During my pre-teen years
before interest in boys, I read “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. At that age, it disappointed me. It was boring. Who wants a talking monster? Instead of a “Baron Frankenstein” like in the
Peter Cushing films I was used to, (yes, post-Karloff, I know, blasphemy) it
had a young Victor Frankenstein. Nothing
matched! I tossed the paperback in a
corner somewhere. When the TV-film
“Frankenstein: The True Story,” aired, I found pulling Jane Seymour’s head off
at a party a turnoff.
Decades later, I’ve
re-visited this classic novel considered by some to be ahead of its time or the
frontrunner of many fantasy/horror stories today. First, it’s written in the “frame” style
where a narrator begins and ends the story, with the middle told by another
person. (“Heart of Darkness” also is
done this way). This makes for a
laborious read, so it takes an interested reader to take the time to absorb the
story, not the other way around. Books
written like this to me do not “hook” a reader easily.
But the labor of the read is
worth it. For a story about a dangerous,
homicidal monster, it contains almost no action. The smart and talented Victor Frankenstein
wanted to figure out a way to cure all disease.
In his passion for good deeds, he created something not meant for this
world, a creature with no grounds of divinity and shunned by his creator and
humanity. Frankenstein narrates how the
fiend destroyed his life by killing those he loved the most. His emotional story is about the regret and
sadness while reflecting on the consequences of his actions.
My favorite part of the story
now is the narration by the
creature. (Amazing what a few decades do
for reading). He was intelligent,
horrifying in appearance, super-human in strength, and shared a flaw with his
creator: Good cannot be made from
evil. As he felt he needed vindication,
he felt tremendous sorrow when his creator died and no longer wanted to live.
When I think about monster
stories since, so many features can be found in this classic. What hit me the most is how emotional and
tragic this story is. Fantasy fans, the
classics are always with us. Sometimes
it’s worth a look in the past to see how far we’ve come.
No comments:
Post a Comment