweroffriendship2.0 It's interesting how the look of the creature in the movies has influenced our thinking, monstrous appearance = monster. In the book he was definately weird and grotesque, but his features were supposed to be beautiful (as selected by Victor) and in proportion. I'm not sure how most movies treat the monster vs Victor, but I know one depiction where the monster is very innocent and pure and gets hunted, and only becomes evil after that, while in the book he turns to murder and blackmail quite fast also because of rejection, but not exactly self-defense as the movie made it out to be.
Mr. Friendship Also, Frankenstein’s monster wanted to be named Adam (after the story of Adam and Eve).
History Club - Where nothing new ever happens!
History Club: "It's Nothing New". Hahaha
Good 1
Technically we still do this. We call it using a defibrillator
No...
@@nilen Yes...
No
Mitch Rover No....
Defibrillators do *NOT* restart the heart, they merely correct an irregular heart beat. Which yes, does prevent death but it does not reverse a heart being Stopped.
I enjoy this series! And while ethics of those experiments were pretty questionable, it would've been cool to point out that the concept of restarting hearts with an electric current isn't so unscientific after all... Defibrillators are used all over the world, every day.
Zoe Portlas Exactly!! I actually thought they would go there in the video, it's the piece of all these crazy experiments that actually became reality. "Restarting" the heart with electricity!
Defibrillators don't restart hearts. They de-fibrillate them. A fibrillation is an arrhythmia in the electrical pulses that contract the muscles in the heart. The heart doesn't pump properly unless the pulses are properly timed. A defibrillator literally shocks them back in time.
Everyone: That guy's dead. Rip Scientist: _We must resurrect him back in the name of SCIENCE_
Zuzu your the new Justin .Y.
Zuzu your the new Justin .Y.
Wow I see you everywhere
Jesus!
I love this so much. I love how this video feels 100% organic. Both guys are so damn smart, but they're OK with saying they don't know. They ask questions and learn from each other. This is a beautiful representation of how to become so damn smart. More of this please.
I agree!
Mary Shelley actually had a competition between her and her comrades to write the best horror story and eventually dreamed of the basis of the plot of Frankenstein. It’s a very interesting take on discussing the issue of societal expectations and preconceived notions dependent on external image. We’re learning about the book in school :)
another fun fact is that her mother is actually Mary Wollstonecraft (she wrote the vindication of the rights of woman), a prominent figure for feminism!!
The guys and girls at Vox keep on creating content I didn’t even know I needed in my life. I love this new series and cannot wait to watch some more. Keep it up 💪🏽
You could tell the other guy ain’t want no damn catch phrase lmao
you even got a heart from Vox for this xD
😂😂😂
The chapter about reanimation of the corpse is really a very small part of the book. It's like 30-40 pages in a 400+ page novel
Thank you for you’re devoted research and jurnalist.
People : Frankinstein is the monster Dr. Frankinstein: Am I a joke to you?
"Frankenstein" is the doctor. Frankenstein's Monster is his creation. so saying "Frankenstein Is the monster" is referring to Dr Frankenstein and therefore correct.
MAYBE IM THE MONSTTEEEEEEER
Yas
Lourenço Vieira *what if but yeah 😂😂😂
The most subtle catchphrase History Club: Welcome Back *wink* please get this :
Perfection!
Cromwell Cruz best one
I vote for this one 😂
I don't get it
Mary Shelley: The OG dystopian sci-fi author
Thank you so much for making this. New subscriber, just wanted to say love your format. Huge Mary Shelley & lord B-boy fangrrl. Learned some new shiz anyway. #throwsomepraiseonthatbonfirebabeh
I love the concept of this video. The way you discuss a new topic with someone and the questions they ask and observations made gives nice insight
Sounds like Mary Shelly's Frankenstein was the Black Mirror of the 1800's
No, much better
Sounds like you should read the book
@@paillette2010 I put it on reserve at my local library after right after watching lol
Explaining all this information clearly and fun in less than 10 minutes. My ideal way of learning
I love the way you guys explain things omg
Welcome to History Club where, unfortunately, pictures are worth more than 1,000 words.
Jason Hogan :: PLEASE, the quotation is “TEN thousand words”!
There are many many themes in Frankenstein. Not just galvanism it also covers much of mary shelleys personal life like loss, abandonment, and much more. A good read
Thanks for this episode. Mary Shelley wasn't just a writer. She took something new in her present, she understood its relevance as well as how much future does this idea has. Success comes from an open, talent and thinking mind
This is by far the coolest thing I’ve learned on KZhead!!! Thanks! 😀
History Club: Where even the most ordinary thing has the most extraordinary history
IT'S ALIVEEE!! with Brad Leone
Wourder
YES
Show us the milk!
please keep doing these videos! I'm learning stuff haha
This was great!! First time watching but I´m subscribing right away.. :D
Catch phrase (This one is said at the end) - "And as always, Keep thinking about the past"
Ikooko vsauce ripoff
“When I die cut my heart out “ 😁
Is that an idea for a slogan
Philipp J hahaha
Very cool video style 👍 keep it up!
Hence the phrases, "Dead Ringer", "Saved by the bell", & "The Graveyard Shift"
This was educational and hilarious. Love the conversational format!
The History Club, proving that fact really is stranger than fiction
Dope! Do more of these please
Excellent presentation. Really is an interesting and very clever insight into the book Frankenstein.
History club: the place where things come back to life
OMG Thanks Mona for making this series a regular!! #thanksmona 😅
catch phrase suggestion: "more gruesome please" ^ also suggestion for the direction of history club videos. thank you
Wow, that was cool, looking forward for more like this
Do a video on CRISPR and gene-editing and bio-engineering.
yes please
One of the episodes from Explained (our netflix show) dealt with CRISPR and genetic engineering! You can check out the series overall at www.netflix.com/explained
Vox on vox please
let's you do it
History Club: Where preconceptions of the past are challenged. Also, love the video!
Awesome detailed video!
This is an amazing suggestion when I've been working on a story that involves electric armor (both as a weapon and defense)
Not really into the "conversation" style used for the vid, but the content is great so would watch more. 👍
Welcome to History Club, "the museum of great novelty" -- this is from the lyrics of "O tempo não para" by Cazuza
I really love these delves into art, science, literature you guys do, it I’d very entertaining. As far as Frankenstein, the novel is less about reanimating and more about creation of life and mortality, immortality, and how far humans could/ should intervene. Frankenstein’s monster is not a galvanized set of body parts but rather a recreation of frankensteins self using the elements that make up human life brought together in an amniotic fluid and reproduced using electric currents to infuse life into said reproduction. It’s not that some of the scientific advancements and procedures are not part of her book, but the reanimating of the dead is more connected to the film, and rightly so because that brought more of the horror element of the story to do so.
idk what book you read because it’s never actually explained in the novel how frankenstein brings the creature to life. it’s hinted at that he may have used electricity but never stated. sounds like what they did in one of the film adaptions. i agree though that the book isn’t really about reanimation. the themes that were most prevalent to me were nurture vs nature and taking responsibility for ones actions.
History club: To the History and beyond!
“welcome to history club, where sharing is caring and learning is stomach churning”
0:45 " ITS ALIVE ! ...and someone trimmed it's nails already "
I've seen this video when it was published, and now, i am doing a chemistry project about galvanism, i'm gonna for sure put this video in my project. Thanks guys!! A+, HERE WE COMEE x'D
Brilliant video. Loved it!
Yesterday we said #PleaseMona and today we say #ThankYouMona Catch phrase suggestion: Welcome to the history club pilot.
history club: based on a true story
“History Club: A hub for solving mysteries, and a club for learning history.”
VERY Interesting!! Thanks for this.
If you’ve read the book this makes so much more of an impact. A: Read the book, you’ll love it. B: It explains a lot more.
The catchphrase should be: History Club - Discovering The real OGs of the Past
I have never heard of you before and bumped in here by accident, led by the video title. I know you now and I like you. Thanks for this, will share.
"History club: Where the real back story lives." I really enjoyed this video!
Wolfenstein Frankenstein Dogstein Catstein Volkstein "VOXSTEIN"
Epstein Winestein
Einstein
@@DrLove911 *Weinstein
@@Mitchery Swinestein.
Rammstein
Ofcourse it failed. The spinal cord was damaged after the hang 0-0
Now, Thisnis real analyzing history.. Usimg primary sources!!! Love it!
History club- one of the better ones.
HISTORY CLUB: It came twice.