Nightmare: The Birth of Victorian Horror

I thought it was interesting that Mary Shelley had three distinct dreams in which she combined the contents for the plot of her story and she identified herself most with the creature because of her childhood and life. I liked finding out how she came up with the name from a nearby castle she once stayed at. It was surprising that the novel went through three publishers before it was published, because it is such a beautiful story.
The documentary describes Frankenstein phenomenon "as becoming 'out of control'," because everybody wanted to "cash in" by putting on plays, movies, and writing books based on it, like Harry Potter and Twilight, the popular series of today. Like Mary Shelley, Stephenie Meyer also had a distinct dream about her monster, Edward Cullen.

The Elephant Man

This is a very sad movie and thought provoking about the outer and inner goodness. If you tell someone they are ugly, they will develop a complex about it and feel ugly. John was treated like an animal his whole life and didn't really reach his humanity and potential intelligence until someone showed him kindness. John says to his guests, "People are afraid of what they don't understand" and "I am not an animal," summarizing his story extremely well by showing he is a real person, but misunderstood.

This film, like Frankenstein, also takes a swipe at science and machines, saying "You can't reason with them." I cannot help but compare the lives of the Monster in Frankenstein to John Merrick. I wonder if Frankenstein's monster had someone who showed him compassion despite his looks, would he had lived a happier life like Merrick. It is better to build someone up rather than try to break them down.

Reading Frankenstein

Growing up watching the Frankenstein films, I always viewed the monster with green skin as brainless killing machine who didn't know right from wrong and couldn't be reasoned with. In the book by Mary Shelley, this yellow-skinned monster has intelligence, has real feelings and emotions, and creates diabolical plans of revenge and murder for his creator.

The tortured souls in Frankenstein are only happy when they are blissfully naive, unaware of their shortcomings. Frankenstein is happiest at childhood when he is thirsty for knowledge. I thought it was funny in chapter 3, when Frankenstein's professor asks him, "Have you really spent your time in studying such nonsense?," which only makes Victor want to learn more. When he created the monster, which should have been one of the most happiest moments of his life, his scientific curiosity died. Victor is tortured with his decisions, knowing he overstepped his boundaries as a human being, after the Monster murder his brother and his bride.

The monster is the happiest working for the people in the cottage. He compares his relationship with Frankenstein with Adam's relationship with God from Paradise Lost, wondering if God abandoned Adam the way Victor did to him. I thought it was interesting that he identifies himself with Satan. He lives in the shadow of his creator's rejection and declares Victor his enemy, like people who have lashed out at God after they feel God has let them down. A constant theme is nature versus science, as well as God versus man. Can anyone just enjoy their humanity or do we enjoy playing God? Why as humans, do we feel the need to have more power over our own lives and world than we actually have?

It's obvious her deceased mother Mary Wollstonecraft had a huge effect on Mary Shelley as a writer, because Shelley use lines in her story from her mother's writing. I wonder how much more her mother would have effected Shelley's writing process if her mother had lived.

First Block Finals

I read Fields of Home and Saving Madeline by Rachel Ann Nunes. I started reading American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. It's loosely based on the life of Laura Bush.

I found out my spanish professor Sr. Compton used to work at Sears the same time my mom did. Small world! Mom remembers him as being a good artist who could speak spanish. For my spanish class, I had four orals and we played a game with vocab. For our final today, we went to Rancherito's for breakfast. I had a breakfast burrito, which was pretty good. After my final, I went and got my books for second block. I start second block on Monday.

"Muchos temian miedo de que esta dose no terminara nunca"
(Many feared this class would never end).