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fandomhigh2009-11-11 04:03 pm
carpe_demon) wrote in fandomhigh2009-11-11 04:03 pm
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Adventures in Literature, Wednesday, Period Three [Class Eleven]
Drake was happily munching on a lunch of veggie pizza when students began to file in. It was probably best not to ask where the toppings came from.
"So in 1816," Drake said when the class began, "Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Polidori, who went on to beat Stoker to writing about vampires but didn't get the fame or chicks, all vacationed at Lake Geneva together. They were bored and challenged each other to write horror stories. They also, if the movie Gothic is to be believed, got naked on the rooftop in a lightning storm. But that's another story entirely.
"Anyway, Ms. Shelley came up with the idea for Frankenstein, and Percy encouraged her to expand her short story into a novel. So you've got Victor Frankenstein, who was obsessed with science and creating life out of death. He starts trying to build a man and bring him to life. In the book it's kind of nebulous how he makes his creature, but in the film adaptations he uses body parts of the dead. He managed to breathe life into his creation, but he doesn't like how horrific the end result looks, so he screams like a little girl and runs away, abandoning his 'monster.'
"Meanwhile, the monster just wants to live and let live, but people kind of have an extreme oh-my-god-what-is-that? reaction, complete with pitchforks and torches. Naturally, he starts to get just a little bitter, and ends up killing Victor's little brother and framing a servant girl. Victor figures out that his monster was the real killer. The monster tells Victor he'll leave him alone as long as he makes him a frankenbride. Victor starts to do it but thinks it'll be a big mistake, so he stops. He rubs it in by marrying his cousin, Elizabeth, and his monster then kills her, and Victor and the monster chase each other to the North Pole, where both of them end up dead. There may or may not have been a performance of 'Putting on the Ritz' along the way.
"So what do you think? Who's the real villain of this story? Victor Frankenstein, or the monster? And let's say you've got the power to create life from death in your hands. But the results may not be pretty. Do you risk it? And if you do, are you responsible for what your creation goes on to do?"
"So in 1816," Drake said when the class began, "Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Polidori, who went on to beat Stoker to writing about vampires but didn't get the fame or chicks, all vacationed at Lake Geneva together. They were bored and challenged each other to write horror stories. They also, if the movie Gothic is to be believed, got naked on the rooftop in a lightning storm. But that's another story entirely.
"Anyway, Ms. Shelley came up with the idea for Frankenstein, and Percy encouraged her to expand her short story into a novel. So you've got Victor Frankenstein, who was obsessed with science and creating life out of death. He starts trying to build a man and bring him to life. In the book it's kind of nebulous how he makes his creature, but in the film adaptations he uses body parts of the dead. He managed to breathe life into his creation, but he doesn't like how horrific the end result looks, so he screams like a little girl and runs away, abandoning his 'monster.'
"Meanwhile, the monster just wants to live and let live, but people kind of have an extreme oh-my-god-what-is-that? reaction, complete with pitchforks and torches. Naturally, he starts to get just a little bitter, and ends up killing Victor's little brother and framing a servant girl. Victor figures out that his monster was the real killer. The monster tells Victor he'll leave him alone as long as he makes him a frankenbride. Victor starts to do it but thinks it'll be a big mistake, so he stops. He rubs it in by marrying his cousin, Elizabeth, and his monster then kills her, and Victor and the monster chase each other to the North Pole, where both of them end up dead. There may or may not have been a performance of 'Putting on the Ritz' along the way.
"So what do you think? Who's the real villain of this story? Victor Frankenstein, or the monster? And let's say you've got the power to create life from death in your hands. But the results may not be pretty. Do you risk it? And if you do, are you responsible for what your creation goes on to do?"
Re: Discussion [AiL: Class Eleven]
She paused.
"I w-would not use such a power."