Week one: Frankenstein



  I was told the Frankenstein story by parents when I was very young, there were also many graphic novels and televisions tell the Frankenstein story, so I kind of know the general story. One of the interesting things is a Japenese horror manga artist, Ito Junji, drew the manga version of the Frankenstein. I read his manga version of Frankenstein a few years ago, and I realized that Frankenstein is very famous indeed. Although there are so many different media brings the story to me, this is the first time that I read the book, and I believe the book version is better than any other versions.

  To be honest, Frankenstein is the first Gothic novel I have ever read, so it is a good chance to learn about the Gothic. Going into Gothic elements, I would say the most apparent elements is the supernatural events happened in the story. Victor developed a secret technique to impart life to non-living matter. Eventually, he undertakes the creation of a humanoid, but due to the difficulty in replicating the minute parts of the human body, he made the Creature tall, about 8 feet (2.4 m) in height and proportionally large. In the story, Victor's technique is a kind of science, the general story is about science. I would say creating Frankenstein is a kind of "supernatural events" because the monster would not be created after all in the realistic world, even if you did what Victor exactly did. Therefore, the Frankenstein is infused with elements of supernature of Gothic novels.

  Overall, I like the Frankenstein very much, and I really admire the writer, Mary Shelley, who could finish such amazing novel being a female writer at that time.  
  

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