Frankenstein and gothic as it appears in contemporary
culture:
“How impressive would you be, if the world couldn’t see?”
This quote kept repeating in my head as I went through the
reading. Having never read Frankenstein before and only known the general idea
behind the story, I was shocked to find just how disturbing and eerie the
reading was. I imagine the monster coming into the world as an immature mind
and because he is so quickly seen as a monstrosity his life begins on negative
energy. Not because of anything he did but solely because of his looks. What if
he had been a beautiful woman? Then perhaps Victor would have taken kindly to
him and the monsters life would have begun on positive energy. Imagine what he could
have made with that positive energy? You will get your answer by seeing the monster go as far as murder on that negative energy given to him by Victor. Even at
such a young mental state the monster was able to see what he had done was wrong and go
to Victor hoping for forgiveness and with a plan to solve his psychological
issue with a mate. Which would have worked and yet again Victor could not
follow through with it because of the visual repulsiveness of making another creature. So I ask again. How impressive
would you be, if the world couldn’t see? Would you base so much of your life on
your feelings from sight? Or just hearing about who a person was? Would you be a man who creates a life and because of your vanity soils its experience on this world? Or would you look beyond the visual?
My first though when I think of the word gothic is the style
of dress that was prevalent for a selective group of people when I was growing
up in the 90’s. To me it seems to be an obsession with the abnormal and the
obscure. Which is funny because in my architecture classes I’ve taken I came to
know that the “Goths” were originally an East Germanic People that helped shape
what we call the Medieval times of Europe. The gothic I think about is a
subculture derived from that 19th century and its literature.
Although the literature was dark in nature most of the typical optics we know
for “Goth culture” (ie. black clothes, metal music, horror films, etc.) were taken from early horror films and more recent works of
the 20th century.
