April 29, 2009

Dr. Frankenstein And His Monster!


While spending a week in 1958 with my cousin, Bill Armstrong, in Woodbury, Tennessee, my aunt gave us enough money to go see a movie. My first movie was FRANKENSTEIN. Looking back it seems providential that I saw this movie.
(Wikipedia) Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by the British author Mary Shelley. Shelley wrote the novel when she was 19 years old. The title of the novel refers to a scientist who learns how to reanimate flesh and creates a being in the likeness of man out of body parts taken from the dead. In modern popular culture, people have tended to refer to the Creature as "Frankenstein" (especially in films since 1931).
Frankenstein is a novel infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. The novel raises many issues that can be linked to today's culture. These issues include the evolution of man and whether technical progress can be self-destructive.
Shelley wrote: "It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs."

3 comments:

Dr. Paul W. Foltz said...

Picture of What man will do with cloning, imitating life.

Anonymous said...

Hi Charles
"Dr. Frankenstein" are you still here? Have you seen any of your "Monster's" around lately?

Does Daniel Wright ring any bells?

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12245210

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100331/WILLIAMSON01/100331067/Man-accused-of-flashing-jogger-in-Franklin

WatchingHISstory said...

My daughter married one of Adrian Rogers' monsters. My monster-in-law is a proud follower of Doctor Frankenstein!

So mow I bear personally the awful shame of Dr. Rogers' ongoing saga.
It is extremely personal now.