Entry #8 - Frank or Frankenstein

Actually, Frankenstein is not the monster...

So, the Frank I know, and the Frankenstein others know are very different. My Frank loves a good catchphrase and experiments with them constantly. My Frank is for sure a monster but not like anything you’ve seen, not exactly.

Current catchphrases are:

“Dead. Undead. I’ve got the Ax.” and “Reanimate this!”

The one thing that is so special about Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is that it allows the reader to really dig into what a monster is and what one isn’t. One thing that is very important to say upfront is that monsters are not automatically the villains of every story. Many times, they are the victims simply trying to overcome a trauma. Most of the time, actually.

What I also notice about Frankenstein and in most stories is that humans typically remember the monster over the human. We monsters just make more of an impression which is why humans can’t help but call the monster from Mary Shelley’s epic novel—Frankenstein. It just feels right. Humans remember the monster even though the good doctor takes up more space on the novel’s pages.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is my all-time favorite book written by a teenage powerhouse. Mary Shelley was sixteen when she wrote it. Sixteen! She was an intellectual and emotional genius. One of the truly amazing parts of her book is how explicitly and masterfully she identified the true villain, Dr. Frankenstein. So, yes, even though Frankenstein is not the actual monster, the doctor is the villain of the story. I know humans like to use the word monster and villain interchangeable but that is typically not accurate, especially if you have all the secret details of a monster’s story. It bears repeating that we are often the victims at first. Especially, in the novel Frankenstein. Especially with my dear monster friend, Frank. Of course, that doesn’t mean, we won’t turn into a villain when give the chance.

Shelley uses her monster to challenge readers to examine what our creator owes us when we are brought into this world. Whether that be a God, a parent, or a mad scientist. Her monster demonstrates that we, as a society, create evil by mistreating and discarding members we don’t understand, fear, or we believe are lesser. She also challenges God indirectly by making the point that when Dr. Frankenstein played God, he failed because he did not teach his creation how to operate in the world. Some would argue that the divine creator forgot to leave a manual behind for his/her creations, leaving them to write their own. We have seen the damage that has caused among you humans. Yes, we most definitely have, again, and again, and again.

Frankenstein is a masterfully told “ghost” story and addresses many fears of that time period around scientific advancements, the industrial revolution, the commoditization of labor while also addressing the universal and timeless struggle we all have with isolation and securing our place in this world.

The most famous Frankenstein adaptation is probably Universal’s movie that came out in 1931. That film’s version of Shelley’s monster took the world by storm and never quite let go of humanity’s collective imagination. The film’s not a fan favorite in monster circles. They don’t even go to the North Pole in the movie. There’s no boat or letters. And we all wish more for the monster. Even so, after this movie, Frankenstein became one of the classic monsters, and started showing up everywhere and on anything for better or worse. One of my favorite films that came out of this mania was Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie. It was such a great take on the whole story especially because the monster was the kid’s dog. Brilliant. Some new Frankenstein films coming out this year seem to be more inspired by Mary Shelley herself. I am pretty sure the whole school is going to adore the upcoming film Poor Things directed by Yorgos Lanthimos with Emma Stone. That film seems to be in alignment with the Mary Shelley we know. I think the monster is going to capture a bit of her true spirit along with her monster’s rage. Lisa Frankenstein directed by Zelda Williams looks hilarious and like it will embrace the monster in the way we like to be embraced, fully and without judgement. And the tanning bed element is just hilarious. It would never work, not without me, but still very funny.

Back to the actual monster, Frank. The writer Shelley got her novel perfectly right, but she did get the actual real-life monster that inspired her really, really wrong. Most of us monsters dislike how she presents him as hapless, desperate and sad, but we all do relate to his persecution and the rage it created within him. We’ve all experienced rejection from human society in one way or another. Most of us have also experienced the violence that comes with that othering as well. We all would have liked a different ending from Shelley. Luckily, in the real world, we got the ending we desired.

The actual monster that inspired Shelley’s monster is nothing like the one she presented in her debut novel. That’s not her fault though. All she saw of the real monster was a sewn together corpse on a slab in the center of a mad scientist’s lab, a mad scientist who at the time was promising to do the same or worse to her. I completely understand where her imagination took her, especially connecting this traumatic repressed memory to a visit to Castle Frankenstein where she learned of another alchemist who also experimented on cadavers. There are way too many scientists experimenting on dead bodies out there.

The real monster that was on the slab that fateful day was something completely different. That monster was born fierce with a sharp mind and spirit. That monster is our school’s very own, Frank, a monster who has a very serious code of conduct. Shel and I had the privilege of being there for the exact moment Frank came to life. It was the first and maybe best great spell we performed together.

Our Frank has no bolts, no protruding forehead, no dragging arms or rags for clothes. They have never murdered an innocent human for vengeance, especially a child. They have always been rejected and persecuted quite brutally by humans. It is a testament of their self-control and compassionate nature that there aren’t scores of dead humans in their wake. Humans have deeply hurt the real Frank just like Shelley’s fictional monster. Frank is a master with an ax and has supernatural strength in a fight. They are fiercely loyal and will do anything for a friend or a monster in need. The have recently embraced their non-binary self and use the pronouns He/They. They were pleased when people started openly discussing this type of thing in society and provided them the language to express themselves that way. What I could share about Frank would take volumes. We’ve been on so many adventures over the last few centuries.

I am going to tell a story that involves our time imprisoned by Dr. M. This story occurred around the time Mary Shelley would have been writing Frankenstein. Sometimes, I wonder if she heard about it, and it inspired the killing of William in her book. Sorry if that’s a spoiler but the book is quite old at this point.

This story is called “The Farmer’s Daughter”. It’s a story about family and heartbreak. It also demonstrates just how cruel and calculating Dr. M truly is. It takes place during a time when Frank went by another name. I’m still going to use the name Frank in the story because that’s their preferred name now. They took that name when Shelley’s book came out, wanted to reclaim it, make it powerful, be the version of the monster her creation would never be able to be. You can only image how frustrated Frank is with all the giant, green, dumb version of them that exist out there.

Dr. M performed many experiments on my friends and me during the years we were trapped in his horrible mausoleum. Many were physically brutal, but the mental ones were often so much worse. He focused his worst psychological games on Frank because it was always clear that Frank was the most sensitive to those kinds of games.