Father John Jimenez, from San Francisco, California, has served in various capacities for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in his role as teacher at Archbishop Riordan High School he taught math and religion. Below is a talk that he gave to students and staff.
2. Father John Jimenez, from San Francisco, California, has served in various capacities for the
Archdiocese of San Francisco in his role as teacher at Archbishop Riordan High School he taught
math and religion. Below is a talk that he gave to students and staff.
"When I first came to Riordan, I sat out in the Marian Courtyard waiting for a meeting, and brought
with me to read Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein",a book common to high school literature classes,
and a way I could relate with students and teachers.Though I had never read it, I did see Kenneth
Branaugh's version of the movie that so poignantly showed the significance of the "creator's"
narcissism in what they have created, blinded to the monster that they have created and the
ensuing destruction, yet, pity for the monster, who through study and a desire to be a part of
humanity, could quote scientists and philosophers, and concludes that he must leave society and
go live in the lonely, frozen regions of the Swiss Alps.
3. The book, at a deeper level, especially the dialogues between scientist and monster, shows this
profoundly. It made me wonder where this young teenager, Shelly, discovered these insights that
predict 20th century calamities? Was it the idealism of the French Revolution that became despotism
and the war machine of Napoleon's imperialism, and subsequent European Wars, especially amongst
the German fiefdoms? The inventions and hope of science converted to constant war and destruction,
thus poets Mary and Percy, living beyond convention, lacking trust in institutions, the ethos of the
"Romantic Era", becoming the Nihilism of Nietzsche. Shelly does not seem to have an answer to this
Nihilism, she describes it's origins well, and certainly questions it, and foretells it's destructive
consequences.
Was it cynical Nihilism rather than patriotism that drove the British and Zionist and American and German
imperialistic war machines that set off WWI and it's consequences throughout the 20th century, and
still is the root today of many issues, not only geopolitics, but man's understanding, (or lack thereof), of
himself ?
4. Somehow, Dostyevsky foresaw these issues, and finds his answer in Alyosha, the youngest of the
Brother's Karamozov.In this story set in the guise of a murder mystery of the father, Fyodor,
seemingly murdered by one of his sons. Yet, each character is a metaphor not only for pre WWI
Russian society, but also for modernity. Fyodor is a nihilist, a cynical manipulator living only for his
own selfish desire. Dmitry, the oldest son, a military officer, is confused between the nihilism of
his father, and a sense of duty and honor of Russian tradition. Ivan, the middle son, is an atheist,
and asks the essential question about the existence of God, and finding no answer, seeks the way
of "science and experts" running everything (which we now know became the empty food
shelves and Cherynobl of the soviet era, and the pandemic response of governments today), and
Alyosha, who chooses to enter a monastery,not fleeing the world, but choosing a way of life that
is cooperative,mutually beneficial, and seeks to live in the harmony of God's holy order.
Smyrdykov,the serf and "illegitimate" son, representsthe working class, the women, the families,
who live a the whim of the powerful who create havoc with their power machinations, which are
essentially selfish nihilism.
5. I will leave it to the reader to discover who the "murderer" is, it is a good whodunnit mystery.
Moreso,Alyosha representsthe real response of many after WWI who sought to live a
Nazareth, cooperative way of life as a response to the nihilistic wars of globalsim of the 20th
century, and even now, writers like Dorothy Day, Fr Vincent McNabb, Hilarie Belloc, Wendell
Berry, Richard Weaver, EF Schumacker, and Antony Chayonov, a soviet economist who, as a
response to the failed soviet 5 year plans that created a mass starvation in Ukraine, promoted a
distributist, locally free economic model, and was sent to die in a soviet gulag, just as many
who speak out against government mandates today are cancelled and censored.
It seems we will live with more Frankenstein monsters,and their destructive ways, before we
learn the truth of Alyosha.
