Nurturing the Flesh: Simialarities between The House of the Scorpian, Neuromancer, and Frankenstein

First Both Matt and Frankenstein’s monster share a very similar style of living space when they are on their own. Matt has his little pig pen with sawdust and rotten oranges, and the monster has his little shack with a dirt floor and low ceilings. This similarity made me ask if El Patron knew about the development of his clone. I wanted to think he had the power to find out whenever he wants. But even more interesting I asked myself does El Patron know about the development of Frankenstein’s monster? Since Frankenstein is such a classic, it could be assumed that he would. Ultimately, I was under the impression that El Patron was trying to create a monster. El Patron is surprised to learn that Matt was treated so badly by Rosa (Farmer 55). But I still think he wants to create a tyrant to run his estate and business when he is gone. Either way, Farmer seems to be taking a page out of Mary Shelley’s classic to see that it does happen. At the end of the Youth section, I noticed Matt had gone through a metamorphosis. He went from being open-minded about people and the outside world to being bitter and desiring his own little world (49). But more striking is that he wanted to see both Rosa and the doctor suffer (46). This is very similar to the Monster’s thoughts after he had been shot for trying to save a little girl. He wanted to see his maker suffer (Shelly 95). So through this tormenting lack of nurture, both Matt and Frankenstein’s monster become wretched.

There are also some similarities between the servants in The House of the Scorpion and the characters in Neuromancer. Of course, there is Felicia who turns out to be a junkie (Farmer 89). She quickly reminded me of Case and all the street scum in the Sprawl. But I also started to look back at the eejits. They are mind-controlled slaves. After finding a dead eejit in the poppy fields Matt asks, “Why was he left out there like a piece of trash?” (78) The cyberpunk motif of the lower class being associated with drugs and scum is apparent in Farmer’s novel, as well. And when Tam Lin explains Matt’s biological origin the young boy says, “So I’m just a piece of skin?” Immediately I thought back to the language in Neuromancer. Often times Case refers to people as pieces of meat: “Cowboys didn’t get in simstim, because it was basically a meat toy” (Gibson 54). The idea of dehumanizing people to the point where they are just fleshly animals is recurrent in both novels.

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