From the Bookshelf of Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy…

Frankenstein

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Start date: September 22, 2011

Finish date: October 18, 2011

Discussion: Book Discussions

Discussion leader: Connor Kinkade

Why we're reading this: Group discussion Oct 2011
Connor is reading it for his British Literature class.
#20 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F …more
[close] Group discussion Oct 2011
Connor is reading it for his British Literature class.
#20 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/1390858...

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What Members Thought

Aug 17, 2011 Kevin Xu rated it liked it

Shelves: re-read

I love the book, but I hated how much additional material was in the book.

5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 11, 2010 Bobby Bermea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: the-blood-is-the-life

Frankenstein is a difficult book to offer a critique on if only because we live in a post-Frankenstein world. The main thing going for it is that when it first came out it was a Completely New Idea, the Holy Grail of art. The book itself does not withstand the test of time. The prose is overwrought. The plot contrivances and coincidences are often mind-boggling. The melodrama of the whole thing can be overwhelming. Perhaps more than anything, the book is so central to our culture, so integral to Frankenstein is a difficult book to offer a critique on if only because we live in a post-Frankenstein world. The main thing going for it is that when it first came out it was a Completely New Idea, the Holy Grail of art. The book itself does not withstand the test of time. The prose is overwrought. The plot contrivances and coincidences are often mind-boggling. The melodrama of the whole thing can be overwhelming. Perhaps more than anything, the book is so central to our culture, so integral to our collective consciousness, that the expectations of the reader can't help but be sky high and Shelley, as a writer, rarely meets those expectations. She has moments of lyric beauty. There are several instances of truly engaging insight and of course, the central, large questions (and they don't get any larger) are eloquently and movingly engaged. But she's not a craftsman. There's no restraint or precision to her prose or her plotting and these are major weaknesses. But does any of that even matter? With this book Mary Shelley invented science fiction, gave us a new palette for dreaming and delineated a tectonic shift in the way human beings looked at themselves and their place in the Universe. How many artists can say that? Questions that we are dealing with now about religion, science, abortion, cloning, the Internet, stem cell research -- the list goes on and on -- find their roots in this deeply flawed horror story written by a nineteen year old girl. Is there any more to be said really? Whatever the shortcomings of the manuscript, the twentieth and the twenty first centuries are in her debt.

Bernie Wrightson, on the other hand, is a master craftsman working at the top of his game, on a subject he obviously felt great passion for. The result is a thunderous step forward in the evolution of comic art. He perfectly captures the tone and the sensibility of Shelley's story and, if anything, deepens her storytelling. Wrightson uses a cross hatching technique that evokes antique wood cuttings. But there is no doubt that his is a modern sensibility. It's dangerous, in anything, to call something "definitive" but I would say that with this remarkable edition, a true masterpiece of twentieth century pop culture, Bernie Wrightson created the definitive visual representation of Mary Shelley's prophetic vision.

Experience this book. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review