Wow, I don’t think I blogged much in December (goes to look, wow 4 times with the last being the 7th). I think I was just giving time for my Thor review to sink in. Yeah, everyone needs time off from time to time.
I finally got around to reading Frankenstein in that detour. Frankenstein is considered by many to be the very first science fiction novel. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t as blown away as I thought I would be. Well in the sense that the book is nothing like what you know of Frankenstein from TV and movies, yes I was blown away.
I found that the book was pretty slow at points, but these same points are the really creative parts of the story. Shelley explored the philosophical side of the monster, but man does she hit us over the head with it. Victor is a horrible, horrible character. Kids today think they invented Emo, but they didn’t. That distinction belongs to the Leisure class of the 17th century. Victor is an absolute bore and his actions seemed nonsensical. Luckily there was a monster in the book to make things interesting. Oh crap, it is a monster that is just as emo.
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the classic I expected either. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it or my preconceived notions of the Frankenstein monster singing Putting on the Ritz were just too much to overcome. I really enjoyed parts of it, but the rest were only meh. Even though I would only give this one about 3 stars, I would recommend it for its historical relevance. It is fairly short and can be read fairly quickly.
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4 comments:
Welcome back, Budd! I've not read the book but I imagine the differences in style between the decades would have an impact.
I kept thinking, "Budd's taking a break, I should post to SFMedia", but all my ideas were non-SF in December.
I liked Frankenstein, but like you for the historical relevance and realizing how utterly different it was than film versions -- though I think the more recent DeNiro film version tries to capture some of the original.
I've been fairly blogless as well, so don't feel too bad. Life comes up sometimes.
RE: Frankenstein - I haven't read it in a long time and I wasn't the biggest fan at the time. I recently bought the Bernie Wrightson illustrated hardcover seen here http://www.amazon.com/Bernie-Wrightsons-Frankenstein-Wollstonecraft-Shelley/dp/1595822003 which is fricking beautiful. I haven't reread it yet, still have a stack of other books, but the pictures are super-sweet.
I read it as a kid and was blown away. I read it as an adult and wasn't...
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