TAC Reviews...Frankenstein

Date Posted: 21/12.14

First published anonymously in 1818, Frankenstein was ultimately published with Mary Shelley's name attached in France in 1823. It has been adapted to film on a number of occasions but it is the original book on kindle form that will be reviewed.

When not contemplating the meaning of existence, or trying to decide whether I should just say “Fuck it”, hang up the phone and just live out a human life or two on Earth, I enjoy loosing myself in a good book. Flawed characters struggling through a bleak and unforgiving world in which there is not God, no Divine purpose, nothing but the agony of continued living really speak to me...I have no idea why, but thinking about it, it might be a good course of action to discuss it with a psychiatrist...maybe hanging on the phone for decades is making me go a bit strange...

Anyway, in my Moby Dick review I talked about reading through some of the classics of literature, and this time I'm going to talk about Frankenstein, the book not any of the film adaptations. This is an interesting story and one that I have mixed feelings about, on the one hand it is told from the perspective of a being thrust into this world against his will, cast aside by society and left to wander the uncaring earth alone and on the other a whiny little bitch who badly needs to suck it up and grow a pair of balls.

The first third of the story is told from the perspective of Doctor Frankenstein, a man who finds a way to bring life to a lifeless creature, a creature he promptly abandons before literally running for the hills. His nerves are slowly shredded as he waits for the monster to inevitably track him down and exact its revenge. Now here is my problem with this part of the story, the creature on the slab is hideous, it is comprised of stolen body parts, and looks like the Elephant Man's less attractive brother, so why the dickens would Frankenstein bring this monstrosity to life and then be surprised when it is a terrible mutation of all the dark components of the human soul. If it looked like Brad Pitt then yes, be surprised when it comes to life and is terrifying, but if a turd looks like a turd it'll still be a turd after flinging it at a wall.

Now, eventually the monster does track him down, and this is the part of the book that I really enjoyed because it is the creature just explaining what has happen to it since it was abandoned. Due to its appearance it is despised by society, chased away and hunted because of its deformities, it is possible to really sympathise with it because it cannot help where it came from and doesn't understand why everyone is so afraid of it. The best part of the entire book is when the monster describes finding a family of three, a father, a son and daughter. It slowly realises that the father is blind and watches the family hoping that if it can talk to the father, he will see the goodness within the monster's soul, and through him the monster can connect with the rest of the family. Its hopes are tragically dashed, I won't tell you how but trust me it is pretty heartbreaking. The monster tracks down his creator in the hopes of him making the monster a companion so it won't be alone any longer.

Then we're back with the whiny twat-head that is Dr Frankenstein, who agonises about whether to create a second creature. This is when my eyes started to glaze over, I wanted to reach into the pages of the novel, grab Frankenstein by the throat, smash his face into the nearest wall and demand he take some fucking responsibility for his creation. All he does is complain, for crying out loud, did you not think ANY of this through. I did science projects during my first growth cycle that had more preparation than he has with bringing the dead back to life. What was his plan? Step 1, stitch together body parts from corpses creating something horribly deformed, Step 2, bring said deformed creation to life, Step 3, cup of tea and an early night. Do we not think that MAYBE he missed out a couple of steps, like what to do with this thing once you bring it to life? If nothing else tell it to stand in the corner and hang your coat on it, ANYTHING is better than running away like a pussy, and being surprised when it seeks you out.

So all in all where does my thumb go this week?

There are reasons why it should be Down and reasons why it should be Up, but neither the good can pull up the bad nor does the bad completely pull down the good so my thumb must remain in the Thumbs Average position

6/10 - It is worth a read and if you aren't rooting for the monster there is something wrong with you