Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
My favorite class-required read. I’m tempted to steal this class copy.
I listened to Frankenstein recently, and I wasn’t very keen on it. For one thing the monster seemed so very eloquent with his speech, which broke my immersion because a being who had no understanding of language at all not so long ago (and who said he learned language simply from spying on a particular family) should have language skills that are rudimentary at best. This among other issues. The story just didn’t captivate me.
Dracula, on the other hand, was fantastic.
I’d rather read “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am thy fallen angel,” than “eeeeuuurrgghhhhh.”
As I said, he could have language, but he ought to struggle with it. “Thee”'s, “thy”'s and “thou”'s from such a character, and in paragraphs and pages of unbroken eloquent speech, just weren’t believable from an uneducated mind such as his.
Those words weren’t fancy at the time.
It’s not the words. it’s the eloquence in speaking them. His language skills can not be learned from scratch in a year.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
My favorite class-required read. I’m tempted to steal this class copy.
I listened to Frankenstein recently, and I wasn’t very keen on it. For one thing the monster seemed so very eloquent with his speech, which broke my immersion because a being who had no understanding of language at all not so long ago (and who said he learned language simply from spying on a particular family) should have language skills that are rudimentary at best. This among other issues. The story just didn’t captivate me.
Dracula, on the other hand, was fantastic.
I’d rather read “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am thy fallen angel,” than “eeeeuuurrgghhhhh.”
As I said, he could have language, but he ought to struggle with it. “Thee”'s, “thy”'s and “thou”'s from such a character, and in paragraphs and pages of unbroken eloquent speech, just weren’t believable from an uneducated mind such as his.
It also isn’t believable for an 18th century doctor to have abiogenetically cultured an artificial human in a laboratory, either.
Methinks you’re evaluating what is essentially a (then) modern mythological cautionary tale in a wholly wrong light.
No, it broke my suspension of disbelief.
Also, Dr. Frankenstein is basically a douche, so when he’s in terror for his life or well being I wasn’t sympathetic. Much of the book takes place from his perspective.
As an aside, and neither positive nor negative, the story was much shorter than I expected it to be.