ABSTRACT
Zombies and astronauts are two ways in which Frankenstein’s dream to create a new race of beings continues. The Zombie, a dark twin of the Monster, is Frankenstein’s dream as nightmare. The astronaut, however, preserves the purity of Frankenstein’s dream and work by taking flight from its monstrous, unintended and undesired consequences, as Victor himself fled from his Monster. Liftoff on July 20, 1969 is the moment when Earth begins to slip away as the natural habitat of Homo sapiens. Notwithstanding the wonder of this technological achievement, this moment raises important questions regarding our technological powers. Is that leap into space a moment when Frankenstein’s dream is untethered from the Earth? Does that one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind discard the feminine in this re-creation of the human species as Homo astronauticus, repeating on a cosmic scale Frankenstein’s sacrifice of the feminine in his act of creation? Is that first step away from Homo sapiens into Homo astronauticus a step into lunacy when the discarded feminine is left behind and consumers in shopping malls have transformed into Zombies?
