{"id":30242,"date":"2024-03-10T14:49:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T20:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=30242"},"modified":"2024-03-12T07:05:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T13:05:18","slug":"how-to-make-a-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2024\/03\/how-to-make-a-monster.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Make a Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I just finished re-reading Mary Shelley\u2019s classic 1818 novel Frankenstein<\/em>. It\u2019s a pioneering work of horror and science fiction, and it\u2019s as relevant today as it was when she first wrote it.<\/p>\n

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Photo by John Beckett. Portrait of Mary Shelley by Richard Rothwell (1840).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFrankenstein and me<\/h2>\n

Regular readers know that my first loves in the realm of horror (some would say my obsession) are vampires<\/a>. But Frankenstein<\/em> has always been right there too.<\/p>\n

The first movie I ever saw on Shock Theatre<\/em> was Dracula<\/em> (1931). The next week they showed Frankenstein<\/em> (1931). A couple weeks later they showed Dracula\u2019s Daughter<\/em> (1936), followed the next week by Bride of Frankenstein<\/em> (1935). There was Son of Dracula<\/em> (1943) and Son of Frankenstein<\/em> (1939). Hammer Films did the same thing. They started with The Curse of Frankenstein<\/em> (1957) and followed it with Horror of Dracula<\/em> (1958) \u2013 both starring Christopher Lee in the title role.<\/p>\n

I like horror books and movies not because I want to be scared, but because I want to be fascinated: with castles and forests, cauldrons and books, magic and monsters.<\/p>\n

As a nerdy little kid who struggled to fit in, I especially identified with the monsters. I wanted to be Dracula, but I felt like I was Frankenstein.<\/p>\n

For all my often-voracious reading, this is only the second time I\u2019ve read Frankenstein<\/em>. I\u2019m struggling to remember when I read it first. My best guess is sometime in the early 1990s. I know I read Dracula<\/em> for the second time in 1992, in preparation for seeing Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/em> that November. I suspect I read Frankenstein<\/em> about the same time.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reading more fiction these days. It\u2019s mostly contemporary horror and urban fantasy, but I\u2019m trying to sprinkle in some classics. I re-read Dracula<\/em> in late 2022 and Carmilla<\/em> in late 2023 \u2013 it was time to tackle Frankenstein<\/em> again.<\/p>\n

And so I did.<\/p>\n

Reading a 206 year old novel<\/h2>\n***
** The main thing I remembered about Frankenstein<\/em> from 1992 (or whenever) was that it was difficult to read. The prose is formal and unfamiliar. It didn\u2019t help that I was reading an old mass market paperback printed in 10 point font. I\u2019m normally a fast reader \u2013 I had to cut my reading speed about in half.<\/p>\n
** As I understand was common for novels of the day, Frankenstein<\/em> is written as a series of stories told from one character to another. It begins with a letter from a Captain Walton on board a sailing ship exploring the Arctic to his sister back in England. Early on he rescues Victor Frankenstein from the ice \u2013 then we hear Victor telling his story. When we eventually hear from the Creature\u2019s point of view, we have him talking to Victor, who tells the sort to Walton, who tells it to his sister. It works, but as with the prose, the method is unfamiliar.<\/p>\n
** When I re-read Dracula<\/em> (first published in 1897) most recently, I was struck by how Christian it is. I credited that to Britain being a thoroughly Christian culture at the time.<\/p>\n
** Frankenstein<\/em> impressed me with how Christian it isn\u2019t<\/em>. Religion is hardly mentioned and when it is it\u2019s often for negative reasons, such as the priest who harangues Justine into confessing to a murder she did not commit. For all its talk of life and death, there is no discussion of heaven or hell. And for all that Frankenstein<\/em> is often described as a cautionary tale for man interfering with the affairs of God, the Christian God is almost never brought up.<\/p>\n
** Internet sources are in disagreement as to Mary Shelley\u2019s religious thoughts and beliefs. She was intelligent and curious and she lived 53 years \u2013 it is likely they shifted over the course of her life. But Frankenstein<\/em> makes it clear that at age 19, she had little desire for religion in general and for established religion in particular.<\/p>\n
** It\u2019s alive!<\/h2>\n
** Books and movies are two very different ways of telling a story. The challenge for scriptwriters is to adapt the book for the screen, being neither slavish to the original nor losing sight of the book\u2019s main characters and themes.<\/p>\n
** Peggy Webling adapted Frankenstein<\/em> into a stage play in 1927. John Balderson adapted Webling\u2019s play further, screenwriters Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort turned it into a script, and director James Whale turned that into the brilliant 1931 movie.<\/p>\n
** ***The movie spends much of its time in Frankenstein\u2019s laboratory. There is the body, the defective brain, the storm, the electricity, all culminating in Colin Clive\u2019s Dr. Frankenstein shouting \u201cit\u2019s alive!\u201d<\/p>\n