(no subject)

[vickyducky]

I've been reading 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley for the last couple of weeks. It's not especially long but it was hardly 'unput-down-able'. In fact I really struggled with it and at one point resorted to skimming over great chunks. The language is so flowery and overblown; I wondered if this were just the fashion of the time but then I realised that Jane Austin is contemporaneous and nothing could be more different than her style. I think that the big problem is that all the action is 'off stage' as it were. Partly this is a product of the narrative device; the story is told in a letter relating the tale as Frankenstein has told it to the narrator. But the bigger problem is that the horrific things that the monster does are never actually witnessed by Frankenstein so they are almost glossed over. Certainly for a horror story I was never the least horrified. And the big moment - when the monster comes to life - is disposed of in one sentence. I was expecting a big dramatic scene. Possibly the biggest problem is that I think you are supposed to sympathise with Frankenstein but really I was more on the side of the monster - not withstanding his being a mass murderer. Having created his creature, F is so appalled by his physical deformity (which is F's own fault)he just runs off and abandons him. This is so irresponsible it astonishes me. And when he returns to his apartment and finds the creature gone F makes no effort to find out what has become of him but rushes off elsewhere. And later on when under the impression that the monster intends to murder him on his wedding night F still carries on and marries the unfortunate woman, seeming not to give a damn about what the effect of being widowed on her wedding night might have on her. If Mary Shelley intended F to be a selfish nitwit she succeeded. I can only assume that I am missing something that many many other people found and enjoyed in this book - it has been lauded for 200 years after all. I just feel that it's a really cracking idea, a gorgeous plot, utterly underachieved.

Have just watched a clip of Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths presenting an award. Was struck yet again by how little DR is and thought ,not for the first time, life must be so weird for him. But then it occurred to me that actually I'm even shorter than he is (or at least admits to being) and it doesn't seem weird to me.