Overall: Well I didn’t expect that. An interesting introduction to the final stretch
I guess it was inevitable in some ways that Vic would have another encounter with Adam on the island. Although, now that I’m reading it, I have to wonder what the purpose of the whole journey to the island was. Nothing about Vic’s revelation and decision here came from his trip to the British isles, it’s actually a lot of the same things he had been saying. Just a thought.
One night while he’s working on constructing Eve, he notices that Adam is watching him and, deciding that he can’t go and inflict another one of these creatures onto the world, he destroys all of his work right in front of Adam.
While in some ways his reasoning is altruistic, it’s one of those things where I again must question the logistics. Vic is worried that his creations might breed, and specifically that their children, as a race, might become an enemy to society. I’m going to ignore the fact that the creations probably wouldn’t be able to breed, given that they’re made of cadaver flesh, as the book’s already kind of waved this sort of thing away on Vic’s account once. Also I’m not going to fault Shelley for a misunderstanding of genetics, so what’s left to critique? Well… I mean... Vic, some women can’t have children. Hell, some women don’t have a uterus, some have their fallopian tubes blocked, some may not have ovaries. This isn’t an insurmountable problem when you’re constructing this being piece by piece.
This said, I do like Vic’s sudden fridge moments about this whole process. What if this second creature thinks the first one is ugly? What if she prefers humans? What if she doesn’t want anything to do with romance or this whole ‘travel to South America’ plan? They seem like such obvious questions and I’m actually kind of surprised Vic tore himself away from his dramatics to consider these much more apparent scenarios.
After Vic destroys his work, Adam shows up and begins barking threats at Vic again. Vic is resolute though, and Adam swears to make Victor’s life miserable. He tells Vic that he’ll see him on his wedding night. Somehow Vic doesn’t realize what he’s talking about until well after Adam has left. Even then, Vic (unsurprisingly) thinks that Adam specifically means to kill him on his wedding night. He doesn’t really consider that Elizabeth might not be safe. Oh Vic… some things never change.
Sailing back to (I think we’re still in Scotland) where he’s met by a crowd of upset Irish people. Are we in Ireland now? The crowd of folks says that there’s been a murder and they suspect Victor of it. Taking him to the magistrate, Vic tells the good captain that he didn’t expect the horror to come. It’s Clerval, isn’t it?
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Frankenstein - Chapter 19
Overall: Roadtrip!
So we’re kinda getting on toward the end of the book… I mean, I know that somehow Vic ends up chasing Adam around in the Arctic circle, so that’s still got to happen. We’re moving north! So that may be leading up to it. I don’t know, the book seems like it doesn’t quite know what to do with itself right now.
Look, I’m not opposed to narrative divergences. I think a lot of the point of Frankenstein might be about the sort of observations and attitudes regarding nature that the various characters make and hold. However, the book seems to sometimes maybe overdo this some? Like the plot doesn’t necessarily lend itself to that sort of novel, I suppose.
Most of this chapter is really a travelogue, “Vic and Clerval take the British Isles”. The two start in London and proceed to visit various places on the island, heading northward toward Scotland. Vic apparently sends off some letters of introduction to the philosophers he wanted to meet, but he never seems to follow up on them. Also, we find out that Clerval is interested in signing on to help with the colonization of India.
It’s also a chapter consisting of Shelley kind of comparing the English hills with the Alps. Which, while Cherval seems to love all of the caves and ethereality of the English hills, Vic is more a fan of the raw majesty of the Swiss Alps. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I do like how consistent Shelley is with the preferences of her characters.
Eventually the two make their way up to Edinburgh, where Vic leaves Clerval so he can go complete his task. He takes up residence in a hut on a small island and begins to set to work, not hearing from the monster and taking walks on the beach at night… where’s he getting the parts for this now?
Frankenstein - Chapter 18
Overall: A solid chapter… who are these philosophers?
Well, at least Vic has some forethought into how he’s going to enact his plans this time around. He’s been hearing about some philosophers up in England who have been doing some writing that might be helpful to him (about what, I wonder) and so he’s going to go visit them. In doing so he gets some new info to potentially go about the whole endeavor a bit more smoothly, and he also gets Adam, who had said he’ll be watching, away from his family.
Papa Frank (considered calling him Alphonse… I like Papa Frank more) wonders about why his son is so melancholy, and begins to think it’s about his betrothal to Elizabeth which.. well news to me? Didn’t she get adopted into their family when she was like, 2? Papa Frank says they’ve been betrothed that whole time. This whole thing is maybe some hard values dissonance, but jeez, Elizabeth isn’t even a factor here. Papa Frank’s concerned that maybe Vic’s come to see Elizabeth more like a sister (RIGHT?) and may not want to marry her as a result. But Vic assures him so quickly that this isn’t the reason that it’s almost sort of unintentionally funny in a craughing kind of way.
Vic convinces his dad to allow him to go to England for up to a year, on the pretense of trying to just get out and see the world some more before coming home and marrying Elizabeth. While Vic’s there though he’s going to try to complete the task Adam’s requested of him. Also! He’s bringing Clerval along!
Oh Clerval. He’s so gung-ho about the whole thing. If there’s one thing this book is good at, it’s commentary on nature. Clerval in particular brings a new perspective. He isn’t dramatic like Vic, nor is he full of this subtle wonderment of Adam. Instead, he’s full of admiration and adventure. The whole thing seems to fill him with so much joy. Hell, Shelley even interjects a poem by William Wordsworth to complement Clerval’s commentary.
It’s kind of a joy to have him back. Sad, though, that at the end of the chapter Vic basically says that Clerval is dead now, and only his spirit lives on. Clerval was indeed too good for this world.
Well, at least Vic has some forethought into how he’s going to enact his plans this time around. He’s been hearing about some philosophers up in England who have been doing some writing that might be helpful to him (about what, I wonder) and so he’s going to go visit them. In doing so he gets some new info to potentially go about the whole endeavor a bit more smoothly, and he also gets Adam, who had said he’ll be watching, away from his family.
Papa Frank (considered calling him Alphonse… I like Papa Frank more) wonders about why his son is so melancholy, and begins to think it’s about his betrothal to Elizabeth which.. well news to me? Didn’t she get adopted into their family when she was like, 2? Papa Frank says they’ve been betrothed that whole time. This whole thing is maybe some hard values dissonance, but jeez, Elizabeth isn’t even a factor here. Papa Frank’s concerned that maybe Vic’s come to see Elizabeth more like a sister (RIGHT?) and may not want to marry her as a result. But Vic assures him so quickly that this isn’t the reason that it’s almost sort of unintentionally funny in a craughing kind of way.
Vic convinces his dad to allow him to go to England for up to a year, on the pretense of trying to just get out and see the world some more before coming home and marrying Elizabeth. While Vic’s there though he’s going to try to complete the task Adam’s requested of him. Also! He’s bringing Clerval along!
Oh Clerval. He’s so gung-ho about the whole thing. If there’s one thing this book is good at, it’s commentary on nature. Clerval in particular brings a new perspective. He isn’t dramatic like Vic, nor is he full of this subtle wonderment of Adam. Instead, he’s full of admiration and adventure. The whole thing seems to fill him with so much joy. Hell, Shelley even interjects a poem by William Wordsworth to complement Clerval’s commentary.
It’s kind of a joy to have him back. Sad, though, that at the end of the chapter Vic basically says that Clerval is dead now, and only his spirit lives on. Clerval was indeed too good for this world.
Frankenstein - Chapter 17
Overall: I did not expect this. Huh.
So, Vic agreed.
I mean, it took him a while, and even Vic pointed out that the whole last part of the story kinda soured him, but in the end he agrees to go about making a new being to keep Adam company—conditionally.
Adam agrees that after Victor creates this second creature, he’ll leave Europe altogether and go to the wilderness of South America, where, apparently, there are no humans… not gonna touch that one right now. It takes some bargaining and cajoling, but eventually Victor agrees and the whole thing is settled.
Victor sure got over the death of two people close to his family pretty quickly. I guess he’s in some way doing it because Adam threatens to keep hurting more and more of Vic’s family if he doesn’t agree, but still, Victor’s main concern seems to be the wrongness of creating a new monster, rather than avenging his brother, which, as I recall, he had stated back around chapter 9 as being his desire.
Anyways, Vic sees the reason in the story overall and while he still sees Adam as contemptible, at least he seems a little more aware of his own part in the whole situation beyond how it relates to how he feels.
As Adam leaves and Vic departs, we get another moment of him shouting at nature. Oh Vic, some things just won’t change, will they? Still apparently kind of despondent around your family, still convinced that the entirety of nature is mocking you.
So, Vic agreed.
I mean, it took him a while, and even Vic pointed out that the whole last part of the story kinda soured him, but in the end he agrees to go about making a new being to keep Adam company—conditionally.
Adam agrees that after Victor creates this second creature, he’ll leave Europe altogether and go to the wilderness of South America, where, apparently, there are no humans… not gonna touch that one right now. It takes some bargaining and cajoling, but eventually Victor agrees and the whole thing is settled.
Victor sure got over the death of two people close to his family pretty quickly. I guess he’s in some way doing it because Adam threatens to keep hurting more and more of Vic’s family if he doesn’t agree, but still, Victor’s main concern seems to be the wrongness of creating a new monster, rather than avenging his brother, which, as I recall, he had stated back around chapter 9 as being his desire.
Anyways, Vic sees the reason in the story overall and while he still sees Adam as contemptible, at least he seems a little more aware of his own part in the whole situation beyond how it relates to how he feels.
As Adam leaves and Vic departs, we get another moment of him shouting at nature. Oh Vic, some things just won’t change, will they? Still apparently kind of despondent around your family, still convinced that the entirety of nature is mocking you.
Monday, June 13, 2016
Frankenstein - Chapter 16
Overall: Well that was a whirlwind of a chapter. Yeesh. Some good, some bad.
Adam is consumed with emotion over the incident at the De Lacey’s. First it isn’t sadness, though, but rage. He goes into the woods and exerts himself to collapsing by just raging against the entire situation he’s found himself in.
Then the next day, he begins to console himself, thinking that maybe he took off from the De Lacey’s house too quickly. After all, M. De Lacey had seemed to be coming around before Felix, Safie, and Agatha came back. Then, when he comes back to perhaps try again, he finds that Felix and his family have all basically decided to move out after the incident. It’s so blunt and painful. Adam never saw them again.
Taken into a rage again, Adam burns down the De Lacey’s house one night and decides that all of humanity is his enemy to some degree. In particular, however, he decides to seek out Vic in order to exact some kind of revenge upon him. He has to figure out where to go, though, and so eventually he heads southwest toward Geneva.
Along the road he’s overcome by a momentary compassionate impulse when he witnesses a young girl about to drown in a river. Taking her out and failing to resuscitate her, he’s set upon by some other person who presumably knows the girl. After following and being shot for it, Adam goes back into his rage and continues with his hatred for humanity renewed.
Eventually he comes upon Geneva and when he grabs a young boy who turns out to be William, specifically when William lets Adam know his last name is Frankenstein, Adam does the deed and strangles the child. Gotta say I’m pretty torn on this bit. From what little I know of the movies I’ve heard that they try to keep the monster more innocent in his behavior. If I recall, he accidentally drowns a child in that one, which is what causes the angry mob we all know and love. Here, it’s really complicated. On the one hand, I totally understand Adam’s utter misanthropy, he’s still a young being who’s convinced that he should be human but just can’t in some capacity. He has that sense of isolation that’s removing him from any sort of identification with people. But at the same time, I mean, he probably knows that William is not Victor. None of this excuses his actions, of course. I don’t think it’s supposed to. It does a very good job of making the situation very grey, though, with respect to whether his fury is justified, and more particularly if it’s justifiable to hate all of humanity.
I do think it’s a bit too convenient for Adam to do the whole picture-planting job in order to frame Justine. Like, that really worked out for him, huh? Really could’ve easily bungled that whole thing if Justine hadn’t happened to have taken the day off that day and to have had some connection to William and no alibi.
I also do kind of wonder at this from a writing perspective. Because I really think it kind of absolves Victor too easily. I mean, why should others critique him for his behavior, now? He was right about the whole thing. Not through any sort of deductive power, just through a series of hapless coincidence and chance. It kind of manages to just make it so that all of Victor’s concerns are at least somewhat more justified without him having had to come to any sort of personal transformation about it at all.
Anyways, by the end of the chapter, Adam demands that Victor make a female companion for him. An Eve? Is she going to have the weird hair? Umm… Adam, you maybe should've led with that before you got to the whole "I murdered your brother" bit. Maybe you didn't learn this part very well, but generally humans don't like hearing that you've killed their kin. I guess Adam may’ve thought that the whole truth needed to be told. But I mean, you started off with giving Victor the option to kill you if he didn’t like your story and you kinda didn’t stick the landing, there.
Adam is consumed with emotion over the incident at the De Lacey’s. First it isn’t sadness, though, but rage. He goes into the woods and exerts himself to collapsing by just raging against the entire situation he’s found himself in.
Then the next day, he begins to console himself, thinking that maybe he took off from the De Lacey’s house too quickly. After all, M. De Lacey had seemed to be coming around before Felix, Safie, and Agatha came back. Then, when he comes back to perhaps try again, he finds that Felix and his family have all basically decided to move out after the incident. It’s so blunt and painful. Adam never saw them again.
Taken into a rage again, Adam burns down the De Lacey’s house one night and decides that all of humanity is his enemy to some degree. In particular, however, he decides to seek out Vic in order to exact some kind of revenge upon him. He has to figure out where to go, though, and so eventually he heads southwest toward Geneva.
Along the road he’s overcome by a momentary compassionate impulse when he witnesses a young girl about to drown in a river. Taking her out and failing to resuscitate her, he’s set upon by some other person who presumably knows the girl. After following and being shot for it, Adam goes back into his rage and continues with his hatred for humanity renewed.
Eventually he comes upon Geneva and when he grabs a young boy who turns out to be William, specifically when William lets Adam know his last name is Frankenstein, Adam does the deed and strangles the child. Gotta say I’m pretty torn on this bit. From what little I know of the movies I’ve heard that they try to keep the monster more innocent in his behavior. If I recall, he accidentally drowns a child in that one, which is what causes the angry mob we all know and love. Here, it’s really complicated. On the one hand, I totally understand Adam’s utter misanthropy, he’s still a young being who’s convinced that he should be human but just can’t in some capacity. He has that sense of isolation that’s removing him from any sort of identification with people. But at the same time, I mean, he probably knows that William is not Victor. None of this excuses his actions, of course. I don’t think it’s supposed to. It does a very good job of making the situation very grey, though, with respect to whether his fury is justified, and more particularly if it’s justifiable to hate all of humanity.
I do think it’s a bit too convenient for Adam to do the whole picture-planting job in order to frame Justine. Like, that really worked out for him, huh? Really could’ve easily bungled that whole thing if Justine hadn’t happened to have taken the day off that day and to have had some connection to William and no alibi.
I also do kind of wonder at this from a writing perspective. Because I really think it kind of absolves Victor too easily. I mean, why should others critique him for his behavior, now? He was right about the whole thing. Not through any sort of deductive power, just through a series of hapless coincidence and chance. It kind of manages to just make it so that all of Victor’s concerns are at least somewhat more justified without him having had to come to any sort of personal transformation about it at all.
Anyways, by the end of the chapter, Adam demands that Victor make a female companion for him. An Eve? Is she going to have the weird hair? Umm… Adam, you maybe should've led with that before you got to the whole "I murdered your brother" bit. Maybe you didn't learn this part very well, but generally humans don't like hearing that you've killed their kin. I guess Adam may’ve thought that the whole truth needed to be told. But I mean, you started off with giving Victor the option to kill you if he didn’t like your story and you kinda didn’t stick the landing, there.
Frankenstein - Chapter 15
Well that was heartbreaking.
I feel in some ways like this is two chapters that were sort of jammed together. The first half is more akin to the previous chapters describing Adam’s journey and burgeoning consciousness/education. While the latter half actually stings a bit more because it doesn’t even get a whole chapter to itself.
Adam is walking one day when he finds several books: Plutarch’s Lives, Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, and Paradise Lost. Luckily they are in French (the De Lacey family speaks French it turns out, not German), and Adam sets about reading them. While reading he begins to develop a sort of sense of identification with and apart from humankind. In Werther, he seems fond for the main character, but can’t quite comprehend all of his struggles. Similarly, he comes to admire certain people from Plutarch over others. He favors more pacifistic historical figures than martial heroes like Romulus. It’s around this time that I remembered reading that Shelley had experimented with vegetarianism, and that Adam also has never eaten meat. Finally, he reads Milton and finds himself at once identifying with Adam and Satan. Like Adam, he figures, he is the first of his kind and somewhat alone in a strange world. However, unlike Adam, he does not have anyone he can turn to for advice or help. Instead, he feels envy for humans like Satan does for God. Later on, he discovers one of Vic’s journals that was in an article of clothing that Adam had managed to take with him. In it, Victor records the months leading up to his creating Adam.
Wow, Adam really calls Victor out here and it’s pretty wonderful. He is angry at Victor for creating a being if he was only going to abandon it for being ugly. I hope Vic takes some of this to heart. After all, it isn’t Adam’s fault by any means that he’s not living up to human beauty standards. Something tells me Vic’s going to be too stuck in his own feelings about this too, though.
From here, Adam decides one day that he’s going to go try to introduce himself to the De Lacey’s. Specifically, he’s going to wait until Safie, Felix, and Agatha have gone one day so that he can talk to M. De Lacey, who, being blind, is less likely to react negatively upon seeing him.
Adam begins speaking to De Lacey and it’s so sad already. He’s evasive about the “friends” he has nearby, and is unable to particularly communicate the entirety of his situation without letting on that he isn’t human. Just when he bursts into a fit of emotion, pleading for De Lacey to take him in, the three younger members of the house burst in.
From here it’s just sadness again. Agatha faints, Safie runs off, and Felix begins to immediately beat Adam into submission. Adam, although he knows he’s stronger than Felix, just takes it before running away back to his hovel. He was so close (assuming De Lacey continued to just be an awesome person), and then it was snatched away with the same amount of ceremony as every other encounter he’s had with people.
I feel in some ways like this is two chapters that were sort of jammed together. The first half is more akin to the previous chapters describing Adam’s journey and burgeoning consciousness/education. While the latter half actually stings a bit more because it doesn’t even get a whole chapter to itself.
Adam is walking one day when he finds several books: Plutarch’s Lives, Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, and Paradise Lost. Luckily they are in French (the De Lacey family speaks French it turns out, not German), and Adam sets about reading them. While reading he begins to develop a sort of sense of identification with and apart from humankind. In Werther, he seems fond for the main character, but can’t quite comprehend all of his struggles. Similarly, he comes to admire certain people from Plutarch over others. He favors more pacifistic historical figures than martial heroes like Romulus. It’s around this time that I remembered reading that Shelley had experimented with vegetarianism, and that Adam also has never eaten meat. Finally, he reads Milton and finds himself at once identifying with Adam and Satan. Like Adam, he figures, he is the first of his kind and somewhat alone in a strange world. However, unlike Adam, he does not have anyone he can turn to for advice or help. Instead, he feels envy for humans like Satan does for God. Later on, he discovers one of Vic’s journals that was in an article of clothing that Adam had managed to take with him. In it, Victor records the months leading up to his creating Adam.
Wow, Adam really calls Victor out here and it’s pretty wonderful. He is angry at Victor for creating a being if he was only going to abandon it for being ugly. I hope Vic takes some of this to heart. After all, it isn’t Adam’s fault by any means that he’s not living up to human beauty standards. Something tells me Vic’s going to be too stuck in his own feelings about this too, though.
From here, Adam decides one day that he’s going to go try to introduce himself to the De Lacey’s. Specifically, he’s going to wait until Safie, Felix, and Agatha have gone one day so that he can talk to M. De Lacey, who, being blind, is less likely to react negatively upon seeing him.
Adam begins speaking to De Lacey and it’s so sad already. He’s evasive about the “friends” he has nearby, and is unable to particularly communicate the entirety of his situation without letting on that he isn’t human. Just when he bursts into a fit of emotion, pleading for De Lacey to take him in, the three younger members of the house burst in.
From here it’s just sadness again. Agatha faints, Safie runs off, and Felix begins to immediately beat Adam into submission. Adam, although he knows he’s stronger than Felix, just takes it before running away back to his hovel. He was so close (assuming De Lacey continued to just be an awesome person), and then it was snatched away with the same amount of ceremony as every other encounter he’s had with people.
Frankenstein - Chapter 14
How did Adam find this out!?
Most of this chapter is concerned with the De Lacey family. Particularly, it’s about how they came to live in this small town in Germany, and fell upon such hard times. I’ve got to say, I’m actually not terribly a fan of it. I know it’s sort of like disliking a book’s characters for what is essentially just a given for them, but… I mean, here are my thoughts on the matter:
-What does this add? It seems like the De Laceys were fine characters anyway as just working class townsfolk with some land to their name that weren’t particularly rich. Safie’s appearance doesn’t even need that much explanation, I think. She could’ve just been someone Felix had met at some point, maybe on military service or something. I don’t know.
Instead we get this… really strange narrative about how Safie’s father had been captured and Felix tried to help him get out of his punishment. However, Felix gets himself into trouble toward this end and his family, consisting of Agatha and their father, who’s just called De Lacey, are arrested. Felix turns himself in and despite this good gesture, the family is still kept imprisoned for five months, and eventually exiled from France, losing their money in the process. They take up residence in Germany and Safie’s father, who said that he would repay Felix’s kindness, reneges on the agreement before heading back to Turkey. As for Safie herself, she decides to go find and live with Felix, who she’d fallen in love with.
The whole plot just feels contrived to give them some melodrama to work through. It wouldn’t be so apparent if the De Lacey’s hadn’t already been presented as the only characters who weren’t well-off in the narrative so far. This kind of takes away that aspect of their character and makes them more of displaced wealthy people. Maybe I’m overlooking some part of the socioeconomic strata on why this was needed in this novel, but for now it mostly seems like a way to just eke out some sort of tension. AS though the tension of just living while poor isn’t enough.
There’s also remarkably little of Adam in this chapter. He briefly interjects to say that he copied down some of the letters surrounding Safie that he had found, but really this is more the De Lacey’s story than his, which is pretty disappointing. Also, there seems like there’d be a bit of a logistics problem to Adam figuring out this entire scenario.
The letters must’ve been very expository, because otherwise it doesn’t seem likely he’d’ve learned this. I know this is pre-naturalist writing, and so maybe that in some way justifies things like this, but it still feels a bit divergent from what the core of the story really is.
Most of this chapter is concerned with the De Lacey family. Particularly, it’s about how they came to live in this small town in Germany, and fell upon such hard times. I’ve got to say, I’m actually not terribly a fan of it. I know it’s sort of like disliking a book’s characters for what is essentially just a given for them, but… I mean, here are my thoughts on the matter:
-What does this add? It seems like the De Laceys were fine characters anyway as just working class townsfolk with some land to their name that weren’t particularly rich. Safie’s appearance doesn’t even need that much explanation, I think. She could’ve just been someone Felix had met at some point, maybe on military service or something. I don’t know.
Instead we get this… really strange narrative about how Safie’s father had been captured and Felix tried to help him get out of his punishment. However, Felix gets himself into trouble toward this end and his family, consisting of Agatha and their father, who’s just called De Lacey, are arrested. Felix turns himself in and despite this good gesture, the family is still kept imprisoned for five months, and eventually exiled from France, losing their money in the process. They take up residence in Germany and Safie’s father, who said that he would repay Felix’s kindness, reneges on the agreement before heading back to Turkey. As for Safie herself, she decides to go find and live with Felix, who she’d fallen in love with.
The whole plot just feels contrived to give them some melodrama to work through. It wouldn’t be so apparent if the De Lacey’s hadn’t already been presented as the only characters who weren’t well-off in the narrative so far. This kind of takes away that aspect of their character and makes them more of displaced wealthy people. Maybe I’m overlooking some part of the socioeconomic strata on why this was needed in this novel, but for now it mostly seems like a way to just eke out some sort of tension. AS though the tension of just living while poor isn’t enough.
There’s also remarkably little of Adam in this chapter. He briefly interjects to say that he copied down some of the letters surrounding Safie that he had found, but really this is more the De Lacey’s story than his, which is pretty disappointing. Also, there seems like there’d be a bit of a logistics problem to Adam figuring out this entire scenario.
The letters must’ve been very expository, because otherwise it doesn’t seem likely he’d’ve learned this. I know this is pre-naturalist writing, and so maybe that in some way justifies things like this, but it still feels a bit divergent from what the core of the story really is.
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