Charlotte Mecklenburg Library discussion

We understand it is a little early in the month to already to be done with our Community Read title. With that in mind, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is asking: what is your favorite Frankenstein adaptation? We've all seen some adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic tale be it in a movie, on a television show or even on the stage. Let us know which is your favorite and why!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Some Assembly Required"!!! :D

Well, the easiest for me is "Young Frankenstein". I have the lines pretty much memorized. So, like Olympic judging, I'm going set my "10" aside and go with Fred Saberhagen's 1986 book, "The Frankenstein Papers". Like his earlier "The Dracula Tapes" it purport's to tell the "true" story and the twist in it is at least as outlandish as the original premise that electricity can reanimate dead tissue.

I agree with Mark, "Young Frankenstein!" It operates on so many levels.

Hi. So I think that I mentioned early on that I'm a complete newbie to a Goodreads discussion group so I'm clueless about protocol, but I thought I'd start a new topic - Is Victor Frankenstein a delusional child of priviledge? Some background: The edition that I'm reading is an annotated version by Dan Abramson published in February of 2016. I wouldn't call it so much "annotated" (an expectation of descriptions of dated language and historical references) as much as modern commentary. From the introduction, his premise is that the book is about contemporary class distinctions. Maybe. Moving on.

Mary Shelley's description of Victor's early life is very much Romanticised. Everyone and everything is the most "gentle", "gracious", "excellent", etc. Including his mother's deathbed speech. Hey, that's the genre. Just quoting from the introductory "Letters" and early chapters.

So, Victor is pretty much allowed to do pretty much what he wants to do, up to and including when he heads off to college/university.

There he gets lost in his obsession to create life from, well, assembled dead body parts. Then comes the epiphany, "Until from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke upon me - a light so brilliant and wondrous (again with the Romantic superlatives), that...I was surprised that among so many men of genius... I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret." Really?

The immediate next sentence is somewhat defensive: "Remember, I am not recording the vision of a madman." Oh? Do tell.

Mark wrote: "Hi. So I think that I mentioned early on that I'm a complete newbie to a Goodreads discussion group so I'm clueless about protocol, but I thought I'd start a new topic - Is Victor Frankenstein a de..."

Mark,

We welcome new discussion questions from our patrons as long as the guidelines listed on the group page are followed. The point of this discussion is spark interest and conversation from our community. Go ahead and post your topic as a separate discussion in the group so that it is more visible to group members! We appreciate your passion for discussing our Community Read title.

Thank You,

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

Will do, thanks!