This has eerily stalked the back of my thoughts for more years than I care to mention. What is it about the story of Frankenstein that made it so goddamn scary for two centuries?
Leave aside the fact that it's about a guy who builds a monster out of dead bodies. Peripheral, if also atmospheric.
And a really cool idea.
Leave aside the fact that anybody who's ever faced rejection can relate to the monster. That's scary if you're into disproportionate retaliation.
In every tragedy, the protagonist suffers a loss. If Victor is the protagonist here, he has lost more than anyone ever has in any other tragedy. Agamemnon lost his life. Faustus lost his soul. Hamlet lost his mind. Job lost his family & wealth.
Victor lost all of that at once.
Whatever shape the monster had taken, he represents the sum of all fears: That your whole universe will be destroyed.
What makes this particularly horrifying is the fact that Victor's universe is destroyed by that which represents his greatest triumph: the creation of a human life.
All parents should read this book and be terrified.
Behold: The thing that will destroy you.
Behold: The thing that will destroy you.
See you in another present...
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