“unbeing dead isn’t being alive”

In the beginning of the book at the top of the first letter, next to the date, there was a very small number one. Which referred me to the footnote at the end of the page, explaining that the frame story takes place during the same time span as Mary Shelley’s conception up until the 13th day of her birth, which was also two days after her mother died. But we’ll come back to that.

I keep reading and a few more lines down the page and the speaker is writing about how he is searching for temperate climates IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. And so we meet footnote number two, because looking for a temperate climate in the Arctic is stupid. “A Temperate Hyperborean Climate was still believed to exist at this time.”

According to wikipedia, the ancient greeks had this myth about the Hyperborea, a mysterious people who lived “beyond the north wind” (it’s the meaning of their name). Hyperborea was said to have constant sunshine, and be a completely perfect place. Because of the constant sunshine thing, people believed this land existed in the arctic.

(When I read this, I personally took the constant sunshine to mean eternal happiness, but to each his own. If you want to go knocking around the arctic looking for warm weather, be my guest.)

So, after finding this key piece of information out, it was pretty easy to figure out that Walton (our current narrator) is off to find the Garden of Eden (aka Hyperborea) and Shelley wanted us to begin considering the concept of life, death, and what it means to truly be responsible for a disruption in that cycle. Like Frankenstein with his monster in the arctic/temperate hyperborean climate. Or God with Adam and Eve. in the Garden of Eden. (isn’t nice when ideas fit together like that?)

A few more miles down the road, and Walton is complaining about how he’s lonely, and how he just wants a friend, someone to equal him in his life (*cough*adamandeve*cough*).  A little later he briefly references the rime of the ancient mariner.

Quick version for those who haven’t read it: Ship gets lost in Antarctica. Albatross leads them to safety. Mariner shoots Albatross. Ship runs into trouble again. Crew blames Mariner. Death and “Life-in-Death” gamble for everyone’s lives. Death wins all of them except for the Mariner. Death kills every member of the crew. “Life-in-Death” is a bitch and makes the Mariner watch them die. The spirits of the crew take pity and save him. The Mariner is super guilty about everything, which causes him to go around accosting people that are traveling to a wedding and force them to listen to a story about how he’s a dick and shot an Albatross that saved him. The End.

Now, after that thrilling story, I’m sure you’re thinking “What the hell does that have to do with Mr. Stitches and his favorite Frankenfurter?” Hold on. We’re getting there.

Finally, after all of this, Walton gets on his horse, leaves Russia, and starts looking for Hyperborea. While traveling, his ship gets stuck in a bunch of ice. (Fancy that. Ice in the Arctic.) While they are stuck, a dark mysterious stranger goes traipsing across the ice. Everyone is AMAZED. I believe the direct quote was “Oh my god. The have DOGSLEDS WITH CREEPY GUYS ON THEM HERE!”

Okay… maybe not.

The next morning, the ship finds a wrecked dogsled floating on an ice floe.

Enter Frankenfurter.

In the interest of making a long story shorter, they pull him in and warm him up by a fire.

Footnote moment:  Shelley once had a dream about saving her daughter who died during childbirth. Guess how she saved her? By warming her up in a fire.

Once he’s back on his feet, Frankenfurter non-chalantly asks if they’ve seen any big mopey guys go by on a dogsled. He, of course, gets super mopey when he finds out they did, and launches into this long story about it.

This is where the albatross thing becomes relevant. As Frankenstein begins his tale, he starts off by talking about how he got there, about his long quest for glory. So, now we have two characters who have started their journeys off in the similar manners. And one of them is recounting his story of failure. Just like the albatross story.  So now Frankenstein is the Mariner, and his monster is the Albatross.

The interesting thing about all of this so far (at least as I have seen it, and it may be totally wrong) is that Shelley puts a certain amount of influence on the (for lack of a better word) supernatural. The reason I hate to use the term “supernatural” is because she recognizes a misuse of science as a driving force behind all of the problems in the book (at least as it seems thus far). The supernatural part comes in with her constant bringing up of the ethereal: a gambling game between Death and Life-in-Death, the Adam and Eve reference, and (don’t forget) the fact that it is called a “modern Prometheus”. It is almost as if she’s saying that the science is going horribly wrong not because the technology to make it successful hasn’t been invented yet, but because it is unnatural and it goes against some higher being. Adam and Eve’s quest for knowledge got them kicked out of the garden. The Mariner’s quest for glory got him a lifetime of pain. We all know what happened to Prometheus when he stole that fire.

Another way of looking at it is in terms of  the world Shelley was actually living in. She wrote this just as Europe was moving into the Industrial Revolution. The strong negative reaction Shelley has posed thus far in the book towards industry and development is very strange to me. Her (seemingly)  strong warning against development for development’s sake is something I really wasn’t expecting.

I’m also still a little confused by what Shelley is saying about the concept of responsibility over life and death through the experiences she has had in her own life, with the early death of her mother and the death of her daughter. Again, I don’t know if it means anything, but references like that have already popped up twice, so I feel like it’s something to keep an eye on.

One more thing before I close up shop for the evening. After Frankenstein begins telling his story, its very clear that he does not have a very clear grasp on reality or on what it means to really live in the world. As he has been a strict academic (and an academic of outdated science, at that) it is strange that he should try to create life. It reminds me of something that Thoreau said: “How vain it is to sit and write before you stand and live.” I think this concept is one that can certainly be applied here. Frankenstein cannot fully understand what is precious to life until he has gotten out of his study to find out what it is.

I don’t know if any of this is relevant. I don’t know if any of this is correct. But its what I think I’m seeing. What do you think you are seeing?