Finished and Moved On

By the way, I finished reading Frankenstein at the end of last week. It really was not the story I expected- "It's Alive!" shouted with maniacal glee. Nope. It was still a good book, though. Frankenstein's monster is a distant relative from the one that Hollywood taught me. Sure, he's uncomfortable to look at and frightening to be near, but he's also intelligent and he wants desperately some companionship.

I'm not really good at putting my thoughts into words, so reviews and such are always a challenge, so I found a film review that discusses some of what I'm trying to say about the differences between my Hollywood expectations and the actual original story: (A Review by James Berardinelli)

During the course of more than thirty adaptations, sequels, spin-offs, rip-offs, and spoofs, the name of "Frankenstein" has become associated with one of the world's most recognizable movie monsters. The creature, as typified by Boris Karloff with outstretched arms, flat-topped head, and ubiquitous neck bolts, has met the likes of Dracula, the Wolfman, and even Abbott and Costello... Rarely, however, has a cinematic interpretation of "the daemon" approached the level of three-dimensionality with which it is portrayed in the novel.

As conceived and written by Shelley, Frankenstein was more of a gothic melodrama than a horror story. Considered in its most basic terms, the tale is one of actions and their consequences, and of what happens when man, in his hubris, attempts to usurp the role of God. For the most part, however, motion pictures have chosen to ignore the weightier issues of the book to concentrate instead on the "monster movie" aspects...

...The greatest strength of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is that it illustrates both the good and evil qualities in each of its main characters.

Just a snippet of the review, but it helps explain how the original story felt.

I am now working on Bored of the Rings. I'm not sure I'll actually read it all, but Nate bet I wouldn't read it, so I'm giving it a shot. And then Dracula is up next. We'll see how that compares to my Hollywood teachings.