setting tone of exploration and discovery, extremes, benefiting "all mankind"
Note parallels to Victor F's purposes and experiment. Image of scientific discovery as a northern passage Compare to history, obsessions and loss of associated with the Northwest Passage ~ for that matter, bear in mind the Columbus was search for a passage to the East.
Explorations = the history of unintended consequences
discovering a passage near the pole
to those countries
oh Shelley, self-elected and unacknowledged legislator of the world (see Defence of Poetry)
my failure
Six years have passed since I resolved on my present undertaking. I
can, even now, remember the hour from which I dedicated myself to this
great enterprise.
Letter 2
Archangel, 28th March, 17—
To Mrs. Saville, England
How slowly the time passes here, encompassed as I am by frost and snow
I have one want
I
have no friend
I
shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that is a poor
medium for the communication of feeling. I desire the company of a man
who could sympathize with me
it is a still greater evil to me that I
am self-educated
My lieutenant, for instance, is a man of
wonderful courage and enterprise; he is madly desirous of glory, or
rather, to word my phrase more characteristically, of advancement in
his profession.
I heard of a mariner equally noted for his
kindliness of heart and the respect and obedience paid to him by his
crew, I felt myself peculiarly fortunate in being able to secure his
services
"What a noble fellow!" you will exclaim. He is
so; but then he is wholly uneducated: he is as silent as a Turk, and a
kind of ignorant carelessness attends him, which, while it renders his
conduct the more astonishing, detracts from the interest and sympathy
which otherwise he would command.
I cannot describe to you my sensations on the near prospect of my
undertaking. It is impossible to communicate to you a conception of
the trembling sensation, half pleasurable and half fearful, with which
I am preparing to depart. I am going to unexplored regions
I shall kill no albatross; therefore do not
be alarmed for my safety or if I should come back to you as worn and
woeful as the "Ancient Mariner."
Continue for the present to write to me by every opportunity:
I may receive your letters on some occasions when I need them
Letter 3
July 7th, 17—
To Mrs. Saville, England
I write a few lines in haste to say that I am safe—and well advanced
on my voyage. This letter will reach England by a merchantman now on
its homeward voyage from Archangel
No incidents have hitherto befallen us that would make a figure in a
letter
Adieu, my dear Margaret
Letter 4
August 5th, 17—
To Mrs. Saville, England
So strange an accident has happened to us that I cannot forbear
recording it, although it is very probable that you will see me before
these papers can come into your possession.
we were nearly surrounded by ice, which closed
in the ship on all sides
we beheld, stretched out
in every direction, vast and irregular plains of ice, which seemed to
have no end.
a strange sight suddenly
attracted our attention and diverted our solicitude from our own
situation
a
being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature,
sat in the sledge and guided the dogs
talking to someone in the sea. It was, in fact, a sledge, like that we
had seen before, which had drifted towards us in the night on a large
fragment of ice. Only one dog remained alive; but there was a human
being within it
1st appearance of Victor Frankenstein, in futile pursuit of his creation / criado
will
you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?"
His limbs were
nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and
suffering. I never saw a man in so wretched a condition
Two days passed in this manner before he was able to speak, and I often
feared that his sufferings had deprived him of understanding.
I never saw a more
interesting creature: his eyes have generally an expression of
wildness, and even madness, but there are moments when, if anyone
performs an act of kindness towards him or does him any the most
trifling service, his whole countenance is lighted up, as it were, with
a beam of benevolence
generally melancholy and despairing, and sometimes he gnashes his
teeth
He must
have been a noble creature in his better days,
attractive and amiable
How can I see so
noble a creature destroyed by misery without feeling the most poignant
grief?
One man's life or death were but a small
price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for
the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of
our race.
"we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up,
if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves—such a friend ought to
be—do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures. I
once had a friend, the most noble of human creatures, and am entitled,
therefore, to judge respecting friendship.
You seek for
knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the
gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine
has been.
the stranger said to me,
exposing yourself to the same dangers which have rendered me
what I am, I imagine that you may deduce an apt moral from my tale,
"New world report shows more than 1 billion people with disabilities face substantial barriers in their daily lives
Governments should step up efforts to enable access to mainstream services and to invest in specialized programmes to unlock the vast potential of people with disabilities
News release
9 June 2011 | New York - WHO and the World Bank today revealed new global estimates that more than one billion people experience some form of disability. They urged governments to step up efforts to enable access to mainstream services and to invest in specialized programmes to unlock the vast potential of people with disabilities.
World report on disability provides global estimates
The first-ever World report on disability provides the first global estimates of persons with disabilities in 40 years and an overview of the status of disability in the world. New research shows that almost one-fifth of the estimated global total of persons living with disabilities, or between 110-190 million, encounter significant difficulties. The report stresses that few countries have adequate mechanisms in place to respond to the needs of people with disabilities. Barriers include stigma and discrimination, lack of adequate health care and rehabilitation services; and inaccessible transport, buildings and information and communication technologies. As a result, people with disabilities experience poorer health, lower educational achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities.
"Disability is part of the human condition," says WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. "Almost every one of us will be permanently or temporarily disabled at some point in life. We must do more to break the barriers which segregate people with disabilities, in many cases forcing them to the margins of society.""
Sept. 9, 2011
"...we have not yet even begun to develop the protocols for the new world of communication parallel with the ones we created for the 19th and 20th century world of communication. We will. We're fifteen years into the commercialization of the internet and now is the perfect time to begin thinking how to protect ourselves as worker in an "adjunct" world (and not just for academe), how to train ourselves as life-long learners to make the tools help us not use us. "