20221020 - Frankenstein Book Review Summary and Analysis 2022 [Updated with more Halloween Reviews]

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Hands around their neck, \\ witness the eternal light, \\ nature's creation.

HAIKUPRAJNA - Frankenstein Book Review 2022

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Hello readers,

In the spirit of Halloween, and because it was Mary Shelley Day a few weeks back, I did a reread of her classic gothic horror novel Frankenstein. 

Victor Frankenstein’s story about his Creature is told through the many voices of its side cast; I found that the book felt alive with how deep and well used all the characters were. Frankenstein, at its heart, is a cautionary story about creating life from death as much as it is about creating death from life; it was fascinating reading about how good intentions can cause despair, and how dreadful things can be filled with hope. 

Frankenstein's monster sought to enact revenge against the titular family over the horrors that every human they knew--even the youngest of the Frankenstein family--had inflicted on them. The Creature was a result of Victor Frankenstein's hope of metaphysical pursuits in the field of natural philosophy, where his antiquated science studies fueled his sense of discovery, whereby Frankenstein learned how to turn the old and unreal into something real and new. 

Frankenstein is framed with stories within stories; the main account occurs in the form of letters between a captain and his sister, the former of whom had listened to Victor relate his and his creation’s tales of misfortune, where we readers get to glimpse into the points of view of other characters via letters and of the monster itself, who shedded light on how they basked in the intellect of other perfected beings like their creator. These related tales take place in French-speaking Switzerland and abroad, where every person is written to be expressional by having their emotions and reactions checked minutely in a style reminiscent of romantics. In Victor’s blunted case, he feared being chased by his Creature and foreshadowed his eventual demise through his own narrative voice.

Frankenstein is in the horror genre, as in being wracked with horrible emotional baggage and fear, where the monster’s threats end up being carried out to highlight the difference between fear and anxiety, horror and thriller. In sharp contrast with the desires of his companions, who wished to lift his spirits, the fear and hatred that Victor expressed through his exposition in “normal” moments had tainted the beauty of nature for himself with his own despair.

I enjoyed the captain’s want of a friend and his finding one in Victor via their shared sympathy toward the wretchedness that their singular focuses had wrought on them both. Appealing to another's sympathetic nature is a key theme here, where Victor's silent resolve could be viewed as being devoid of sympathy and as being the ultimate cause leading to the deaths that his Creature forced Victor into experiencing, the Creature wanting Victor to live and suffer the same trials as they had, rather than outright killing Frankenstein. 

Both Frankenstein and his Creature harbour personal inner hells following their high hopes being crushed, having lost what was wanted. However, it is my belief that neither the Creature nor Frankenstein should be sympathized with, as the monster justified framing others for their murderings and Victor felt justified in hiding from revealing his creation.

Victor was afraid of being outcast like his Creature, and they both faced the same guilt over the deaths, but both were concerned for their ego and their public image, doing good to be seen as good instead of just doing good things, such as owning up to mistakes, which led to their shared desperation to be seen as respectable (evidenced by Victor's disgust over his own Creature). 

The Monster's justifications had acted like a trap, by sounding agreeable while appealing to a desire for vengeance. Choosing to agree with the Monster's spell was shown to possess Victor with suffering, which was reinforced by his beautiful natural sceneries being perceived as tainted. 

To me, the most interesting aspect of Frankenstein is the Creature's own poetic comparisons with God's creations of Adam and Satan. The Creature desired an Eve and to return to their metaphorical Eden of forested nature away from humankind (the very same natural scenery that Victor grew to be unable to witness). The use of the name Prometheus was, in my opinion, for the monster learning from his creator (and from others like their creator), along with Frankenstein stealing life from God or nature and being eternally punished by and for his creation, acting as a parable for something bad enough to be worthy of being punished over. Through his master work, Victor knew he was playing God with creation. 

Frankenstein details how one’s unchecked creation affects others and how those effects affect oneself. Frankenstein's monster was a philosophical Daemon, a personified Other, overviewing and passing judgement on humanity while transcending from nature to the civilized as a beast who learned to be human. However, the Creature's eloquence and Victor's aspirations were corrupted, where the products still worked but had spelled wretchedness for their creator. 

Thank you for reading.

Allen W. McLean

PS. You can read my previous Frankenstein review here;

https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2020/12/20201214-frankenstein.html

PPS.

Happy Halloween!

Here is a list of spooky reads that I have reviewed:

. Black Cat (2019) : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/10/20221027-black-cat-2019-comic-book.html

. Frankenstein : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/10/20221020-frankenstein-book-review.html

. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/10/20221007-alices-adventures-in.html

. The Legend of Sleepy Hallow : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/02/20220202-review-legend-of-sleepy-hollow.html

. Howl's Moving Castle : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2021/12/20211229-review-howls-moving-castle.html

The Wendigo : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2021/03/20210319-review-wendigo.html 

Bloodborne comics : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/06/20220614-bloodborne-comic-book-summary.html

Coraline : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2021/12/20211201-review-coraline.html

Beowulf : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2020/12/20201220-beowulf.html

The Island of Doctor Moreau : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2020/12/20201222-island-of-doctor-moreau.html

Check out some stories that I have written for and around Inktober and Halloween:

Sprout : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2021/10/20211031-happy-halloween-nanowrimo.html

Ado the Owl : https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/10/20221027-ado-owl-official-tell-story.html 

Fishing for Caribou : https://read.amazon.ca/kp/embed?asin=B09MDR2JGP 

Also, ULTRAVIOLET is available to read on Kindle : https://read.amazon.ca/kp/embed?asin=B0BKYQV5C4

An official announcement will be revealed soon.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

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Need more Bite-sized Insights to relieve your stress and suffering?

Banner: The Cannon by Allen W. McLean

Readers can follow HaikuPrajna and Electric Armchair via our emailing lists (on Medium, Patreon, LinkedIn and more) for mindfulness meditation scifaiku and haiku poetry based on book reviews and on previews of metaphysical stories such as "Escape Perennial City" (available on Kindle Unlimited); as a free gift, all readers get an Amazon Kindle ebook short story every week on Free Fridays--selection rotates every few weeks, so follow via email to collect them all! https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/follow-on-social-media.html 

Thanks to you, over 500 followers have joined us on Medium! If anyone reading this needs followers to stay in the Medium Partner Program, I am asking you to please follow me (and sign up for emails!) and I'll follow you back! My short story "Hector Blake" is available to read for FREE on Medium!

Leave a comment with books you would like to see reviewed and I will add them to my Goodreads!!

Always open to reading book recommendations. Looking forward to adding new friends on Goodreads, to share what we read with each other: www.goodreads.com/author/show/19557396.Allen_W_McLean

Have been looking for other free kindle books to read, ones that are only free for a day or so, so if you have an ebook on Kindle feel free to share them and I'll download!

April's latest psychedelic music videos, art and poetry is available on all streaming platforms.

Electric Armchair - Living Ghosts (FULL ALBUM): distrokid.com/hyperfollow/electricarmchair/living-ghosts

"Tomothy and the Overseer of the Forest" is available as an eBook through Amazon Kindle apps and devices; read right now with Kindle Unlimited! www.haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/tomothy-and-overseer-of-forest.html

Kindle ebooks can be read on any device through one's web browser at www.read.amazon.com

These poems will be collected in future editions of the HaikuPrajna Collection.

20221007 - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Book Review Analysis 2022

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Croquet flamingos, \\ "But what did the Dormouse say?" \\ Biting his teacup.

HAIKUPRAJNA - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Book Review 2022

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Hello readers,

Had sat down for a reread of 'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll on Mad Hatter Day (10/06). In my opinion, Wonderland is best experienced with the same child-like point of view as Alice has while meeting its inhabitants.

She is accompanied throughout the entire book by its cast of animals and the many followers of the Queen of Hearts. Each exhibited manners of varying degrees of politeness, depending on how mad they were, and, rest assured, they are all madder than children in some manner or another. Yet, the madness lies in the wisdom that Alice distills, such as how little girls are a kind of serpent.

'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland' is an example of nonsense literature, where it balances many literary elements to evoke imagery, with speeches that create silly and enjoyable visuals via homophones, like ‘not’ and ‘knot’ or ‘tale’ and ‘tail’.

While the setting is set in the fantasy genre, I really enjoyed the few elements of magical realism that were included, which helped ground Alice’s adventures and portray them in a relatable manner. Wonderland was described, by the Cheshire Cat, as a place for people who have gone mad. Instead of focusing on dry politics, the cast satires language itself with the political topics being used as content only, highlighting the narrative perspective of a child.

Poetry featured within the tale are largely based upon others, further absorbing the satire in literary nonsense.

Alice fell into Wonderland by chasing the White Rabbit, by chasing something irreal that caught her curiosity. Today, the idiom “down the rabbit hole” is synonymous with fixation and hyperfocus. When the story was written, however, the idiom had yet to exist, while the other metaphors within the book are portrayed in a literal way for Alice and the Wonderland creatures to experience.

The metaphors that do stay metaphorical are instead parodied in both speech and execution, solidifying the playful imagery techniques.

Despite this, some key lessons are shown, such as how promising to give everyone prizes had caused everyone to look to Alice for what they now expected.

All the while, Alice asked questions in order to understand the nonsensical world that she found herself to be in. Alice continued to experiment and to try eating or drinking new things despite their effects. Despite shrinking and growing, she held onto the wisdom that she managed to root out from the others’ madness. Most of what Alice encounters appears as nonsense, at first. However, whenever she discovered or assigned an effect to something, the cause and the effect became consistent or otherwise recallable. 

Upon returning home from Wonderland, we readers are told that adults look to childhood for inspiration in the manner of Alice’s adventure. One’s childhood is described as “a far-off land”, as Alice stumbling through Wonderland.

The most striking aspect of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is her whimsy and ambivalence toward the effects of things by her focusing on its causes, which allowed Alice to create meaning from nonsense. Alice manifested this nonsense by rejecting the inherent lessons or morals of the stories of Wonderland in favour of her own interpretations. The Queen using fear to manipulate her subjects, the same edible causing two different effects and Alice dispelling an entire court by believing them to be nothing but a pack of cards all highlights how choosing the effects of a cause based on one’s (versus another’s) wilful intent alone is able to overcome any situation.

Thank you for reading.

Allen W. McLean

PS. You can read my two other (shorter, two years old now!) "Alice" themed reviews below;

https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2020/12/20201217-alices-adventures-in-wonderland.html

https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2020/12/20201219-through-looking-glass.html

...

Need more Bite-sized Insights to relieve your stress and suffering?

Banner: The Cannon by Allen W. McLean

Readers can follow HaikuPrajna and Electric Armchair via our emailing lists (on Medium, Patreon, LinkedIn and more) for mindfulness meditation scifaiku and haiku poetry based on book reviews and on previews of metaphysical stories such as "Escape Perennial City" (available on Kindle Unlimited); as a free gift, all readers get an Amazon Kindle ebook short story every week on Free Fridays--selection rotates every few weeks, so follow via email to collect them all! https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/follow-on-social-media.html 

Thanks to you, over 500 followers have joined us on Medium! If anyone reading this needs followers to stay in the Medium Partner Program, I am asking you to please follow me (and sign up for emails!) and I'll follow you back! My short story "Hector Blake" is available to read for FREE on Medium!

Leave a comment with books you would like to see reviewed and I will add them to my Goodreads!!

Always open to reading book recommendations. Looking forward to adding new friends on Goodreads, to share what we read with each other: www.goodreads.com/author/show/19557396.Allen_W_McLean

Have been looking for other free kindle books to read, ones that are only free for a day or so, so if you have an ebook on Kindle feel free to share them and I'll download!

April's latest psychedelic music videos, art and poetry is available on all streaming platforms.

Electric Armchair - Living Ghosts (FULL ALBUM): distrokid.com/hyperfollow/electricarmchair/living-ghosts

"Tomothy and the Overseer of the Forest" is available as an eBook through Amazon Kindle apps and devices; read right now with Kindle Unlimited! www.haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/tomothy-and-overseer-of-forest.html

Kindle ebooks can be read on any device through one's web browser at www.read.amazon.com

These poems will be collected in future editions of the HaikuPrajna Collection.