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ACF Critic Series #11: Frankenstein!
In our newest podcast, and last of the year, Prof. Paul Cantor joins me again for a discussion of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein on its 200th anniversary. We talk about Enlightenment, science, Romanticism, poetry, their insights and faults — but also the story’s posterity on the stage, in the 19th century, and in the movies in the 20th. We also cover the nearly unique spectacle of a single person creating a civilizational myth, showcasing the strange vivacity and occasional fertility of popular culture.
Listen and share, friends!
Published in Podcasts
Will do, Titus!
Interesting how Dracula was a monster of the past and Frankenstein represents fear of the future, of science.
There’s an excellent exhibit on Frankenstein at the Morgan Library in NYC through January 27th. https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/frankenstein
Yes, Prof. Cantor wrote it up for the late TWS.
I’ve now listened to the whole podcast. Thanks to both of you for an excellent discussion.
Nope. Sorry, Titus. You missed it.
Just kidding.The podcast is very good.
Interesting podcast, but I wish I had learned from it more about the specific ways in which the 1818 and the 1831 editions of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein were different. (Just curious to know how the years changed her view of the story she first saw when she was so young.) I also don’t recall Mr Cantor telling us which edition he liked more. I’m curious to know.
My thought after listening. Our new “tech” oligarchs in the Silicon Valley combine the best sort of monsters. If the stories are true some want to drain blood from the young to prolong life, while they’ve created a new media they can’t control.
They also are into cryo-mummifying!
Prof. Cantor has several books that touch on this, if you’re interested. Creature & creator is the book he wrote on Romanticism.
As for a brief answer to the question about the second edition–it is far more critical of the Romantic ideas involved in the science & education parts of the novel.
Also about movies and myths. Does the gunfight at the OK corral qualify as a Western myth? There are plenty of versions of that story in the movies.
Yeah, but let’s see if it comes back again. There were two big movies in the 90s, one of which has a following still. The mid-century ones were decidedly bad (Burt Lancaster & Kirk Douglas). Then there’s the one amazing telling, My Darling Clementine. John Ford, of course…
Maybe it comes up again, in whatever form–I certainly hope it will survive.
John Ford said he met the venerable Wyatt Earp in Hollywood & got the layout for the gunfight near, but not at, the Ok corral from him, on the back of a matchbook… That’s history!
What a fun and fascinating walk through social, literary and film history. Very enjoyable.
I wish I could share the cakes I just took out of the oven as the podcast ended… It’s called “Chocolate Indulgence,” and I made two; one to take to a party Papa Toad and I will attend up the road (just north of here) with other grownups (we’re also bringing that sangria we had when you were here!), and one for the tadpoles here at Toad Hall as they party into the New Year. I’m garnishing with sugared cranberries, so pretty…
We need something like Flowers by Telegraph; some sort of linkup with worldwide delivery apps so any delicious food product mentioned in a discussion thread(as Mama Toad just did!) can be ordered locally for half hour delivery. Call it “The Right Kitchen”.
My #2 son and I were joking around this morning and I told him that Boris Karlov had done the voice for Hermie, the dentist in the claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. This was, of course, a bald-faced lie.
But Boris Karlov did do the narration and vocals for How the Grinch Stole Christmas, like “You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch,” which is kind of fun.
“I wouldn’t touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!”
The sangria can be found here.
The “Chocolate Indulgence” is:
6 squares bittersweet chocolate
3/4 C butter
4 eggs
1 C sugar
1/2 C flour
Melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave, for 2 minutes on high. Stir until fully melted (it may need a little more microwave depending on your machine).
Beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer on medium until lighter in color and thicker in consistency.
Combine chocolate and egg mixtures and mix gently. Sprinkle with the flour.
Pour into very-well greased and floured round pan and bake at 350 for ~30 minutes or until center set. Cool for 5 minutes and remove from pan and cool completely.
Chocolate frosting:
3/4 C chocolate chips
2 Tbsp butter
6 Tbsp cream (or milk, or eggnog!)
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Heat all the above in a saucepan until blended. Pour carefully on cake when cake is cool.
Sugared cranberries:
1/2 C water
1/2 C sugar
Bring to a boil in a saucepan. Add
1 C cranberries, fresh or frozen
Let sit for 10 minutes. Drain, roll berries in sugar, allow to dry (about 1 hour). So pretty!
I wanted to post a scene from the Ed Wood movie where Bela Lugosi talks about Karloff, but it is definitely not safe for this site. Just as funny as I remember though.