How Frankenstein Became a Modern Myth

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

Hey guys! I just realized that I flubbed a few dates. If I'm referring to the Shelleys, assume I mean the 1800s not the 1900s, considering they were both dead by 1851 and were not, to my knowledge, brought back as zombies.

[@tuvaaq]

If it makes you feel any better, I have to pull my hands out of my pockets when people ask how old I am and it's not to put on a magic ring!

[@michaelkelleypoetry]

Dr. Victor Frankenstein emerged from the book fully alive and brought his creators back to life as real life monsters. 😂

[@tarmaque]

I wondered about that.

[@thomaskalinowski8851]

I would read the heck out of the story of zombie Percy and Mary Shelley.

[@davidsachs4883]

I add my daughter’s age to mine when she was born to come up with an age. I used to subtract my year of birth from the current year. That always leads to an age to great for what I should be

[@robinvik1]

Frankenstein: "Before we get married I need to travel to London to learn more about female anatomy" His fiancé: "..."

[@Ayelmar]

As the adage goes: "Intelligence is knowing that Frankenstein wasn't the monster, he was the doctor. Wisdom is knowing that Dr. Frankenstein was the *real* monster."

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

Precisely! I'll have to write a post or something about this, because who we call "Frankenstein" says an awful lot about the story.

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@Jess_of_the_Shire I only read the original novel recently and one thing that strikes me about it is that Victor and the Creature are similar in many ways--really they're both monsters (and neither one is a doctor, since Victor never finished his degree). And I'd argue they're both "Frankenstein", too. In every moral sense, the Creature is Victor's child, and his great monstrosity is leaving his newborn child to die because he doesn't like the way it looks. And one of the things that makes this fantastic fiction is that, unlike most such situations, the Creature is strong and smart enough to survive, and thrive... and become a monster as well. His evil has more extenuating circumstances than Victor's, but it's premeditated evil and he's definitely intelligent enough to know he's doing wrong. Victor Frankenstein, meanwhile, is a fascinating character--he's grown up in extraordinarily sheltered, coddled conditions, never had *any* difficulty or danger or even mild adversity in his entire life. And it's made him this hothouse flower and completely self-centered, consumed with this abstract quest to master the universe. I see some of my own worst aspects in him, frankly, but I try to stay humble in ways that he never is. The Creature becomes psychopathically self-centered too, but for him it's for completely opposite reasons, because the world has done nothing but abuse him for his entire life.

[@stefanlaskowski6660]

Fun fact: Not only did the laboratory equipment in Young Frankenstein use equipment from the original Universal production, but it was filmed with cameras dating back to the 1930s.

[@NickonStark]

You’re handling non-Tolkien content like a boss, Jess!! I’m here for it.

[@drigondii]

Ooh! I wrote a paper in college about the importance of the prometheus myth in interpreting Frankenstein!

[@bungobaggins01]

I knew a new Jess video was going to make my sick day better, but finding out it's a 68 minute Halloween special made my day. Happy Halloween Jess, and to all my fellow hobbits in the audience!

[@charliestevenson3500]

Jess, thanks for the long format video!

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

They're my favorite to make!

[@gptiede]

Since you asked; I am an astrophysicist, and I can assure you first hand that observatories, and university buildings for that matter, don't have self destruct systems. Although, the buildings that house telescopes usually have a master "Frankenstein switch" that turns off power to the entire building -- a safety feature.

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

That's so neat!

[@VTimmoni]

Dr. Doofenschmertz is disappointed.

[@AdrianGarcia-wz7kd]

Which one? ​@@VTimmoni

[@VTimmoni]

@@AdrianGarcia-wz7kd No self-destruct button.

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@VTimmoni "I don't know why I even give these -inators self-destruct buttons."

[@mischitary]

I never expected to see a video about Frankenstein on this channel but I'm not complaining. Amazing stuff!

[@samiam100]

Penny dreadful did a good job of adapting the creation of the monster, Victor's abandonment of him and his struggle to learn about humanity. It is a little rushed due to having so many other characters to focus on, but I thought it was well done.

[@Gandalf_666]

Your cadence and tone are so beautiful and calming it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling whenever i listen to you. Your one of the best creators on youtube and are a true embodiment of the spirit of the shire.

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

I'm so glad you enjoy my videos! You're very kind.

[@alanpennie8013]

The curious Russian doll style of narration is one of the most striking thing about Frankenstein.

[@MattMcIrvin]

It was very common in those days--epistolary novels were a big thing, and in the 19th century, if you wanted to write a fantasy you were usually compelled to put some kind of framing device around it to draw the reader in, claiming that it was a mysterious narrative you found in a dusty tome on a forgotten shelf, something like that. I suppose Tolkien's device of claiming he's providing a modern translation of the Red Book of Westmarch is an echo of that. But, yes, it goes three layers deep here, with the Creature telling his story to Victor who told it to Captain Walton (who is telling it to his sister, I guess).

[@drigondii]

The fate of the Wretch is so tragic. Frankenstein is Prometheus, but the Wretch is a flame. Despite limitless potential, the flame is not properly wielded nor restrained, which results in an inevitable spread into a destructive conflagration. It's no mistake that the first evil act of the Wretch is to burn down the home of the family whose prosperity he had previously preserved.

[@charliegriffey7773]

An interesting point my brother pointed out last year was that the core difference between Shelley's Frankenstein and every adaptation ever is that in the movies, every adaptation shows some sort of human error in which it destroys and hampers the experiment. But in the book, everything works right. Both Frankenstein the scientist and the monster are evil in their own ways. Also on the Hammer production, it is probably my favorite of the Hammer studios horror adaptations. One thing I like about it, is if you take it at face value, it is entirely possible that Victor Frankenstein made it up, or believed it in his diseased mad brain trying to excuse his murder.

[@hendrikm9569]

I'm going to watch the video later, but I want to say two things already: 1. Frankenstein is such a great book. Along with the Silmarillion it is among my favourite. 2. Today, I found out that my copy of Frankenstein, that used to be a softcore book now has its new, linen fabric hard cover and I can get it any day now. I'm quite excited ☺️

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

How delightful!

[@Valdagast]

Did you mean softcover? I associate softcore with naked ladies. Maybe that says more about me.

[@hendrikm9569]

By the way, I have now watched the video and really enjoyed it. 3 things I want to say: I'm quite happy you mentioned that it might be connected to Dracula, but it would have been cool, had you mentioned Polidorys The Vampyre as the connection between the two. My copy of Frankenstein also has The Vampyre in it, which is really cool, and I personally think that both The Vampyre and also Carmilla are better tales than Dracula and really underrated. (Which is not to say that Dracula is bad, but it really would have profited from being shortend in the middle it really gets boring. Especially after Chapter 7, which is, in my Opinion the highlight of the book. Unfortunately this years movie The last voyage of the Demeter didn't completely do it justice.) As someone who is still studying but is quite often in labs, I yet haven't seen the killswitch, but it certainly has to be there, considering that we are now a lot less people than we started with. Also, I am quite excited about the roots of fantasy. I am reading Dunsanys Short Storys at the moment (I'm about 3/4 through 51 Tales) and so far am enjoying it, even if it is but a pale shadow compared to the silmarillion. I'm looking forward to you talking about Dunsany.

[@Ned_of_the_Hill]

This was simply brilliant! "Frankenstein" is one of my favorite books of all time (along with "Lord of the Rings" of course). While there are a lot of themes in Mary Shelley's novel, I think you underscore the central irony of Frankenstein's motives versus his irresponsibility perfectly. As for "the lever" in "Bride of Frankenstein," I suspect that all mad scientists are taught to include a self-destruct switch of some kind when they take "Introduction to Labs and Lairs" at Mad Science school. If you are not yet exhausted with Mary Shelley and her "progeny", I recommend the excellent biography "In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein" by Fiona Sampson. "Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred Years" by Christopher Frayling is also very good.

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

Thanks so much for the recommendations! I'll check them out (although I may wait a few months haha)

[@missanne2908]

My friends and I were riding the BART when a fellow passenger began to wax eloquent over the prose in Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein._ We were all readers that had read Stoker's _Dracula,_ so I bought the book (don't remember if my friends did the same). Having read both the 1818 original and 1831 revised version, I can say that the fellow passenger was correct: the book is well worth the read. I regularly read it during my self-declared 'October Gothic Novel Month.'

[@DavidMacDowellBlue]

My own favorite is YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN because I do love the homage, but also because that one was the first I saw that took the the ideas seriously (amid some great comedy from a great cast) then gave us the ending we all wanted.

[@christopherdeangelis2954]

Two interesting entries into the history of Frankenstein are Edgar Winner’s political treatise on technology “Autonomous Technology” which concludes with a fascinating interpretation of Shelly’s novel. And the film “ The Bride” where the monster and “the bride” are the protagonists.

[@JCSalomon]

A book-faithful adaptation is possible, by using the “uncanny valley” effect. Cast a really good-looking (and tall) actor to play the monster, but use motion -capture: superimpose a computer-generated copy of the actor’s own face. That should create just sufficient feeling of wrongness without the audience being able to place _why_ they feel this horror.

[@Somethingwickedthisway]

I really like this idea, it would play to the original story's idea that Frankenstein tried to create a perfect man and if done well enough it could genuinely make audiences uncomfortable.

[@robslack5468]

So delighted with your clip choices for Young Frankenstein. I really enjoyed your recap of the original greatly, and the comprehensive history of adaptations!

[@rmsgrey]

For many years, my favourite adaptation of Frankenstein was in Buffy of all things - in season 4, the Initiative, a military-backed organisation studying demons and other supernaturals, creates a cyborg out of various monster parts, which comes to life, questions its own existence, and eventually needs to be destroyed by the Slayer and her friends (it's not a perfect adaptation...), along the way coming very close to capturing some of the spirit of Shelley's original book.

[@MattMcIrvin]

And it's named "Adam", which was... not exactly the name of the original Creature, who never had a name, but it does refer to some remarks in the book about Frankenstein creating a new Adam.

[@Pandaemoni]

For the algorithm, here's a bit of trivia: The alchemist Paracelsus's (one of the occultists Frankenstein reveres) real name was Phillipus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. Apart from coming up in the Fullmetal Alchemist animes, that is a great name for a bard if anyone plays D&D.

[@sebastianevangelista4921]

This is easily one of my favorite videos of yours, Jess, and I would be more than down for other videos like this!

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

I'm so glad you enjoyed!

[@sebastianevangelista4921]

@@Jess_of_the_Shire All the hard work clearly paid off and you should feel proud! I'm definitely looking forward to your new series.

[@JonathanRossRogers]

I enjoyed the 1994 movie. I had neither read the novel nor seen any of the earlier adaptations. I was aware of the pervasive pop culture concept of the mindless, violent monster created by a mad scientist and recognized that Branagh's and De Niro's portrayals of Frankenstein and his creation were meant to be closer to Shelley's characters.

[@estherhoward7959]

I'm looking forward to watching 'Lisa Frankenstein' next year and seeing the differences and similarities compared with Shelley's novel and the various film adaptations. I'm also looking forward to the film having 1980's Trad Goth vibes and a soundtrack to match.

[@taskmaster51]

Your description of Frankenwienie made me cry. Might be your best video yet

[@williampalmer8052]

Very nice to see you give a thorough overview of a story many people think they know, but few have had the inclination to read, in your always pleasant style. I look forward to your treatments of other classics. A couple of my favorite old Frankenstein movies are: Son of Frankenstein, with Basil Rathbone as the doctor and Bela Lugosi as Igor, and Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein - a Saturday movie classic from way back when I was a kid. Happy Halloween!

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

I'm going to have to watch more of the Universal Monster classics now. This was my first foray into them and it was a ton of fun!

[@lakewalker11]

You are absolutely brilliant. Much more engrossing and entertaining than any lecturer in my school days. Could listen to you for hours. I look forward to your future presentations.

[@DarthZevrel66]

Quite well put and an excellent analysis

[@atheistlinguist542]

Somewhere in Jess' characterization of Victor, her wording was just right to trigger a certain iconic phrase in my head. It seems that Frankenstein's main problem (in the original novel, anyway) was that he was "so preoccupied with whether or not [he] could, [he] didn't stop to think if [he] should." From there, it quickly spiraled into a realization that, if you swap out the single resurrected human for a whole clade of extinct non-human species, that's really all it takes to get from Shelley to Crichton, at least thematically and in terms of a bird's-eye-view of the plot. The core theme, that of unbridled scientific ambition going tragically awry, embodied in the form of at least one unnatural and dangerous organism, is especially clear. Depending on how figurative one is willing to be in the definition, I think an argument could be made that Jurassic Park is a Frankenstein story. I'm almost certainly not the first to see this connection, but I was reminded of it so clearly here that I thought it was worth sharing, for whatever it may be worth.

[@MattMcIrvin]

Crichton was basically writing some version of "Frankenstein" over and over for most of his career. He had an animus toward scientists that I think actually went beyond what was reasonable, especially given that at the end he was getting into global-warming denialism, where the scientists are the ones sounding the alarm about the effects of human ambition. (Another thing I really love about Shelley's novel that doesn't come out in most of the adaptations is that she contrasts what Victor was doing with the other scientists at the university. They do science the way it's actually done: an incremental, often plodding, and very *social* process, that makes no particular claims to be unlocking the central mysteries of the universe in the way of the alchemists of old, yet somehow accomplishes a lot via its inching steps. Victor's impatient with all that--he wants to take the big swing alone in his lab and uncover the Secret of Life Itself!!! And normally, that just doesn't work. The central fantastical conceit here is: what if it did work? Maybe we wouldn't like the result!)

[@JessWLStuart]

Well presented! Makes me want to watch Young Frankenstein again, and Frankenweenie for the first time!

[@benjaminbrewer2569]

This was awesome… young Frankenstein is one of my favorite movies to quote, right after princess bride. “Frankensteen”. “Frau Blücher” [horse whinnies]. “Werewolf!” “There wolf!”

[@user-nd7rg5er5g]

One of the best videos I've seen discussing the story and the history surrounding it! Bravo!

[@Gothic_Analogue]

I really liked Penny Dreadful’s interpretation of Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster.

[@martinridgway7455]

Excellent examination of story telling: and the weird changes from book to 1930s film and onward. And love the colour to black and white switches.

[@archaicanarch5567]

Outstanding elucidation of the core tenets of the theme, Jess.

[@kiernan43]

Late to the party, but my second favorite adaptation (second to Frankenweenie, of course) is in the Showtime series "Penny Dreadful." The series pulls in several gothic horror creatures and characters into the same world, and really gives Shelley's Creature a proper treatment.

[@kevinsullivan3448]

Dr Frankenstein: What was the name on the jar? Eyegor: Abby Normal.

[@thomaskalinowski8851]

Fun fact: the rainy weather that led to the writing of Frankenstein was caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. The same rainy weather ultimately killed Jane Austen.

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

No way! That's so cool

[@thomaskalinowski8851]

@@Jess_of_the_Shire The terrible weather was the reason 1816 was called "the year without a summer."

[@squamish4244]

Jane Austen died of a long illness, not a cold or something brought on by bad weather.

[@loltubelvr007]

I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and loved it. My favorite movie adaption was not mentioned. Frankenstein starring Luke Goss as the creature. Luke Goss is amazing.

[@LonelyKnightess]

Criminally underrated video!

[@mattyladd]

I swear, I could listen to you for another hour. The amount of work you put into this is amazing. SO well done!!!!

[@allisongliot]

I think this book should be required reading for all scientists.

[@paulkelly2701]

You are SO KILLING IT, YOUNG LADY!!!

[@nataliestclair6176]

Great video, Jessie. I would love to see a Frankenstein movie faithfull to Shelley's book. You did forget at comment how hilarious Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein was lol. I don't know if you ever knew about Showtimes 2014, four season series Penny Dreadful. It was a good series that tool place on 19th century England. It used several characters from Victorian Gothic fiction, Dracula, Dorian Gray, Justine, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hide, the werewolf, and of course Frankenstein and his creation and combined them all together. It was well done and the Frankenstein and his creation closey resemble what Mary Shelly invisoned.

[@JacksonEngineering]

I still love this book. Minty break down of the book and the pop culture that followed. Nice work, Jess

[@samsherwood8332]

As a fervent disciple of The Good News of Frankenweenie I was so delighted by the end of this video.

[@modelnut617]

I was heartbroken by Branagh's version. His Henry V was so good that I had high expectations.

[@vorgralax]

Great video, I feel like "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and the Blade Runner movies fall in line with this same type of story telling, definitely worth a look if you want to expand on these ideas. The Replicates in these stories are a lot like the monster.

[@vorgralax]

Replicants* sry.

[@thehomeschoolinglibrarian]

Great review. I love this different take on Frankenstein.

[@davidpyott3710]

So many fascinating aspects to the creation of the book. I m sure you're aware of it all. The book was written in the wet and cold summer of 1816. Known as the year without summer due to a volcano in Indonesia changing weather patterns in North America and Europe. The literary coterie had relocated to Switzerland to escape the dismal weather of England. Polidori, Byron's doctor wrote/adapted the idea of The Vanpyre at this time. The people gathered together were all extraordinary in their own way. The implications for modern horror literature, themes and cinema are staggering and all composed by these early bohemian polymaths. Great video truly.

[@mandicruz912]

I absolutely adore your videos! You’re so well informed and knowledgeable. You speak extremely eloquently and therefore you have quickly become one of my favorite KZbin Creators! Thank you and keep up the amazing work!

[@bobsteele9581]

Great video Jess. Frankenstein has always been one of my favourite novels. Have to say you got some dates wrong here though. The novel was published in 1818 and Mary Shelley died in 1851, so she certainly wasn't around in 1914 or 1916. I assume you meant that she eloped with Percy Shelley in 1814 and went to Switzerland in 1816.

[@CasperJoosten]

Also 'traveling around Europe from 1914 to 1916' would not have been the greatest of plans

[@bobsteele9581]

@@CasperJoosten - Very true Casper 😁 I think the fact that Jess later talks about the 1910 silent movie version makes it clear that she just misspoke though, and it certainly doesn't detract from her fantastic analysis of the novel and movies. 👍

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

Yeah, I managed to miss that while recording AND editing somehow haha. I made a note in the pinned comment, I hope it clears up some confusion.

[@thaumasmus]

A consummate contemplation - edged as always with your shadings of the elusive sardonic. My own unassuming take is that Frankenstein serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of prioritizing mimesis, the imitation of nature, over embracing our status as conduits of nature's own creative expression.

[@JXEditor]

48:35 I imagine anywhere that handles a lot of bio hazards and diseases would have that. Of course, I’m basing this entirely off of the last episode of the first season of The Walking Dead so take that as you will…

[@Charlie-br8wp]

This is such a great video for me personally, since I'm reading the novel at the moment. I'll be thinking about this video's content as I enjoy the novel.

[@MountainFisher]

Nice video Jess, very well told. I remember being assigned to read the novel in high school in 1967. I must admit I wasn't of a frame of mind to appreciate the nuance and prose of the story at the time. I received a C- for my report and I was a very good student, but couldn't get into it. It was like when I first read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, I just didn't appreciate poetry either. I did go back later and re-read it with an older perspective. Compare Tolkien's Elves with the impish Elves of Iceland show.

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

Required reading in high school is such a tricky topic to me. Sure, classic works are important to education, but even in my own experience, being forced to read them mostly just made me dislike them. I think it comes down to the way that they're taught. Shakespeare, for example, is godawful to read as a bored 15 year old, but the right performance can set those plays alight. I'm mostly just glad that we can come back to these works later in life and rediscover them!

[@MountainFisher]

@@Jess_of_the_Shire Indeed!

[@martinmsvingen7200]

Frankenstein is my favourite book of all time and I have lost count how many times I have read/listen to it (probably going to do it again). I have listen to some radio adaption that is really loyal both to the original story and theme, also a mini series (a movie when I saw it) from 2004 is that also 🙂

[@Aneli713]

My fave is the play that Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller did for the National Theatre, it was specially amazing because they took turns to play the Creature and the Dr. I've watched both and though I have my favorite moments for each version, and the director and production team are obviously the same, I find the differences in interpretation fascinating.

[@ghyslainabel]

From your comments on the Curse of Frankenstein, it seems "[Frankenstein was] so preoccupied with whether [he] could, [he] didn’t stop to think if [he] should", like the scientists in Jurassic Park. Isaac Asimov leaned on Frankenstein in his stories. For the scientists, robots were machines and not much more; for the general public, robots are man-made monsters. The scientists included the Three Laws of Robotics in every robots, yet the Frankenstein complex endured. The same stories contain commentaries on slavery, but sadly some of it was lost in the French translations.

[@sourisvoleur4854]

Fascinating! Great subject, I really enjoyed learning about the different versions of the Fronkensteen story. Now I'm going to go read the original novel, and watch Frankenweenie. I hope you are soon able to increase your wine budget. Drinking Kool-Aid from a wine glass is so sad.

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

Haha, does it make it better or worse if I say its not kool-aid, but just water and food coloring? I was trying to imitate the dubiously bright liquids from the lab in Curse of Frankenstein

[@sourisvoleur4854]

@@Jess_of_the_Shire Hehe! Excellent.

[@xxBonnieBlueEyesxx]

A most delightful video! For anyone in search of the most faithful book adaptation on screen: the 2004 Hallmark miniseries. For anyone pondering visiting places from the book: I highly recommend Geneva and Ingolstadt (including the old anatomy museum), but you can ignore entirely castle Frankenstein which sadly has been renovated to death (and just shares the same name but has no connection to the story).

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

I'll have to check the miniseries out!

[@ivy_inferno]

That's why I never watch any of the Frankenstein movies, none of them are close to the original story... It's one of my favorite book :) I think I'll buy a copy soon so I can re-read it again!

[@rogeliomanueldiazmoreno2818]

As you described the Bride of Frankenstein sequel and I remember the original novel, there are a couple of interesting passages they share.

[@d.edwardmeade3683]

Outstanding!! I love the idea of this being a series. I look forward to them!! I enjoyed this very much. You're deep dives are so informative and interesting. I can't wait for the next one!! 😁😄👏👏👏👏❤

[@KeithEdwinSchooley]

Great video! Would love to hear your thoughts on Edward Scissorhands as a Frankenstein retelling.

[@NefariousKoel]

I could listen to you talk about horror stories and movies for hours. Thanks for the entertainment!

[@xgzav3488]

My favorite video in a long time, thank you for making it! I was also on Frankenstein themed fascination this past month. Mostly because I played a great D&D game about a misunderstood flesh golem and listen to Carach Angren's Frankensteina Strataemontanus a lot lately.

[@benjaminrobinson6507]

This book is a favorite of mine, Its incredibly well written & Deep.

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

It's truly spectacular!

[@StephenSkinner-y1c]

So glad you made this presentation Jess, thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening. Until I watched it, I was not fully aware of the deeply humanitarian themes in the story, and how those themes had been reinterpreted over time. I’m with those that consider Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein as the first true work of science fiction. A useful definition of science fiction is- imagined scientific or technological advances and the social or environmental consequences such advances may create. It is generally believed that the conversation between Lord Byron and Percy Shelly about the nature of life that influenced Mary’s story may have concerned the experiments of Luigi Galvani. In his public demonstrations Galvani had flayed dead frogs and connected their exposed leg nerves to a wire. He then sent a current of electricity through them, making the legs of the dead frogs jump. This was considered proof at the time that the newly discovered energy source of electricity was the vital component needed for life to exist, the “spark of life” as it were. As Jess mentioned during her presentation, in Frankenstein Mary writes of how Victor is told that the old alchemists had accomplished very little, while in contrast modern researchers (the word scientist did not appear until 1834) had shown far more progress. So, Victor works to create his living being using what we would now recognize as the scientific method. In her story I believe Mary showed insight 200 years ahead of her time. That through science we would eventually become knowledgeable enough to create life. But knowledge is not the same as wisdom. We may be clever enough to create life, but if we did, would we be wise enough to deal with the consequences? Mary is clearly saying probably not. Just another thing about Mary Shelly a lot of people are unaware of. She also wrote the second book of science fiction. After Frankenstein she wrote The Last Man. Set in the future, a disease appears that is spread rapidly around the world by passengers flying in large intercontinental airships. This causes a worldwide pandemic. Sound familiar?

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

That's a super interesting aspect of the story! It's fascinating to me that before the firm establishment of genres, works were free to skirt in and out of as many genres as they wanted. Frankenstein is Science Fiction, but it's also gothic horror, and arguably fantasy. Very very neat.

[@andyrint]

Great video! It's late O clock here and I'm pretty tired but you managed to hold my interest and, at no point did I look at my phone!. I'm familiar with the early films but have never read the actual novel. Fascinating to hear your synopsis and definitely added to my 'to read' list. One thing though...... probably not a good idea to surround your Patreon link in '*' s - clicking on the link sends you to a '404 not found' message! And yeah - you got a new Patreon.

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

Thanks for letting me know! I'll have to fix that haha. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video, and I appreciate you joining the Patreon!

[@Mschickn]

I was hoping Poor Things would be recent enough it made it into this video as well. It would be cool to see you talk about it as another Frankenstein interpretation.

[@shocked1991]

Love this video! Can’t wait to see your origins of fantasy videos!! You’re a great speaker.

[@idlerwheel]

Aside from a couple of 1900s instead of 1800s, fantastic video :)

[@robertpearson8798]

Easy mistake to make.

[@thedreadpiratewesley2301]

Good video! Respect on the amount of effort and detail you went into ...

[@davewright6368]

Great video! Thank you, and I look forward to seeing more.

[@p0epk1p41]

My favorite adaptation of Frankenstein and his monster is in the tv show Penny Dreadful. I think it comes closer to the original than any of the others that were discussed in this video (based on your description). Moreover, Penny Dreadful is an extremely undervalued series. I'm really interested to watch Frankenweenie now though. 😊

[@DigitalReplicaOfAPerson]

A very nicely thought-out and deep look into one of my favourite monsters and the story behind it. Thank you and have an appropriately spooky Halloween 👻

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

Great new idea for the channel. This was very enjoyable

[@MattMcIrvin]

A little detail I like about Mary Shelley's novel is just that we never actually learn anything about Frankenstein's methods for creating life--Frankenstein of course wants to take the secret to his grave, so Shelley doesn't have to explain it. So there's no way to object to it on grounds of plausibility. She's got one of the basic tricks of science-fiction worldbuilding down at the starting gate of the genre. The movies, of course, had to be more explicit because they're all about showing things. I confess, I've never seen Universal's original Frankenstein films and know them mostly through Mel Brooks' brilliant parody "Young Frankenstein". It's interesting that "Bride of Frankenstein" lifted so much more material straight from Shelley's novel that the first film cut out (though it's all rearranged and its meaning changed).

[@jcdfluffy]

I’m sitting in my gazebo in the back woods of my property. While listening to your video evening darkness has settled in. Now I am afraid, very afraid.

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

Don't worry, there aren't any manmade abominations lurking in the dark! ....probably

[@nicolasstanley1392]

Wow, thanks for this amazing overview. Love the content ❤️

[@timmyfisher5981]

Really loved this one can't wait to see what you have next.

[@haydenrogers2302]

It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember the version of the story from the TV show Penny Dreadful being quite good.

[@orinanime]

Much like you made follow-up videos to your Dracula video... I hope that you'll make follow-up videos to this Frankenstein video. If only so you can cover the 2004 Made-for-TV Frankenstein, starring Alec Newman as Victor Frankenstein, Luke Goss as The Creature, and featuring Donald Sutherland as Captain Walton William Hurt as Professor Waldman. Because it is THE most faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley's story thus far.

[@Pixis1]

Young Frankenstein is my favorite. Such a classic and so quotable. I'm also partial to Frankenweenie, though I prefer Tim Burton's original live action short film over the animated version. Have you seen that one, Jess? As for the 90s Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, I actually enjoyed that version. Didn't realize it was disliked by critics. I thought it was a pretty good adaptation of the novel up until the point when Victor turned Elizabeth into a monster (and the novel's plot went out the window).

[@VolkerWendt-vq8pi]

Wow, thanks a lot for this very elaborate overview. This was great, and, tbh wonderfully told.

[@JamesSmith144]

What an excellent analysis of this story. Its been a favourite of mine since childhood. I'd subbed for your LOTR videos but more like this would be awesome. I mean, since you had all of this to say about Frankenstein I'm very curious to see what you'll have to say about Dracula's various adaptations over the years.

[@chronoscat3371]

As a kaiju fan, my favorite Frankenstein story is Frankenstein Vs Baragon ("Frankenstein Conquers the World" for the US release, though he does nothing of the sort) in which the Creature grows to kaiju size and winds up fighting a giant lizard-like creature (and in one cut of the movie, a giant octopus too). While the idea is a bit silly, before the giant monster action there's some good human drama, and the Creature is treated quite sympathetically by the story (even if, as is traditional, he's not very bright and most people are scared of him).

[@nymeria941]

Absolutely love this video! I can't wait to see what your next video is.

[@samstapltonn]

Yo, I’m down with this! I love the Tolkien stuff on the channel, but I’m all about this new stuff!

[@jakebeach8308]

I really thought that you were going to say that the best modern take that captured the modern Prometheus concept was the movie ex machina.

[@JamesHopkins-on3mv]

Mary also wrote the first post apocalyptic novel,The Last Man.

[@gabrielt.2734]

I really like your videos, they're always cosy and interesting. I love the more philosophical tone of this video :) I had never read or seen any Frankenstein story, only heard of it and it's a surprisingly deep story. Amazing Video :)

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It was very fun to make

[@Tamlinearthly]

I watched this entire video before I realized, "Wait, who is this?" And then I checked the channel name and was delighted. This is a compliment, in case that's not clear--I hadn't expected this material from this channel at all, but it was so well produced and so gratifying to listen to that I didn't even think about it.

[@Jess_of_the_Shire]

I'm so glad you enjoyed! It was a ton of fun to branch out a bit with this one.

[@ozarkscarguy540]

Jess, I could listen to you tall about anything. It's so relaxing on this chilly night while I drink hot chocolate.

[@robertpearson8798]

An excellent video and even though I’ve read the original book I appreciated the refresher course. I’m a bit disappointed though that Herman and Lilly Munster didn’t get even a quick footnote mention, but perhaps that was part of the material that you didn’t feel that you had time to include.

[@robertewalt7789]

Jess, you’re a great story teller!

[@carlosvillar-gosalvez6392]

I started watching your Lord of the Rings videos. I found myself watching this video and very much enjoying it also. I encourage you to continue. I have subscribed to your channel, and I look forward to further entries.

[@krankarvolund7771]

In Frankenweenie's case there's also the favourite theme of Burton, the misunderstood artist (aka him), so when Vincent Price tells Victor that his experiment worked because he put love in it, I think it should not be rad as science works because of love, but art works because of love. Burton's movies works because he puts passion and love in it, but when others rip off his style or his stories, it fails, because they don't have his passion ^^