Eddie Whitlock's Blog: Reader and Writer - Posts Tagged "god"

I'm struggling right now to listen to the audiobook for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It is a struggle, but it is much easier than my repeated attempts to read the book.

Like so many folks, I loved the Frankenstein Monster created by James Whale and Boris Karloff. To struggle through the original source material hurts. I really want to like this book. I love the Old Monster.

The book, though, is less a horror story and more of a reflection on our nature as the abandoned children of God. Created and then set free to find agony in the rejection of others and the recognition of our own hideousness, we are angry Adams, challenging God to give happiness to His creation.

I realize the book was really a short story originally and was probably more exciting in that format. In its published form, it is padded with unnecessary meandering that doesn't do a lot to further the plot nor our understanding of the characters. Instead, we - at best - may see the horridness of the life of the Monster because it is juxtaposed with those of various "normal" folks.

Despite this, I have all the more respect for Shelley's having written this, the first science fiction novel. Never once do I question the "science" behind the creation of the Monster. (Btw, it's done with chemistry and without lightning.)

I'm about halfway through the book at this point and it's been a long journey. I'm determined to make it. And then, well. Lookout, Dracula.

I think it would be entertaining to have a day - maybe one day every year - when people have to wear a number on their backs. The number would tell how many of the Ten Commandments that person has broken.

It wouldn't say which ones, just a number of how many.

You gotta figure most people would probably score five or six at least. Those are some pretty tough commandments, after all. And we're pretty lousy creatures.

I find the whole list pretty confusing (they overlap) and vague, if you listen to people who tell you that if you hate someone, well, that's like killing them.

Me? I scored anywhere from 8 to 11, depending on how well I was counting.

I realize that this would be impossible to enforce. It would also open an interesting door: The guy who has the number ONE on his back tells you that his only sin is lying. Heh heh heh! Gotcha there!