2025-06-02 15:03:43
2025-06-02 15:03:42
2025-06-02 15:03:42
2266143
finished reading Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑
https://neodb.social/book/0Rhxw6wx9JUb57tcOKuX04
Wrote a pretty bad review of this novel yesterday. After sleeping on it I suddenly felt guilty about it. Maybe I was too harsh? Maybe this review would come back and haunt me; drag my name in the mud.
I, who proud myself on writing personal, yet reasonable, reviews.
I, who consider myself to be nuanced and rational.
So I thought about going back and deleting it - which I absolutely could do, in contrast to poor Victor Frankenstein, who spends most of the book trying, but failing, to erase his creation. Not that bringing life to a hideous creation of flesh and blood is at all comparable to a sloppy review. But I think the comparison still may be valid. Sort of.
We all make mistakes. And some of those mistakes do come back to bite us in the ass. And in the case of Victor Frankenstein, it's not just a question of deleting the mistake, hoping not too many people saw it. What he fails to do though, is to own his bad decision. Just own it. Say to himself that "yeah, I messed up big time. But what's done is done. Let's at least try to make this a learning experience."
But no. Both Victor and the monster seem drawn to wallowing in self pity. Victor sees himself as the victim (sic!) from the moment he realizes (and regrets) that his experiment has been a success. He does reflect on his responsibility for the carnage left in the wake of the monster, but never truly accepts that notion. And the monster similarly never seems to realize his own agency in creating said carnage. Instead he constantly blames Victor with a "look what you made me do"-attitude that turns the story into a blame game starring two self proclaimed victims, locked in a dance of death.
I'm probably missing all the points Shelley tried to make with this story. Ah, well. I guess that to stay in line with the story I would not be wrong in blaming her for that. Just as she in her turn would/could blame me for being too stupid to understand it.
And thus the blame game continues...
https://neodb.social/book/0Rhxw6wx9JUb57tcOKuX04
Wrote a pretty bad review of this novel yesterday. After sleeping on it I suddenly felt guilty about it. Maybe I was too harsh? Maybe this review would come back and haunt me; drag my name in the mud.
I, who proud myself on writing personal, yet reasonable, reviews.
I, who consider myself to be nuanced and rational.
So I thought about going back and deleting it - which I absolutely could do, in contrast to poor Victor Frankenstein, who spends most of the book trying, but failing, to erase his creation. Not that bringing life to a hideous creation of flesh and blood is at all comparable to a sloppy review. But I think the comparison still may be valid. Sort of.
We all make mistakes. And some of those mistakes do come back to bite us in the ass. And in the case of Victor Frankenstein, it's not just a question of deleting the mistake, hoping not too many people saw it. What he fails to do though, is to own his bad decision. Just own it. Say to himself that "yeah, I messed up big time. But what's done is done. Let's at least try to make this a learning experience."
But no. Both Victor and the monster seem drawn to wallowing in self pity. Victor sees himself as the victim (sic!) from the moment he realizes (and regrets) that his experiment has been a success. He does reflect on his responsibility for the carnage left in the wake of the monster, but never truly accepts that notion. And the monster similarly never seems to realize his own agency in creating said carnage. Instead he constantly blames Victor with a "look what you made me do"-attitude that turns the story into a blame game starring two self proclaimed victims, locked in a dance of death.
I'm probably missing all the points Shelley tried to make with this story. Ah, well. I guess that to stay in line with the story I would not be wrong in blaming her for that. Just as she in her turn would/could blame me for being too stupid to understand it.
And thus the blame game continues...
