Should I read Frankenstein?
How about Color Purple?
These are book club selections but I can’t muster any enthusiasm for them.
Reading Question
Opinions, art, debate
Opinions, art, debate
Should I read Frankenstein?
How about Color Purple?
These are book club selections but I can’t muster any enthusiasm for them.
Clarissa's Blog 
I saw the movie The Color Purple and decided I did not need to read the book. Everything else I have read by Alice Walker I have loved.
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I saw the musical and didn’t enjoy it. I’m leaning towards sitting this one out.
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As to Frankenstein, It is often regarded as the first work of true science fiction literature, so it might not be to your liking.
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I read Frankenstein and found it worth reading. Shares a distinct perspective on nature of man.
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Maybe I should read it because it feels uncultured to have no idea what it’s about (beyond the vaguest one). I haven’t seen any of the movies either.
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“Maybe I should read it”
I had a feminist professor in the US who said it (Frankenstein) was obviously a pregnancy nightmare… not quite sure what that is…
I tried to read it a couple of years ago…. and…. didn’t last that far as nothing of interested had happened by the time I quit besides some vaguely homoerotic emoting by the narrator (who is neither Frankenstein or his monster).
I also tried Dracula and…. oh my god Lucy takes sooooooooo long to finally die (I gave up while they were still giving her random blood transfusions with no concern for anything like blood types).
The 1931 movie Frankenstein is very good and the sequel Bride of Frankenstein in 1935 is even better (featuring a prelude with the Shelleys and Bryon) and Son of Frankenstein (1940) is about at the level of the first movie…. but none of them have more than chance random similarities to the book AFAICT.
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Pretty much every movie portrayal completely misses the mark. It’s gothic horror written during the romanticism movement, and all the movies are just like “monsters!” Which is actually a really interesting phenomenon.
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Frankenstein was great but it in a sort of archaic version of English with florid language and over long sentences. She also wrote a novel about a plague apocalypse called the last man. It is also great but uses the same florid language style that not everyone can deal with.
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To be fair, it was written in a time period when this kind of language was extremely common. Stylistically it’s very much a product of its time.
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Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus is great if considered in the light of late Gothic novels, rather than as the first example of science fiction.
As for the other stuff, I’d say give it a miss: interesting if you are into emotional/ethnic/self-discovery blabber, but it’s not literature.
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