Q&A …

… Speakeasy: Guillermo del Toro on Bringing Horror Classics Back - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

"Frankenstein" is perhaps the first time in which the literature of the fantastic uses science to bridge the uncanny and the supernatural through the lens of the possible, of the scientific. That's the big chasm—the big break in the way we see the fantastic comes after the Age of Reason. Once the Age of Reason happens, fables, folklore and the fantastic start to be considered childish pursuits. Before that, they have equal weight. It's really revealing that then there's a strong resurgence of the fantastic with the Romantic movement. "Frankenstein" straddles the idea of science and the idea of the fantastic in a way that is incredibly modern.