My-topia or U-topia? (haha?)

The first half of The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer Lytton draws interesting parallels to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein seeks to create the ideal human, such that he will be immune to the petty inconveniences that burden regular people. This creation, in a sense, adheres to a utopian ideal instituted by Frankenstein himself. Frankenstein imagines a utopia where he is the glorious creator, and his creatures are impervious to the threats of the world. The creatures in The Coming Race, however, achieve utopian ideals in a different way. While Frankenstein’s monster is biologically ‘perfect’ (aside from his appearance), the creatures in The Coming Race boast a moral and spiritual perfection that grants them this utopian lifestyle. The Vril-ya do not have wars, because “man was so completely at the mercy of man” due to the effects of Vril. The tribe values happiness through order, order through authority, and authority through unity. This ultimate goal of unity is what differentiates this utopia so much from Frankenstein’s ideals. Frankenstein and his monster were lonely and wretched, and perhaps would have been better off had they had any concept of the power of unity. The Vril-ya have success through unity because there is no threat of violence due to the power of Vril. Frankenstein and his monster did not have such an understanding of peaceful compliance to be able to eventually achieve unity in the end. In my opinion, the strong moral compass of the Vril-ya trumps the biological superiority of Frankenstein’s monster.