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One thing I’ve noticed while reading is Mrs. Godwin’s eyes are never shown in the drawings of her. She is referred to as a “Green eyed devil” however we never catch a glimpse of her eyes. This is a fantastic story telling element that the author uses, she tells us a bad feature of Mrs. Godwin and then allows the readers imagination to think what they must look like. This strategy is very effective because the human mind produces more terrifying thoughts about what something could be than if simply presented to it.

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Never thought about it that way! Why do you believe they chose to do this to her character?

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Al-Monsour, Haifaa, director. Mary Shelley. IFC Films, 2018.

The movie Mary Shelley presented the life of the famous author of Frankenstein in a modern take that brought a new perspective to the analysis of her life. When I watched this film, the representation of Lord Byron stood out to me. When we had discussed his qualities in class I had created an idea of what he was like for myself, but this movie truly illuminated Byron’s eccentricity.

Before I watched Mary Shelley, I had judged Byron on his various actions, but the continuous portrayal provided by the ongoing plot of this film gives me an idea of what his personality could have been like. He is very bipolar and seems to be incredibly cynical. He does not seem to care about anyone but instead tries to create meaning in his life out of the cerativity that comes from the depravity that he sees in the world.

I believe this illustrates why he takes a liking to Percy Shelley. Percy is able to see the world in the same broken way that Lord Byron does. Ultimately, the rest of the group breaks away from Lord Byron because the behavior that comes as a result of his cold heart is unbearable to be around.

This scene is sad, mainly because it is so true. Here we have Akai, a sweet kind soul who couldn’t even cut open a worm as a child, who is underage and participating in extracurricular activities such as baseball, staying off the streets, and being a good child. However, they are still seen as a threat more quickly than possibly a Caucasian boy walking around with a bat. Even if its not done intentionally, there is a lot of subconscious prejudice and discrimination even today (many psychologists study how people subconsciously discriminate or show bias - even when they don’t actively or consciously display or feel that way). This happens often even today. Where a black teenager may get shot by the police quicker than a Caucasian boy, because they are holding an object in their hand that they believe may be a weapon (for example a bat being a rifle). It’s sad that we can't even let our minority kids walk to a bus stop thats not even a far walk.

This scene shows how no matter how smart, talented, skilled, and unique Josephine was, she was still let off due to a pregnancy rather than just given maternity leave and the chance to get back. Many women face these issues. And on top of that, all of her work and research is being taken from her and put into the hands of the higher Caucasian women. This somewhat reminds me of the movie Hidden Figures, how a lot of the background work were done by women/African-american women whose work was then taken by the superiority. In the second scene, when I first read it, I was trying to figure out whether the man brought her the research because he is really trying to protect his family, or if he was previously told by her to impregnate her so that she could fire her and take all of her research. It made me wonder if people actually do that in the real world too.

In this scene you can see how Victor Lavalle tries to relate this African-American mother to the mad scientist. I believe in this scene they are trying to show how she is also viewed as a mad black woman (or on a larger scale how minorities are viewed as mad, angry, and violent), and that the media puts them in this light as well - as if they are creatures. However, the mother lost her son (and many minorities lose their family members to death by unfair shootings, such as those done by the police), which could be the root of why they now seem mad, angry, or even violent. Maybe its not because they are ‘bred’ this way, but because they’re being treated unfairly and even killed and grief makes them act a certain way.

Even though this was just a small scene, it brings up a big issue that African Americans face today when dealing with their names and culture. There has been research that shows bias towards applications that belong to someone with an ‘African-American name’; be it first or last name. It’s gotten to the point where parents give their child a name that makes them seem more Caucasian so that they will have more opportunities in the future. Even though this scene didn’t speak on all of that, just the fact of them acknowledging the differences in names and negative view on it, brings to light the bigger issue.

Theres an even bigger pattern between the stories that we have read which is Science and medicine. How science will evolve and influence medicine as well as life in the future. So far, all of the stories put this evolved science in a good light at first, but then show the negative impacts of playing “god”. As technology and medicine evolves does it really improve? Are we playing with peoples lives too much? Is this a warning for our future?

Celebrity Frankenstein This is the scene where the celebrity takes the girl that he was talking to and attempts to put her feet into the water like she wanted to. He was good-hearted and wanted to make this girl happy because she wanted to go into the water but feared drowning. However, someone took the picture in an angle that made it look as if he was torturing or hurting her. Her parents came running towards her and grabbed her in distress. This reminded me of the scene in the original Frankenstein, where the monster saved the little girls life wanting to do good by her, but put in an evil light as if he wanted to hurt her. Her dad then came yelling and grabbed the girl away from the monster and saying how dangerous he is.

Celebrity Frankenstein At the end we are told how the boy grabs the burger even though he knows its killing him and eats it with satisfaction and even loving it after the doctor said one more burger and you will die. What do you think the burger represents? Could they be talking about drugs, how the doctor is telling him to stop taking drugs one more pill or one more drink and it could kill you ... but he feels so bad and the gratification of the drug is stronger. Or, are they displaying suicide. A lot of celebrities end up suicidal because they aren’t at the top anymore or popular anymore, their bodies are giving up and they feel like a failure. He knows that “one more burger” will kill him, so is him pleasantly eating the “one more burger” symbolizing suicide (on purpose)?

As I was reading this it reminded me of a life of an actual celebrity and the damage that the Industry has on its stars (in this case young stars). With the doctor being somewhat like a Manager, he gets the celebrity through surgery using parts of different people. This reminds me of plastic surgery, trying to be perfect or look perfect ... for show business of course. He obeyed his manager and had to do everything he told him to, like when signing a contract, or even “selling your soul”. With all the medications he needs to take and injections in order to feel new again or be better, reminds me of celebrities taking drugs in order to perform better, perform longer, stay up longer, wake up earlier; everything that their regular bodies couldn’t keep up with. When rejected he felt depressed down, and shaved his head. We see that in many celebrities such as Brittany Spears, who have a breakdown and shave their head. Then the false accusation of murder and bad press that Celebs go through. A superstar who's body at the age of 19 is already giving up! Managers switching to a different, more popular, more hotter client ... just doing this for business! We see the pressures put on them, and it displays the life of a celebrity that we may not see.

Celebrity Frankenstein Throughout these stories we’ve been reading we notice a common occurrence, which is the obedience felt towards our ‘creator’. In some cases such as Fortitude its obedience without her knowledge, just being there and having the doctors control what she does. Frankenstein felt a certain obedience to his creator as well. Mary Shelley also obeyed her father ‘creator’ in Mary’s monster and influenced her decision. We see a pattern of doing what our creator set out for us.

Fortitude Some may argue (my roommate) that she never voiced an issue about controlling her feelings but her best friend Gloria states “you can turn. few faucets and switches and she would be volunteering to fly a rocket to the moon” (55); pretty much stating that she has no voice! Her “voice” are those switches that are being altered by the Doctors. Her best friend Gloria talks about how Dr. Frankenstein needs to just let Sylvia die, because even though she may seem happy (due to the switches altering her emotions) she sees a ‘spark’ in her that is begging for death and peace. I thought this was an important mention because Sylvia herself brought it up later that she feels fine except when she feels that “spark”. This shows that her true feelings behind that spark scream for them to stop but she can't voice it because she is being altered. If this doesn't show how inhumane this system is then I don’t know what will. At what point would they have stopped. Were they really blind to see what they were doing to her. Is this what our future will consist of? Is my roommate a psycho for thinking this is okay? :D These were all questions that I had going through my mind as I was reading this.

Fortitude Even when I debating about this story with my roommate, it seemed like I based a lot of my opinions on emotions; but I truly believe emotions are something vital to our existence. My emotions create a completely different opinion of something (like when I am debating) and that makes me who I am; my personality, my lifestyle choices, choices in general are all made based on how I feel. As far as I can look back emotions have helped us survive naturally, through instincts, fear, love, or if we should ‘fight or flight’! Which is why I feel so strongly about Dr. Frankenstein altering Sylvias emotions; even if he believes its for a better cause. Manipulating how we feel and when we feel it is unnatural, and the inability to express those emotions becomes conflicting. So when she says “The way I always feel when I wake up” shows that there is not alternative to how she feels, which can also take away her true and deeper excitement for life. Sylvia also mentions herself that she does not know why she feels happy or sad, so even though Dr. Frankenstein is making her feel “happy” its not true happiness, and its not justifiable.

Once again, she is being dehumanized throughout this story. This shows a lack of empathy and compassion towards Sylvia as a human being and disregarding her true emotions, which are hidden behind the switch that Dr. Frankenstein controls her from. We are humans, and we express ourselves in various ways, one being through gestures and facial expressions. One look at someone's face and you can instantly know what they are feeling. They are disregarding that because they have meters that are supposed to tell the story for her, rather than letting her true emotions tell the story.

Quote: “Its just like slowing down a car or a banking furnace.” -Dr. Little As I read the story, I noticed how they began to dehumanize Sylvia. Her body isn’t even flesh anymore but a head that is connected to a tripod, a chest crafted out of a box, and mechanical arms that can’t even move around entirely. I find this inhumane honestly, especially when Dr. Little mentions how putting her mind to sleep is just like slowing down a car. Dr. Little also yells out jokingly “cock-a-doodle-do” as he flips the switch to wake her up. This shows that they don’t even think twice about what they’re doing, they don’t feel guilt in how they are treating her inhumanely, and he is showing “god like” characteristics by choosing when she sleeps and wakes up. She is purely viewed as a machine.

Quote: “She was the image of my mother” -Dr. Frankenstein So foremost, the reason I believe that Dr. was so focused on saving the life of Sylvia so much is out of guilt. He was not able to save his mother who had cancer and blames himself. He then focuses on studying machinery and puts all his time and effort into having these machines save lives, in this instance, Sylvia. At first I was thinking, Why? Why put someone who is already dying and reached a good age through all of this. And when I reread it and he states “ They brought in this woman [Sylvia] who was beautiful on the outside and a mess on the inside. She was the image of my mother.” (48) It alarmed me! He also speaks on how he loves two women - his mother and Sylvia. Putting them on the same level even though he just met this person, who is also supposed to just be a patient. He displayed an inappropriate attachment and commitment to his patient and I believe it was out of guilt for not being able to save his mother so he focuses on saving her!

Before I speak about specific parts and my opinions on this book I wanted to share another perspective (that I may possibly not agree on [like at all lol). After reading this, I shared it with my roommate and he read it too and he had a completely different perspective on this than I did. We debated about this story for houuuurs - until we just agreed to disagree! He thought that there was nothing ethically or morally wrong with this story and everything that Dr. Frankenstein was doing. He believes that it is the job of a doctor to keep a patient alive, and that that is all that the Doctor was doing - therefore there is nothing wrong. He said a doctor shouldn't get emotionally involved with a patient and purely focus on keeping them alive, so therefore him not worried about her emotions wasn't wrong. I’m not sure I agree with all of that. Is it that I am a girl and I think emotionally and he is a guy and thinks technical? However, this 3 hour long debate with him showed me different perspectives and allowed me to really analyze this story which I will share in other posts.

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