• as belonging to another earth, the habitations of another race of beings

    The simile is telling here. We will discover in the next chapter that the Alps can,
    indeed, support another "race" of beings. Yet, however much human imagination may
    discern in these altitudes the possibility of a transcendence of the human condition,
    neither a human nor another kind of being can effectually manage to do so. Moreover,
    "another race" of beings, if brought down from an imaginary conception to the solid
    ground of normative human existence would be considered, like Victor's Creature, alien
    and hounded from human society. The conflict between the unrestricted imagination
    and human society is total.