tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post4549281173637644689..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: FrankensteinRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-88729224899102531202019-11-22T14:41:36.742-05:002019-11-22T14:41:36.742-05:00I read Frankenstein earlier this year. I liked the...I read Frankenstein earlier this year. I liked the book a lot and am right now processing a bunch of articles on the book. I have put some links together here <br /><br />https://jotsandtittles.wordpress.com/2019/11/22/theology-philosophy-of-frankenstein/<br /><br />from an evangelical point of view. <br /><br />~ On the side. Apparently, there has been an obscure movement/writing style called Literary Tenebrism. I think Shelley's novel can described as falling in that category. (So also Joseph Conrad and Poe and also Caravaggio/Rembrandt if we enter the art world but I digress.)<br /><br />Literary Tenebrism is interesting because I believe it is an idea that comes out of Tenebrae. Many Christians observe Tenebrae yearly. This is where we set up a bunch of candles, in front of the sanctuary, then turn off all the lights and read the Gospel narratives surrounding the Crucifixion. And as we read through the narratives leading up to the Crucifixion, we blow out the candles one by one. Now what is interesting are the colors that predominate in the sanctuary during Tenebrae. Its black, brown, orange and yellow. And you sit surrounded by darkness. Its all quite grim actually.<br /><br />However Shelley's novel has this sort of a backdrop. Everything that takes place, either it is something grim, like the creature being created or it is something seemingly pleasant (Voctor's travels) but in reality, set against the background of darkness. Darkness, evil is just always right around the corner. <br /><br />And as we head towards the end of the novel, things only get darker and darker. And it ends without resolution. It takes us into darkness and never back... Ok. Got a bit carried away with all this writing ... need to run.<br /><br />Good Stuff and thanks for the post,<br />~ Raj<br />rgbraohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01243742903460712693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-89986016792475812572018-06-10T18:02:30.197-04:002018-06-10T18:02:30.197-04:00The Jewish golem might be a literary predecessor t...The Jewish golem might be a literary predecessor to Frankenstein.Epistle of Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07779184015407034200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-79257138634702980512018-06-10T17:18:34.015-04:002018-06-10T17:18:34.015-04:00It’s possible the stitching together of body parts...It’s possible the stitching together of body parts then reanimation of corpses is meant as a ghastly parody of the resurrection.Epistle of Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07779184015407034200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-35603503769197210412018-06-08T10:17:42.834-04:002018-06-08T10:17:42.834-04:00She was only 18 years old when she wrote Frankenst...She was only 18 years old when she wrote Frankenstein! o_OGeraldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11777828745824991064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-29913469001439839622018-06-07T08:52:12.032-04:002018-06-07T08:52:12.032-04:00Thanks, Sam Took! That's definitely an intrigu...Thanks, Sam Took! That's definitely an intriguing idea. Thought-provoking.<br /><br />Not that I've spent a lot of time on this, but even from what little I've read or seen, <i>Frankenstein</i> seems to be a hotly debated novel. In fact, it's apparently become quite chic to discuss <i>Frankenstein</i> in literary and academic circles. Scholars debating it as a Gothic horror novel, as progenitor to modern science fiction, as a treatise for feminism, as something of a paean to nature in opposition to modernity, and many other interpretations. I suppose it's part of the fun trying to figure out what the book "really" means! :-)<br /><br />You might find this interesting: a BBC article lists <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-12711091" rel="nofollow">10 possible meanings</a>.<br /><br />A couple of things to take into consideration too:<br /><br />-I've read there are two main editions of the book: the 1831 edition which is the most commonly available edition and the 1818 edition which most scholars in the field think is the best edition. I assume I read the 1831 text years ago since the 1831 text is a single volume, whereas the 1818 text is three volumes, and I remember reading a single book. <br /><br />-Also, I've read Mary Shelley's husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, had a significant hand in writing <i>Frankenstein</i>. Some scholars have gone so far as to say Percy Bysshe Shelley should be considered co-author.Patrick Chanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16095377877712197984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-17557633148600125282018-06-07T07:30:45.621-04:002018-06-07T07:30:45.621-04:00I might suggest another contextual area to pursue ...I might suggest another contextual area to pursue in understanding this book. I first read Frankenstein in high school, and was quite surprised at how "dialogic" it was, more of a set of reflective conversations, and not exactly "horror" (I read it right after reading Dracula, so the contrast was perhaps maximal and a bit misleading). All I knew about Mary Shelley at the time was here relationship with Percy.<br /><br />Just a year or two later I got into reading about the French Revolution, and that lead to reading Edmund Burke and his counter-revolutionary writings. That lead to reading responses against Burke = Paine, etc. but also Mary Wollstonecraft (without a doubt the most clever and biting opponent of Burke), and of her erstwhile husband William Godwin. <br /><br />It was only after this, which covered a few years, that I learned of the connection between Godwin/Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, that she was their daughter. That's when it occurred to me the connection between Mary Shelley's little book and the controversy between her parents and Burke. There are striking parallels between Shelley's book and Burke's anti-Revolutionary writings. This connection is not new and has been observed by others.<br /><br />The most striking parallel is that between how Burke described the Revolution itself, and in particular the new-fangled Constitution, as a monster, made up of various incongruous and ill-fitting parts. He wrote in what has been pointed out as very Gothic, horror-like language.<br /><br />Mary Shelley grew up in a revolutionary-oriented home, what we would today call a red-diaper baby. She would have known of her parents' position on these issues, and Percy shared these same ideas and criticisms of Burke and others who opposed the Revolution.<br /><br />Anyhow, one plausible interpretation, held by some at least, including myself, is that Dr. Frankenstein stands in for the French Philosophes, and the Monster is the Revolution their ideas wrought, and the awful aftermath of trying to create all things new. There are some sections of Frankenstein where it sounds like the monster is channeling counter-revolutionary critiques of the those responsible for it. It is debatable to what extent Mary Shelley shared the views of her parents and Percy, and she, it would seem, became quite conservative as she got older, raising her daughter on her own. <br /><br />As an 18 year old she was still quite impressionable, and this book was written at the close of the Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars, when the failure of the Revolution and the destruction it wrought were fresh in everyone's minds. It's questionable, therefore, that she wrote this as some sort of Promethean manifesto, a display of her own fist-shaking at God. Another thesis fits the facts quite well - she was expressing her own critique of the Revolutionary aspirations, and of the mess it all brought, of her parents and husband. Mary Shelley was no mere cipher.<br /><br />Just a thought to explore.Sam Tookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06439982278243632102noreply@blogger.com