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WEBVTT
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Demetria: Welcome to Bookruptcy, a
podcast about reading by two people
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who are not trying to impress you.
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I'm Demetria!
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Magali: And I'm Magali, and this
is our place to discuss all the
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stuff that we're actually reading,
whether or not we're proud of it.
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Demetria: Set that timer again 'cause I
wanna hear about what you've been reading.
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Magali: Okay, I am hitting go.
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So, long story short, I was disappointed
by the new Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein
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movie, and originally that was gonna be
the text I was going to discuss because
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I believe that anything can be a text
if you try hard and believe in yourself.
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However, because of my disappointment
and specifically my sort of
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frustration that I think…
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You know, I, I don't mind
a non-faithful adaptation.
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I don't think an adaptation
needs to be even a little bit
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close to 100% … I think it just
has to have something to say.
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I'm not sure I understood
whatever he was trying to say.
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So I went back to the core text.
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Frankenstein, which 16-year-old
me and 19-year-old Mary Shelley
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were speaking heart to heart, eye
to eye, across hundreds of years.
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Mary Shelley was cooking and
no one's done it like her.
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Someday maybe a woman will make a
Frankenstein movie and then, like,
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maybe that'll be the movie I'm craving.
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But, so I went back essentially to
the Bible, the source text, the,
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quote-unquote, "original science fiction
novel," although I think even Mary Shelley
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would maybe quibble with that particular
argument that bros like to have.
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Um, so Frankenstein the book
is what I reread this week.
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And the nice thing is it's short,
it's quick, it goes fairly quickly.
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Um, and my favorite things about the book
… also I should say things that I think
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the movie missed, and that's why I think
it's kind of interesting to discuss the
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two at once, and I'm gonna try and we'll
see if I can talk fast enough that in 10
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minutes I can give you my master's thesis.
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Demetria: kind a speed challenge
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Magali: Yeah, I n- which is good.
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So
Load full transcript
here are the things that
I find interesting about the
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text itself of Frankenstein.
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One, obviously it's a creation myth.
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It talks specifically about what it is
to create something that is separate
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from you and can potentially act without
your consent or approval or, involvement.
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Um, I think it is also, uh, crucially
missing from the film, a story about
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childbirth and, kind of the horrors
of pregnancy and the horrors of
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postpartum and the, like, idea that
you can be disgusted by something
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that you've created that you are
supposed to be happy and proud of.
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I also think that it is a story
about the original patient of
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affluenza, Victor Frankenstein.
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This man in the first 10 pa- so first
of all, I guess I should say, for those
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who haven't read the book, um, spoilers.
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It's about a rich, privileged, extremely,
to put it gently, self-centered young
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man who believes that he is smarter
than everyone that's ever lived and
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can for sure be God, and proves it
by creating a human-like creature
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which he will never give a name or
refer to by anything other than, like,
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the devil, the fiend, the creature.
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So… doesn't have a name.
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Imagine like, imagine having a kid,
which by the way, he specifically says
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he worked on for two years, night and
day, and you didn't even think of a name.
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You didn't even like, in your
mind, you weren't even like, "Yeah,
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maybe like John, maybe like Karen."
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No, nothing.
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He was just sort of like, "But
what if I could do it, though?"
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He then, uh, is disgusted by what
he's done, and the consequences of
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his actions, are too much for him.
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And he has about 20 nervous breakdowns in
succession over the course of the book.
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Meanwhile, everything continues to
be given to him freely, and everyone
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loves him and thinks he's the best,
and the creature slowly… essentially
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resorts to murder and violence as
a way to get attention from Daddy.
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It is at the same time a creation story.
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It's a story about bad parenting.
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It's a story about loneliness.
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It's a story
about kind of whether
we are, in a vacuum, what we are,
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or whether society shapes us, right?
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Nature versus nurture.
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There's so many interesting questions
in there, none of which, again, I
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believe that the movie got into.
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So anyway, my favorite
things about Frankenstein.
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Number one, in the first 10
pages of the book, Victor tells
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us, like, he's not prompted.
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He just sort of says, "By the way, as
a child, my parents gave me everything.
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They loved me.
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They gave me a perfect education.
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I was rich.
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Everything was great.
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They told me I was wonderful all the
time, and they also went and found
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an orphan girl who was beautiful
and gave her to me as a present."
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Um, so literally a creation story in the
sense that he had a benevolent set of
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creators who were like, "You're great.
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You're our creation.
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We love you.
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We want the best for you.
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We're trying to create a great world
for you, and we're also giving you
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a creature that is your equal, but
also a woman, so not really your
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equal." And that's another thing.
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I think Mary Shelley was actually,
for all that the book doesn't pass
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the Bechdel test, Mary Shelley was
more interested in the plight of
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every woman in this than Del Toro was.
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But that's fine.
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Whatever.
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Number two, the creature subsequently,
at various points in the book,
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sort of asks why he does not
receive all of these things, right?
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The love of a parent, an education that
wasn't sort of cobbled together from
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hiding in a shed and watching people
creepily, um, and also a woman, uh,
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because he's raised on this sort of
weird Christian hegemony that's like,
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well, obviously, uh, the only way to
have an equal is to have the same but
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different so you can fuck them, I guess.
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Um, third, the real like- This is the
only part that I think del Toro kind
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of got into, but I don't think he did
it in a way that was interesting to me.
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The Creature and Victor both,
throughout the entire book, spend a
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lot of time essentially bemoaning,
"If only I'd stayed in nature, in
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this state of simplicity." Like, one
wonders if she was in conversation
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a bit with the transcendentalists
because she's… It's a lot like—
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Demetria: she was absolutely
on some Rousseau shit
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Magali: For sure.
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I mean, it was like "I went into the
mountains and I suddenly remembered
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that life is worth living. And then
I remembered that I had created a
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monster and that it was chasing me
and my family, and then I was sad."
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But also, Victor at various points in
the book is like, "Well, if only my dad
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had not said that he hated Agrippa, then
I probably wouldn't be in this pickle.
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If only this professor hadn't been kind
of disparaging about my reading list
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prior to attending his seminar, then
I probably wouldn't have done this."
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Like, everything is anyone except
Victor Frankenstein's fault, which
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again, just brings me back to the,
like, patient zero for affluenza, right?
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Like, I spent two years night and
day intentionally constructing,
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picking up organs from various
cadavers that I acquired in places
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that are not mentioned in the text.
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You know, making veins, sewing
little lungs together, making a face,
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giving it long, lustrous black hair.
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The lustrousness is
mentioned multiple times.
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And then only when it opens its eyes
and looks at him, he's like, "Oh, I
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might have done something that is a lot,
actually, and, like, I don't like that."
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And then he literally just runs away,
hides in his room, cries, goes to sleep.
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The next morning, the creature
is by his bedside like, "'Sup?
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Hi, I'm lost confused." He doesn't say
that 'cause he doesn't have words yet,
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and Victor's like, "Oh my God, this
horrible monster is persecuting me."
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And then he runs out into the streets
and has, like, a two-year-long mental
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breakdown, during which the creature is,
like, going off and having adventures…
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And like, there's a whole lot of crazy
shit about what he learns from, books
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'cause he's mostly learning everything
from books and by watching this one
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French family who has, like,
beautiful
ideals of honor and what have you.
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Except that ultimately then they run
away when they see him because he's ugly
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. What we see apparently matters
more than anything else.
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So then the creature spends, you
know, the next little while pursuing
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Victor, chasing him down, being
like, "I'm gonna kill everybody
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you love." But he doesn't say that.
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He says, "Hey, I'm gonna make you as
miserable and lonely as you have made me."
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And Victor's like, "So
you're gonna kill me?
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Cool.
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I'll just shoot you with my gun."
And then the monster proceeds to
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kill everyone Victor cares about, and
Victor's like, "The monster tricked me!!!
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I thought that… I thought
he was just gonna kill me.
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I didn't know he was gonna
kill all my friends!!!!!"
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And I just think there's a lot in
there, too, about like the monster
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asks Victor to create him a woman.
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That's completely underutilized in
a lot of adaptations, and I think it
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really speaks to a fear that was then
and now, like, very present of, like,
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are the "right people" propagating?
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Are the "right" people having babies?
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And there's a lot of interesting stuff,
too, just like… Victor's attitude to
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the creature feels a lot sometimes…
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Like the anxieties of, like, a colonizer
nation toward their colonies, where it's
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like, "Oh, it's bigger than me, and it's
savager, and it's more primal, and it's
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scary. And like I made it promises and
then I broke them, but it's actually
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their fault when they're mad at me."
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And ju- I don't know.
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Like there's so many interesting
sociopolitical things that you
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could say, and you could also
have made a monster fucker movie.
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I would've been super into that.
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But instead it was just kind of like
a movie that was Crimson Peak 2.0.
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Um, and
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Demetria: Yeah, I, I actually,
when I was watching the movie, I, I
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forgot what country it was set in.
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I, uh, for a while I, I thought
they were Anglican and was like,
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"Girl, why are you talking about
being in a monastery or a nunnery?"
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Magali: Like are all these crucifixes…
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Demetria: You're anglican."
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Magali: They were Swiss, which is
also a choice, but it means that
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the monster's native language is
French, which I also find fascinating
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to- and I forget every time.
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Like, there were so many things
on this reread that I, like,
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remembered that I had forgotten.
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Lots of beautiful little details
that with, uh, three seconds
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left I'm not gonna get into.
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Um, but
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Demetria: Oh yeah, that timer's goin'.
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Magali: Yeah
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The timer just went off.
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Uh, alas, my book report is over.
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It was half-baked at best, like the movie.
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But yeah.
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I mean, it's a great book.
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Read it.
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It's so small, like, compared
to your modern doorstopper.
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It's worth a read.
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Demetria: Okay, should we go for
some discussion questions for you?
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Magali: Yeah, hit me.
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Demetria: I wanna know what is the
worst argument that you got into
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with your teacher or classmate about
this book when you read it in class?
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Magali: Um, so my teacher was actually
wonderful when we read this in
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class, so I have no beef against her.
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But the stupidest thing that I've ever
heard about this book is essentially
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that there's only one monster in it.
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And the point, and this is another
beef I have with the movie, the point
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is that there are two monsters, and
they are both made, and they are both
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actually made by different mechanisms.
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Because Victor is turned into a monster
by the fact that he's always had
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everything, and he has never experienced
a single consequence in his entire life.
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Because every time that he has had a
consequence happen to him, 20 people
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rush to his rescue financially,
socially, politically, emotionally.
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He's just never, ever had to fall.
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And the creature is created as a monster
because he's hideous, scary, large,
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threatening, and therefore, like,
everyone just assumes the worst of him.
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And so finally he realizes that
the only way to sort of be heard is
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to, be what he is expected to be.
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And so I think it's very interesting
that there's two different ways
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you can nurture, like, sociopathy
essentially, from people who have
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both expressed that they have,
like, these heavenly sentiments.
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Um, so yeah, I think the biggest
argument that I've ever gotten in is
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just that, like, "Oh, only the monster's
the monster," or, "Only Victor's the
00:10:54.724 --> 00:10:57.274
monster." And it's like, no, actually the
point is that they're, they're both bad.
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They're codependent and toxic.
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Toxic yuri.
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Demetria: Okay, so if someone is
giving you that Hollywood blank check
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and you get to adapt this any way
you want, any setting, any style,
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focusing on any theme, what you doing?
00:11:11.954 --> 00:11:12.114
Magali: Ooh.
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Woo.
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Okay.
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I honestly do still wanna keep
it very sort of, like, late 18th
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century, very, gothic aesthetic.
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Like, honestly, del Toro is still probably
the pick for, like, artistic director.
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I just want script supervision.
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There's a whole subplot that gets ignored
a lot when the creature does his first
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murder, the first person he ever kills
is Victor Frankenstein's younger brother
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because he just kind of in a fit of
rage, 'cause he's just trying to find
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his creator and, like, essentially have a
talk with him about "Why did you make me?
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Because I'm hideous and no one loves me."
The first person he meets with the name of
00:11:42.044 --> 00:11:46.254
Frankenstein is this kind of shitty little
kid who's like, "My daddy will hear of
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it." Like, it's very Draco Malfoy kind of.
00:11:47.874 --> 00:11:51.124
And you know, to be fair, the kid feels
threatened and scared 'cause a giant
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creature's trying to kill him or whatever.
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But he's like, "Oh, well, then I'm
gonna kill you." And then the monster,
00:11:56.334 --> 00:12:01.544
having learned about laws from various
adventures, realizes that, to throw
00:12:01.544 --> 00:12:04.524
suspicion off of himself, he needs
to frame someone for the crime, so
00:12:04.524 --> 00:12:08.024
he plants the locket that the kid was
wearing on a servant named Justine.
00:12:08.314 --> 00:12:11.284
Justine and Elizabeth, who is,
Frankenstein's love interest,
00:12:11.284 --> 00:12:14.324
are the only two women who come
close to passing the Bechdel test.
00:12:14.454 --> 00:12:14.894
Fun fact.
00:12:15.274 --> 00:12:18.674
Um, but Justine gets framed for the
murder of this kid, and during the
00:12:18.674 --> 00:12:23.640
entirety of, the court sequence, Victor
just keeps going, " Justine going to
00:12:23.640 --> 00:12:28.100
the gallows is actually happier than
I because I know I'm guilty and she
00:12:28.100 --> 00:12:30.700
knows she's innocent, and it's more
important to know you're innocent."
00:12:31.160 --> 00:12:33.610
You know, "I couldn't tell anyone that
I did it 'cause that would make me
00:12:33.610 --> 00:12:36.150
seem crazy, and I can't seem crazy!
00:12:36.460 --> 00:12:38.160
So you know, just gonna
let her die, I guess."
00:12:38.380 --> 00:12:41.710
So I think I would be more interested in
all of the subplots that have to do with,
00:12:41.710 --> 00:12:47.100
like, the ways other people are victimized
because of Victor's complete negligence
00:12:47.250 --> 00:12:51.500
is more interesting to me than, like,
the actual revenge itself, despite the
00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:52.850
fact that they are intrinsically linked.
00:12:52.870 --> 00:12:56.730
And I think just, like, paying
more attention to the personal harm
00:12:56.730 --> 00:12:58.230
that the creature is trying to do.
00:12:58.690 --> 00:12:59.530
Uh, I don't know.
00:12:59.550 --> 00:13:01.560
I think that's what I would
spend my time on probably.
00:13:02.442 --> 00:13:04.080
Demetria: Oh, should I have
a third discussion question?
00:13:04.540 --> 00:13:08.430
Okay, um, how angry does this
book make you at Lord Byron?
00:13:09.184 --> 00:13:11.734
Magali: You know, actually, I think
I was more mad at Percy Shelley
00:13:11.754 --> 00:13:14.764
by the end, 'cause I actually that
Frankenstein… Like, having done a
00:13:14.774 --> 00:13:18.224
bit of, like, thinking about this and
also, doing a Wikipedia rabbit hole or
00:13:18.224 --> 00:13:24.884
five, I think Victor is actually in a
way closer to Percy than he is to Byron.
00:13:24.894 --> 00:13:26.114
He has this real…
00:13:26.124 --> 00:13:28.074
I mean, first of all, he has nervous
breakdowns every five minutes.
00:13:28.524 --> 00:13:33.364
Um, he has women and, and people in
his life that he has an obligation
00:13:33.364 --> 00:13:36.674
to that he just kinda keeps going
like, "Meh." Like, "But this new
00:13:36.714 --> 00:13:38.104
thing is more interesting actually."
00:13:38.755 --> 00:13:44.305
The ending is very, is very Romantic,
capital R. Like, there's this whole
00:13:44.315 --> 00:13:48.045
thing where, Victor dies thinking he's
going to the angels of his loved ones,
00:13:48.045 --> 00:13:51.165
whereas he's, basically dedicated
himself to, like, delusion and madness
00:13:51.165 --> 00:13:53.895
for the last, mm, s- two year or so.
00:13:54.135 --> 00:13:57.745
And the creature is like, "I'm gonna
go literally burn myself to ash in a
00:13:57.775 --> 00:14:02.105
satanic hellish fire. And, like,
that's
the proper ending for me, because
00:14:02.125 --> 00:14:05.735
obviously I'm a creature of hell."
There's just something in that, like,
00:14:06.205 --> 00:14:09.335
both of them being convinced they're
going to a certain place that, like,
00:14:09.335 --> 00:14:12.255
may or may not actually map to any of
the behaviors that they've performed.
00:14:12.635 --> 00:14:15.345
That part was the most,
like, Byronic, I think.
00:14:15.345 --> 00:14:18.175
But honestly, I was just mad at Percy
Shelley for being like, " What if I
00:14:18.315 --> 00:14:23.785
kept getting my extremely depressed
wife pregnant, and then she just kept
00:14:24.145 --> 00:14:29.005
having miscarriages that almost killed
her or, like, losing infants, and,
00:14:29.015 --> 00:14:30.505
I can't believe she's so depressed.
00:14:30.505 --> 00:14:34.125
This seems like a her problem."
Um, so I was mostly just mad at
00:14:34.125 --> 00:14:37.175
him because it felt like oh yeah,
like… rejecting your responsibility
00:14:37.175 --> 00:14:38.545
for the creation of something?
00:14:39.275 --> 00:14:40.245
Hmm, interesting.
00:14:42.145 --> 00:14:42.695
Fascinating.
00:14:43.152 --> 00:14:43.659
Demetria: Hmm
00:14:43.915 --> 00:14:44.465
Magali: Juicy.
00:14:45.755 --> 00:14:46.365
Um-
00:14:46.462 --> 00:14:49.199
Demetria: I've never heard of a Gothic
novel with any subtext in it before.
00:14:49.323 --> 00:14:50.349
Magali: No, I don't that
00:14:50.382 --> 00:14:51.389
Demetria: It's all text.
00:14:51.753 --> 00:14:52.303
Magali: Yeah.
00:14:52.503 --> 00:14:53.553
Yeah, and the wallpaper was—
00:14:53.643 --> 00:14:53.853
It's a very straightforward genre.
00:14:53.853 --> 00:14:55.533
Magali: The wallpaper was
just yellow, actually.
00:14:58.633 --> 00:14:58.783
But yeah,
00:14:59.472 --> 00:14:59.609
Demetria: Yeah.
00:14:59.659 --> 00:15:03.649
Remember that, remember that one story we
had to read in class about this wallpaper
00:15:03.649 --> 00:15:05.169
that was not a very good pattern?
00:15:05.582 --> 00:15:08.341
Magali: Yeah, I mean, as far as I can
tell, that was all that was about.
00:15:08.391 --> 00:15:09.991
I don't even know why we had to read it.
00:15:10.781 --> 00:15:13.611
God, short stories were very much
lost though on high school me.
00:15:13.671 --> 00:15:16.521
I think in high school a lot of things
are black and white, and something
00:15:16.521 --> 00:15:19.831
that's great about like a Frankenstein,
for instance, there is a lot of black
00:15:19.831 --> 00:15:21.121
and white in there to appreciate.
00:15:21.471 --> 00:15:24.371
But it's only when you get older
and you start to be like, "Oh, gray.
00:15:24.441 --> 00:15:27.491
Shades of gray are good." I don't know
that we need 50 of them per se, but
00:15:27.491 --> 00:15:29.317
like… Interesting to think about.
00:15:29.362 --> 00:15:30.687
Demetria: Crossover for the ages!
00:15:30.745 --> 00:15:33.115
Magali: Ooh, Frank-
actually, honestly, yeah.
00:15:33.452 --> 00:15:34.297
Demetria: Someone's writing it.
00:15:34.555 --> 00:15:37.135
Magali: So Demetria, what
have you learned today?
00:15:38.152 --> 00:15:41.599
Demetria: I have learned that creating
a monster is awesome and has no
00:15:41.599 --> 00:15:43.439
negative consequences whatsoever.
00:15:43.859 --> 00:15:45.349
Magali: You sound very like Victor.
00:15:45.509 --> 00:15:45.929
Good job.
00:15:46.043 --> 00:15:46.843
Demetria: Oh, absolutely.
00:15:46.843 --> 00:15:49.793
Yeah, I, my takeaway from
this is that I should create
00:15:49.793 --> 00:15:51.253
life recklessly with abandon.
00:15:51.503 --> 00:15:55.613
Magali: Yeah, 'cause, 'cause you can, and
would prove one teacher wrong or whatever.
00:15:56.071 --> 00:15:57.881
Demetria: I have no
responsibility to anyone.
00:15:57.881 --> 00:15:58.801
I am American.
00:15:58.962 --> 00:15:59.389
Magali: Uh, great.
00:15:59.859 --> 00:16:03.179
Well, and, and thank you all
for joining us, our friends and
00:16:03.179 --> 00:16:05.149
family probably e- exclusively.
00:16:05.942 --> 00:16:09.232
Bookruptcy is a podcast by
Demetria Spinrad and Magali Ferare.
00:16:10.112 --> 00:16:12.582
Demetria: We hope that we've inspired
you to read something weirder,
00:16:12.652 --> 00:16:15.415
sillier… at the very least, we hope
that you're reading something that
00:16:15.425 --> 00:16:16.835
you would hesitate to tweet about.
00:16:17.402 --> 00:16:19.861
Magali: While we prefer not to
be perceived, if you do wanna
00:16:19.871 --> 00:16:23.541
get in touch, we can be reached
at contact@bookrupcypod.com.
00:16:24.247 --> 00:16:27.757
Demetria: But for today, we are closing
this chapter and declaring bookruptcy.