Frankenstein - The Original Horror Story

Hey everyone, sorry for the confusion with uploading the video twice. Turns out, making a video a “premiere” makes it not show up for a lot of users and the video was getting a fraction of the traction it normally does. It didn’t even pop up in my second account’s feed lol. Hopefully you can see it now and sorry for those that have already seen it. Hope you enjoy and thank you for watching!

Illustrations other than Ito's, such as that of the thumbnail, are courtesy of the great Bernie Wrightson

My Links

[shaefurlong]

I still think Victor's greatest sin was abandoning the monster, not creating it. If he had cared for it like it was a living thing, or taken responsibility in any way, than so much pain would have been avoided. But instead he simply chose to see him as an experiment gone wrong until it was already too late.

That and not stepping in for Justine like wtf dude

[TheLovelyLadybug]

I love how Victor didn’t think that making his monster huge would be a mistake until it stood up.

[DagobahResident]

Something that really stuck with me from the novel, of all things, was the Monster first encountering fire. He curls up next to a campfire for warmth, but recoils in pain when he tries to place his hands directly in the flames.
Intentional or not, it works well as a metaphor for humanity's relationship with scientific advances. We will approach and nestle up to it for the sake of comfort but our ignorance often makes us forget how destructive it can be if we dive in recklessly.

[Nmhere]

34:24
Wendigoon: “But to his surprise…”
My brain: “He did the mash! He did the monster mash.”

[csconnor]

Yeah my AP lit final was based on Frankenstein, and the original is actually incredibly different from every other depiction of the story. It's not just horror, it's a philosophical look into human nature and what truly constitutes a monster. It's so good.

[elvenbugs]

i love that every time victor gets remotely stressed, he suddenly falls ill with a severe fever. very relatable.

[soapwizard]

the line "i am malicious because i am miserable" from the monster will forever impact my soul. my first read of this book was about a year ago at one of the worst and most "miserable" parts of my life. relating to the monster more than the human characters sometimes :/

[allyli]

I can’t get over how genuine the beginning of the story. Like, it really capture the arrogant crunch of being a college student, taking on too much and then running away when it crashes down on you. It’s a story about someone running away from maturity out of guilt and fear.

[breendart]

I appreciate your take that both Frankenstein and his creation are monsters. Too many people I've known characterize Victor as the "true villain, " throwing aside the fact that he was a naive young man who had lost his beloved mother and wanted to control the circumstances of life, as we all do. Part of why it's such a great story is because there's no real hero or villain; it's the story, essentially, of two human beings trying and failing. Tragedy at its finest.

[BlueTreeFrog]

it's so funny to me that Victor is just so pleasantly surprised that the literal monster he created is not where he left it and is probably roaming around somewhere where he doesn't have to deal with it.

[GraveyardMurmurs]

I hadn’t watched this video because I knew about frankenstein. Mad scientist in a castle makes a monster, monster attacks the town and a mob comes to kill him.

I can’t believe how different the book is from film adaptations. The book is one of the greatest stories I’ve ever heard. Thank you for opening my eyes to this masterpiece.

[ThenameisMarsh]

One of the things about the story that really gets lost in modern adaptations and the popular media perception of the story is the many layers in which it is framed. The first layer is Walton sending letters to his sister. This is already one layer deep, as many stories would just be the events themselves, not an in-universe written account of the events. Then, Doctor Frankenstein begins to relay his life's story to Walton. It is now two layers deep. Within Frankenstein's story he gets to the part where he finally speaks to the monster, and the monster begins to tell Frankenstein of his own experiences. It's now three layers deep. The monster speaks and he describes how he watched the family and the arrival of Safie, and during his description he recounts the tale he overheard about how Safie's father was imprisioned in Arabia and how Felix helped him escape only to be betrayed. This tale is four layers deep.
Four layers. The story of a man in Arabia was recounted in a home in the French countryside and overheard by a monster before being told to the Swiss man who created him who then relayed this entire speech to an English sailor who then wrote the entire thing down and sent the letter back to his sister. The idea of the unreliable narrator is one that could be considered here. Many details, whether on the part of Walton, Frankenstein, the monster, or the family whom the monster stalked, could be entirely fabricated (fabricated within the narrative of the story obviously. the book itself is clearly fiction) and we the readers would have no way to know.

[noelmarie]

I think my favorite concept in the book is one that isn’t very frequently talked about, that being how Frankenstein’s monster is not scary just because he is horrifying to look at, but because his existence itself in unnatural. Inherently, humanity is scared of what they do not understand. The sheer idea that something like the monster even exists at all brings a deep fear to all who come into contact with him. If he can exist, what other horrors can exist? Its almost like how people are afraid of spiders. Yeah they’re creepy to look at, but that’s why you don’t like them. They EXIST. something with 8 legs and a fuck ton of eyes EXISTS. It’s unnatural to most people in society aside from those who learn to make peace with it. I just really love that.

[DocMadfox]

Surprised you didn't mention it, but this is also widely considered the first science fiction novel. Mary Shelley is owed a hell of a lot for her contributions.

[PaperWill]

Strong work as always. Your videos don’t just summarize stories, they motivate me to go read them myself.

[SinderSoyl]

My own interpretation of the story is that Frankenstein's "Monster" is neither really him, nor his monster, it's the concept of isolation. Frankenstein sought isolation for himself out of obsession (after all he didn't have any contacts with his family back home for two years) which led him to lose his sense of morality and reality, which he regained the moment he brought his creation to life, as if the gaze of the "other" had been enough to briefly bring him back to his senses.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have the Monster, isolated by no fault of his. Clearly able and willing to be a kind soul and to help out others, making the best out of his isolation simply by observing and learning as it went along. But when isolation took its toll on him, he tried to have any form of contact with people, but was ultimately rejected every single time and it turned him into a heartless being.
Every step of the way you can clearly see that Victor kept refusing the hand that tried to reach out to him, while the Monster was absolutely begging for any hand to reach out.
This goes on up to the point where you almost see salvation when they both meet, the monster once again begging for somebody and Victor nearly accepting to do something for someone else for once. Both sides of the same coin meeting for once, finding together a chance at living the life they both longed for, failing miserably for the last time.

What I especially find poetic in this is that, after that specific breaking point, it becomes very clear that both Victor and the Monster will be linked together through their respective isolations. Up until the very end at that point, it's as if they were both together alone, forever.

[enthiegavoir]

One of the things I love about the Mel Brooks parody "Young Frankenstein" is that it almost feels like a "what if?" Story in that the movie's monster is still a corpse and his brain doesn't function like it should. Even so, that version of Frankenstein doesn't reject the monster, and instead does everything he can to protect him, and in the end instead of raging against his creator, once he is capable of doing so the monster defends the doctor as though they really were father and son. Could they have had a similar relation if the original Frankenstein showed as much compassion for his mistake?

[crptpyr]

using junji ito's illustrations for this video is really nice btw, he's an incredible artist and they're a great extra visual
I love the way he draws the monster and the way you can see in him the absolute horror of whatever the fuck he is and how disturbing it is, but there's also a clear humanness to it as well, especially in its face/eyes etc. You get this effect in a lot of ito's stuff, where you can see both the horrific monstrosity that something is but also still recognise the human that it (usually) once was

[ice-choco-Icecream]

I remember Frankenstein being the only story I ever read completely in middle school, the whole plot intrigued me so much, and I just love so much how both the monster and Victor are portrayed as awful villains and caring creatures

[superdrew]

For anyone that hasn't read the novel or at least listened to an audio rendition of it, it really surprised me how elegantly and almost poetic the writing is. I personally was shocked at the stark contrast between how well-written the story being told was and how gruesome yet thought-provoking the actual story is. Unfortunately for me, this was never assigned reading to me in school so It wasn't until my mid 30's I had the pleasure of experiencing this story for the 1st time. . . Welldone Wendigoon. Keep up the great work my friend.