Read All The Classics!!!

[Shae]

Haha, Zara - I really enjoyed your rant too :-)

Anni, I definitely agree with your point that this story encourages us to pause and consider our treatment of others :-)

[Zaara]

CH 11-16 Monster's story
(view spoiler)[
Poignant enough but also felt a bit weird reading it bcuz it was a "baby" (the monster is only three years old when this conversation takes place)...speaking in adult mannerisms about how it "learned the world" thru osmosis...a process actual babies/adults can never describe. As a feat of writing it feels somewhat curious in this singularity...

Quote: "Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base?"

Doesn't make you feel too proud does it, if this is the succinct conclusion of a corpse monster's learning?
😂

How he craves to be loved, Anni, above everything else...and then when he said he read Paradise Lost "as a true history" instead of a mythological/symbological poem 😂😂😂 awww the baby...look how innocent he is...and he reads Viktor's diary and finds out how he was loathed and repulsed even at the moment of his birth...and he cries...at these moments I wanted to do a Hagrid and hug the Monster and wrap it in a fluffy blamket...😘 which is...kinda unrealistic...haha!
(hide spoiler)]

CH 18-19
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Well...he has made a promise but a grudging one (see how he secretly wishes "it" = "his problem" will die, as an escapist...o well, the story of every foolhardy gambler/overspender/debtor in history) and now he has procrastinated to England again...and AGAIN not told anyone anything, leaving them all exposed, though he says he worried abt them and considered their safety.

Remember thinking the descriptions of the Rhinelands and crumbling castles must have amused you, @Anni...being as one-dimensional and dry as they are.

He is delaying, this B@stard is deliberately delaying and travelling and enjoying the good life KNOWING that the Monster will be waiting for him in misery and anguish and wretched hoping anticipation. And that relief can be given only by his hands.
Yet he delays and enjoys life and meanwhile ALSO whines that he is not able to fully enjoy because "the weight of my wretched promise hangs over me"...he is a "blasted tree"...a "bolt has entered his soul"...oh pish tosh you grotty excuse of a man! Endless pages and pages of this whining...words don't suffice for the scorn I feel for this char but I think I said this before. I don't even know why ppl complain abt Kaladin when this Viktor exists on the planet in the same megaverse of fiction. At least poor Peter was genuinely depressef and actually accomplished so many good things while fighting his inner demoms. Anyone who has a problem with Kaladim should chk this dude out...the book's outta copyright and can be read for *advertisement voice* FREE FREE FREE on all platforms....
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Also, simultaneously I laughed a little thinking of Goodreads and mainly of Martin/Rothfuss/Lynch...I can't despise them as I do Viktor Frankenstein (after all they have given us much joy) but I can't help thinking of the parallels, Anni...see...their procrastinations, their celebrity lifestyles, the weight of their unfinished work hanging on their heads like a promise...and we the readers, wretched and waiting like Frankenstein's momster for the closure only they can give.
Do not deny us readers, Evil Trio....it is tooooooo krooooool....😂😂😂 I loved it when @Lundos called GRRM a "diva" somewhere...

[Zaara]

CH 20
(view spoiler)[
And of course he changed his mind after enraging and hurting this poor creature wantonly.
But at least this time there seems some sense in this decision. Still, he could have soothed, he could have explained, he could have extended fellowship and some love and the Monster, so lonely and deprived, SO NOBLE would have deffo listened to him.
Instead...look what he said and did!
Now there will be a huge catastrophe...some ppl keep making the worst, most destructive choices and always justify them...
But obviously this fukker Viktor will not die...since he is alive to keep cribbing and be part of the frame story...no, now all the other innocent ppl are endangered, I bet you...
(hide spoiler)]

So I finished the book. Now I want to go to the mountains and smell fresh pinecones.
Also VIKTOR FRAMKENSTEIN IS A WEAK CHINLESS MAN-PRAT WHO DOESNT HAVE A SPINE. Additionally, HE HAS NO B@LLS. I fondly wish he is united with Dolores Umbridge in unholy matrimony. Then he will actually have something to crib about...😂😂😂

CH 21-24 + Riyria/First Law fullseries...Anni, safe for you to open (nothing abt Percepliquis)
(view spoiler)[
And the story careens towards its inevitable destructive end...what to say?
Viktor abandons his only living relative (the youngest brother Ernest is never mentioned again) and then just fukks off to seek his revenge (cribbing the whole time about his sufferings internal and external) and then weakly dies (suddenly) in impotence and incompetence HAVING thrusted his disgusting burden on the innocent Walton...😱
I can't believe he wanted to drag a bystander into this and destroy his life too.
I have never been so vehemently judgemental abt a char before bcuz in not one instance has he shown himself the master of either his emotions or his judgements or his actions or their consequences. He is so i credibly self-centered. Even in the last chapters all he is on about was the "ruin of what he could have been"...

Ok I didn't like Primcess Too Speshul Arista much and wasn't very generous to her, I don't think. I wish I could bring myself to like her more, I don't exactly dislike her but...I can't...more than this, I can't dredge up for Arista, not when I keep woshing he was with a Thrace/Dodge type. Nor did I like it when I feared Ardee will dump Glokta and go for "King" Jezal (boy, did I misjudge her...how I am glad to admit this) but this *hiss* book...
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[Zaara]

Re Anni: ABT THE MONSTER'S MORALITY
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I saw your comment where you were disapproved and disliked the Monster's actions, yeah Anni and Shae, I agree...he behaved uhhh monstrously and took several innocent lives. But these were...even as the narrator herself takes pains to show us...all cases of "hurting because we hurt"...when you face extreme loneliness, cruelty and deprivation over a sustained time you become twisted inside...and this kid, he had nobody to teach him or love him, still he developed such cravings for the highest sensibilities, he tried everything Anni...to be loved and accepted by the de Laceys and again and again by this weak and despicable father/creator/authority figure who kept rejecting and abandoning him.
What could he do?

He is a monster after all...he fell...but all the time, all he wanted was to be loved by somebody...anybody...look how he says he never enjoyed killing but was goaded by loneliness when he saw other ppl enjoying what he can never have...when he saw Frankenstein get married after denying him a mate.

d he displayed more true moral rectitude and true remorse in his short ending portion...he decided to kill himself and save humanity. He came to say SORRY to Frankenstein, Anni.
😥
God, all this...all this could have been stopped if Viktor had just a little bit more humanity. I blame him MOSTLY (tho not entirely bcuz you guys are right).
Still, if you do not yourself display a semblance of moral fibre and/or self-mastery to a baby...what will it learn? How can you blame a three year old for the actions it takes by learning from osmosis? Just because it is big and ugly? Just bcuz it doesn't sound much like a three year old? Its mind is STILL that unformed, no?

Then there was that petty goading revenge pursuit section of taunt and follow. Do you know what it reminded me of, Anni? During my journo/editor days, I was once in divorce court and I watched this couple wrangle in the UGLIEST manner over assets, namely a used car and I believe it was a vacuum cleaner and some other random items. Too small to be worth the price of your personal dignity, I'd think.

From there it escalated into random sh!t slinging across the courtroom and everyone (the clerks and flunkeys and junior counsel) were all sniggering and I was sickened. The "couple" seemed oblivious to everything but carrying their point. It went on for thirty minutes until the judge herself got sick of the spite and adjourned.

Needless to say, it made a strong impression...
This is what it all gets reduced to. These ppl must have once loved each other enough to promise to spend their whole lives with each other...when they bought that used car...when they hoovered the house...but this is what the small pettinesses and revenge-y "I'll show yous" all add up to in the end...a huge big motherhonking ugliness that destroys everything that could have been so beautiful (like Viktor's "possible" life)...

Dark days...haha! Those were the times when I would think that I was still young and had decades left to live and the thought of it scared the crap out of me...it was like a wet sponge over my nose and mouth...I sh!t you not!
😂😂😂
(hide spoiler)]

Large themes. Little book. Won't read it again bcuz its too MELADRAMANGST (oooo look, I did that Fin thing) but it discusses enduring themes and poses timeless questions. Finished this book late Sunday night...ok it was 3 AM Monday morning...but I'm only now typed out this reading log...wtf!

@Shae (if you are still here and did not faint reading my long book essay...😂) I will deffo be interested in knowing your opinions of Viktor's decisions throughout this book. At best, they are ill-considered but did he make you as angry as he makes me? Pls answer if you get the time to.

[Anni]

Oh Zaara, I love reading your reviews and thoughts and everything! And everytime I feel a little bad because you are writing so much and I really like the way you are thinking and my updates are all so short im comparison. 🙈

I also need to go now, but I will come back with a proper reply¡

[Shae]

Zaara wrote: "Re Anni: ABT THE MONSTER'S MORALITY

I saw your comment where you were disapproved and disliked the Monster's actions, yeah Anni and Shae, I agree...he behaved uhhh monstrously and took several inn..."

Dear Zaara, I adored reading your 'essay' :-)

Regarding the character of Victor: (view spoiler)[I completely agree with you that he is an intensely dis-likable character. Victor completely drops the ball as a 'parent'. The Creature is his 'child' and he fails to love and guide it. Victor does not acknowledge his responsibility. He literally creates a 'monster' by his rejection. Victor is self obsessed and only concerned with his own egotistical ambition. He seems to be lacking in self awareness and does not learn from the suffering that he causes.

While Victor may have experienced scientific success, he completely failed as a human being. (hide spoiler)]

A cautionary tale for parent's everywhere, haha. Children need to be properly cared for and nurtured :-)

[Zaara]

Thanks Shae. This helped amplify my thoughts abt the book. Sometimes...ok always...I worry that my long book posts may be off-putting or seem like I'm "attention-stealing" or something...I am socially kinda backward but when I do a BR I pour my heat and soul into the experience and try to make it large for everyone.

Ahhhh Anni....no need...to post a long spoiler abt a book you finisjed six weeks ago will feel too much like History homework and I will nevaaaaarr do that to you darling. I'm only too glad you took the time to read all my rambliness....ALL these months...haha 😂😂😂😂
Cheers, sweetheart. Just tell me you despise Viktor too tho...😳😜 wanna hear that.

[Shae]

Zaara wrote: "Thanks Shae. This helped amplify my thoughts abt the book. Sometimes...ok always...I worry that my long book posts may be off-putting or seem like I'm "attention-stealing" or something...I am socia..."

I do understand what you mean, it's difficult to know how we come across to others who are reading our comments, without the context of facial expressions or tone of voice :-)

But do not worry - I've always interpreted your comments to be kind, thoughtful, sincere and humorous :-)

[Zaara]

Shae wrote: "Zaara wrote: ""

Heh, have you never heard?
What you see is what you ARE, darlin'...
But I am greedy and will take it ALL :) and thank ye kindly.
Happy holidays and all my best wishes for a wonderful 2019.

[Shae]

@Zaara - Hello! Welcome back :-)

Happy Holidays to you also! And yes, may 2019 be filled with all the good things :-)