Transcript
Speaker: It was a dreary night of March that we beheld based on a book's first episode of Made of Madness. I'm Carrie, here to bring the chaos to life.
Speaker: I'm Lindsay, and I am fearful, but I am still powerful. I am Crystal and I have never hated male main character more than I did reading this book.
Speaker: As I said, welcome to March 2026's theme, which is Made of Madness. March is for Frankenstein by Mary Shelley with a little bonus title at the end of the month with Poor Things by Alistair Gray. But most of the month our focus will be Frankenstein because as you may know, Frankenstein has many adaptations,
Speaker: I think around 47 or more. They could be exact adaptations or interpretations of the story. There are even more just references of Frankenstein in different films in general.
Speaker: Basically, there's a lot to cover and we're new here. All right, we're new. So Made of Madness is dedicated to reading Frankenstein and watching...
Speaker: 12, yes 12, different adaptations. Today we are going to get into a little bit of beginner knowledge of Mary Shelley as we are not historians.
Speaker: But for me personally, some of this information is new and I think it's fun having this like initial discussion together for the first time. Also feels very essential to this entire Frankenstein lore.
Speaker: ah Then we are going to get into our thoughts on the book. And to wrap up, we will get into what to expect for upcoming adaptation episodes with some previously recorded material.
Speaker: So getting into some Mary Shelley lore first, I'm curious what was both of your experience before going into reading Frankenstein? Because this is both your first time reading Frankenstein, right? This isn't a reread.
Speaker: So what is both of your experience going into reading Frankenstein, whether it's with the story or just like your knowledge of Mary Shelley in general? i'll start with Lindsay. Lindsay?
Speaker: ah So my experience with Frankenstein is I have seen a few movies previously. My knowledge on Mary Shelley is Doctor Who did an episode where the doctor goes back in time. It's a good episode. It so is. ah The doctor goes back in time to the night that...
Speaker: Frankenstein was written. um So it's the night that Lord Byron and Mary Shelley and everyone, they're all at the the cottage or whatever, and they're writing their stories. And it's based on that night. So that that was my knowledge of Mary Shelley.
Speaker: Okay. What about you, Crystal? I actually know a ton about Mary Shelley. She's an absolute icon. I love that bitch. i I don't, I've never read Frankenstein. Honestly, I have never read any of Mary Shelley's works. None, zero. But she, as a human being, I'm super fascinated by and I knew a ton about.
Speaker: So when we decided to do this, I was like, yes, I'm game. Let's go. Even though i have no interest in horror. I'm just excited to talk about Mary Shelley. so Yeah.
Speaker: I have very little to no knowledge of, before this, of Mary Shelley besides the fact that she wrote Frankenstein. I just know her to be to be known as an icon amongst you know people that love horror, um also sci-fi as well.
Speaker: a lot of people look at her as like an original, like sci-fi writer. And also just, I've, a lot of people like her for her like gothic vibes. And so I've been very intrigued by that. Also, i recently watched the 2025 adaptation of Frankenstein with Jacob Elordi. So that's kind of what drew me through. to wanting to cover this. So that is my only experience going into this. But then diving into her life, she has Mary Shelley. It's a very intriguing life ah where she is no stranger to death and no stranger to trauma.
Speaker: So she just kind of going into like her early life a little bit. She is the daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, hopefully I pronounced that correctly, both very famous writers. Her mother was a feminist and wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. Her mother, Mary, died due to complications in childbirth very soon after Mary Shelley was born.
Speaker: but Mary Shelley also had siblings from an affair her mother had, ah but her father was like very accepting of what his wife did and the relationships she had.
Speaker: Eventually, William married again, and Mary Shelley then had a stepmother, which brought the very famous, like, Claire Claremont to her life. And I think it's, like, super interesting after we've read, you know, Jane Austen talking so much about, like, the etiquette in lifestyle and how you – this is, like, a big, like – no-no, basically.
Speaker: And now- Mary Shelley is the opposite of Austen. Yeah, exactly. it's just so wild. like We just covered Persuasion. And now going diving into Mary Shelley's backstory and how they are very much have a very like free lifestyle that is very much the opposite of what Jane Austen writes about.
Speaker: I think that's very insane. And like now that we've read Frankenstein, is there anything that you've noticed like from her early life that you feel like may have shaped Mary Shelley like as a writer?
Speaker: What about you, Crystal?
Speaker: I think... Probably yes, a lot of her experiences with men, with how men treat women, with how men view responsibility.
Speaker: And i you know I did a little bit more reading on her other works because after reading this one, I was kind of interested in like, what else has she done? um And a lot of her other works have more themes of familiar relationships and responsibility, family responsibility. So I feel like that probably had you know, came from her early life and, you know, her, she grew up with her father constantly, you know, fighting debtors and constantly being, you know, having to borrow money and trying to make sure that, you know, he was still educating, not just his daughter, but his stepdaughters as well.
Speaker: and it was, you know, obviously she saw this as as her father's struggle to kind of maintain that and you can see that in a lot of her works but also I feel like there's so much that happened in her later life I think in part because she was able to live that free lifestyle that she did when she was younger um and so that I think like Obviously, we are all kind of a product of our youth and our childhood, but I feel like the opportunities that were afforded her when she was younger and the experiences she had when she was younger definitely shaped how she treated people when she was older.
Speaker: um In fact, I learned that she gave to a lot of i like less well rumored couples rumored lesbian couples And that she liked helping out people in that society, for the most part, had deemed unworthy.
Speaker: And she did it really quietly. And her family tried to cover it up. where After she died, they tried to like hide a lot of her journals and censor them and make sure that that information didn't Because they didn't want... They didn't want that impropriety to look poorly on her memory. it was like, she would have been... but She did it because she was proud and happy to do that. Why would... i don't know. That... That made me mad.
Speaker: Sorry. I just found that out today that her family tried to hide all that. So. h Yeah. I feel like something i think that definitely change like reflects in her as a writer is like I said, she's no stranger to death and she In my opinion, I mean, i I also just watched like the Mary Shelley movie too with Elle Fanning. And I really like how they show...
Speaker: Mary Shelley as a person. And, you know, I read about this as well of her being like obsessed with like her mother's grave and being at her mother's grave all the time, learning to read and write at her mother's grave. And i think the fact of very being very intimate with death it reflects her story with Frankenstein in general.
Speaker: you know That's where she had some of her first dates with her husband, Percy, was at her mother's grave. Yeah, yeah. Lindsay, what about you? was still married. Yeah, we'll get into that a second.
Speaker: Lindsay, do you have any other interesting childhood facts of Mary Shelley before we get into the drama? Yeah. No, honestly, I just want to get into this drama. Okay. yeah All right. So I believe around 1813, Mary, who was only 16, she meets Percy Shelley, who was around 21. meets her through her father, Godwin, because he basically wants to study with him. They fall in love. However, like Crystal just said, Percy is already married with one child and another on the way.
Speaker: ah But Mary and Percy run away together, accompanied by Mary's sister, Claire, and they travel through Europe. There is a lot of speculation an assumption that he was also messing around with Claire while he was with Mary. and it's it's messed up. Like, this dynamic is messed up. And honestly, I really recommend watching that Mary Shelley movie. It doesn't follow the timeline of her life exactly,
Speaker: but It's going make him mad. It's going to make him mad. Percy is basically a piece of shit. All right. He's a piece of shit. Basically drags him all over the place. And like Mary is immediately like Mary Shelley is immediately pregnant.
Speaker: And while he's still married. Yeah. While he's still married. They have and it's not her name. not Mary Shelley at this point. Mary Godwin still. Godwin. They're they have no money. Social outcasts because of what they've done.
Speaker: Like I said, like it's like so weird after reading so much Jane Austen and reading Persuasion and then reading so much about her backstory. like It's very bizarre to me. And so these are seriously right around the same time frame. like Yeah. it's It's all happening kind of at the same time.
Speaker: So these two lead leading such incredibly different lives. It's just wild to me. And yet somehow still kind of a part of respectable society. Like everybody's whispering about her. She's an outcast, but she's still invited, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. yeah you know And she has dealt with a lot of death in her life. Like like I said, she was pregnant and she gave birth to that child and that child had died very soon after And we see that a lot of death with several of her children. Eventually in 1816, we do get to this point of Mary Shelley riding Frankenstein, which is the when Percy, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, Claire, who is having ah Lord Byron's child that we assume. and ah
Speaker: John William Polidori, who is the guy who wrote the one of the earlier vampire works yeah that we talked about in our vampire episode.
Speaker: yeah I saw his name pop up a couple of times and I went, I know that guy. Vampires. fires Yeah. so Yeah, it's like so crazy think these like people just like hanging out together. Yep. That are so famous now. I just like can't get over it.
Speaker: ah Lord Byron suggests that they all write a ghost story and it inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein, are also known as Modern Prometheus. There's literally so much more information. Like I said, how much death that she dealt with in her life, including many of her children's deaths very early in their lives, several people in her life unaliving themselves, eventually ah Percy dying later by drowning on a boat,
Speaker: Which is so insane. But are there any other details that we should get into about Mary Shelley's life and background? Lindsay, do you have any other little facts for us?
Speaker: Honestly, I think we covered them all. I was just surprised that when she started writing Frankenstein, she was like 18, 19. That's impressive. Yeah. That's wild to me.
Speaker: Yeah. It's very cool. Yeah, and like Crystal said, she does have other works. The Last Man, but The Mortal Immortal, i think it's called Matilda, i believe. um So she does have other books as well.
Speaker: But as I said, wrote Frankenstein. um There are three editions of Frankenstein. So the first edition is a three-volume novel, which was published anonymously in 1818 because the female name would not be accepted.
Speaker: on the book. But there was like a dedication to her father on it. So people had assumed that Percy had wrote it um because he also wrote the introduction and he also edited it So the second edition from 1823 included Shelley's name on it.
Speaker: um Because that's what the rumor was. And then the third edition and most popular was from 1831, which has Mary Shelley's name on it with her own introduction in it, as well as Shelley's with revisions made by Mary Shelley that could possibly reflect how you feel about the story.
Speaker: She claims she only mended the language and left the court and substance untouched, but some disagree. I'm curious which version we all read.
Speaker: i read the 1831 edition, which, like I said, is the most popular. Crystal, which edition did you read? 1831. Okay. Lindsay? I read the 1818.
Speaker: I was hoping one of us would. Yes, I love it. We have like a per usual, we have not discussed our Frankenstein thoughts. So I'm so happy somebody read the 1818 edition. There's a lot of speculation of how people think of Victor Frankenstein based on the edits that were made.
Speaker: um So I'm very curious how this discussion is going to go. But if you had if you don't already know what Frankenstein is, what the story is, this is the story of Victor Frankenstein.
Speaker: A man named Victor Frankenstein. Not the creature. The creature's name is not Frankenstein. A lot of people get that confused. This is the story of Victor Frankenstein who sets out to create life and unleashes a creature that ultimately seeks to destroy him.
Speaker: And that's it. That is it. This is going to be spoiler ratings and reviews. So if you have not read the book and don't want to be spoiled, click away now, read the book, then come back and tell us what you think because we need to know.
Speaker: All right. So let's get into our Frankenstein book ratings and reviews. I want to start with Crystal.
Speaker: i give this three femurs. Okay. Based on my new rating system,
Speaker: i don't I don't want to say that the characters weren't well developed because a couple were, but there were so many names kind of in and out that were not developed enough for me to remember who they were half the time. That it took me a bit. And I had to go back and forth on a few things.
Speaker: The vibes were kind of there. The setting. Shifted a lot. And wasn't necessarily a part. Of the story. I mean kind of but not really. So I didn't necessarily feel like I was in it. I was listening to it. That was. I like stories that are a little more immersive. Personally.
Speaker: The plot was plotting though. The plot was plotting. And. So yeah, three femurs for me, it was, i'm glad I read it, but I was just angry the whole time.
Speaker: Again, i listen seriously, when I say I've never hated, this is not a man-hating podcast. It's not. And I'm generally speaking not an entire man-hater, but this book made me really just rage against men in general.
Speaker: um I lumped every man together as Frankenstein and as his creature and as the narrator whose name i don't even freaking remember because he's not really important.
Speaker: ah all of All of these men suck and I hated them and they were they are doing a disservice to any good man out there. And I know not all men or whatever, but in this moment in my life, it's all men. And these three men are particularly good examples of why I hate them all.
Speaker: That's all. that's my god Three men that I hate. That's what I rate this book. Okay. Okay. I got it. Also, I love that we know exactly what it means by the plot was plotting. The plot was plotting. Okay.
Speaker: All right. Lindsay, what about you? ah So I gave this one three and a half reanimations. Okay. So surprise, surprise, I'm giving another classic a three and a half rating. Surprise. I sense a theme. at least I'm consistent, I guess. Well, I didn't persuasion. I'm sorry, persuasion.
Speaker: Yeah. ah But out of all the classics that we've read so far, I think I liked this one the most. Okay. And this one was actually a little bit easier for me to follow, but it was probably because not everyone had the same name.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. We have like eight Catherines in this one story. That's fair. That makes sense. Yeah, that's fair. I do love a book where each character has their own name. That is nice. It's been a while. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. ah So I gave this four Victor meltdowns. I... Gotta go with Crystal on there. No, I almost rated mine meltdown, like three meltdown naps.
Speaker: Yeah. Because he always goes to bed every time. Yeah. Like traumatized over something. Every time something goes wrong, he goes to sleep. Honestly, I i kind of feel that though. I get that. Yeah. i really...
Speaker: love how this book made me think. It made me think deeper than a surface level of the story. made me think deeper than the plot.
Speaker: I don't know if it's because i I don't normally deep dive into the author before I read it. i usually do that after.
Speaker: But I think because I did that before, it had a different effect on me in my reading experience. And I kind of like felt like I saw Mary Shelley's life writing it, if that makes sense.
Speaker: And what she was currently, where her current life was at that moment as she was writing it. And all the references to specific things that I felt like she may have been going through.
Speaker: at that current moment and in her life. And i I don't know, I just like, it felt very deeply emotional to me. And this isn't like a super entertaining story, in my opinion. It's not like full of drama or anything. um But there's like a lot of darkness in it.
Speaker: And a lot of references to about creating life. And it just like had me in my feels. And that's just like, I don't know. It just like emotionally affected me in that way.
Speaker: But not of not like a five material though. Like a five is just like, I cannot stop thinking about this. Like I'm obsessed. But it was it was like a solid four for me.
Speaker: I'm not going to lie. I just finished reading this this morning. ah kind of rushed in the last like two days to to read it. And I do wonder, is this going to stick with me?
Speaker: down the road you know because some stories they really do if if i fight and i horrible adhd i always wait last minute for everything but sometimes a week after we record these episodes i'm like you know i have another thought you know i'm afraid that that's gonna happen with this one so i get that it does stick with you yeah for sure i kind of want to get into the characters first starting out with k crystal's favorite new character Victor Frankenstein. Okay. Kind of want to start out with initial impressions of Victor.
Speaker: I hated him right off. Yeah. What are our initial impressions like when we first started the story? So hated him immediately. Lindsay, what about you? i really felt indifferent.
Speaker: i I didn't really have any feelings for him, against him. i was just... more learning about him i was surprised since um like you mentioned earlier i watched the 2025 frankenstein movie so i had that in my head i was picturing that frankenstein and i was surprised that his parents were portrayed very differently very very differently I did not know that about the book.
Speaker: Yes. We'll get into that. I don't want to spoil it too much because that's for next episode, but very differently. That's going to also get into my themes. Like when we talk about the themes. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Yeah, first impressions of Victor. Like, you know, we first meet him where he's like running from something and we don't know what he's running from because he's talking that guy. think I just got his name. Robert Walton. I just looked it up. Yeah.
Speaker: talking to him. He's like, I'm here to tell my story. You know and I mean? And I'm here to tell you my tale. It's another Ellen Dean all over again. It happened 40 years ago. Yeah. So he's trying to tell us his tale of what happened. And so there's like a big complaint, I think, or not necessarily a complaint, observation, I'll say, a difference between The older text and the third edition, so the first edition, third edition, is that the language and the modifications that are made kind of makes Victor a little different.
Speaker: Where people say that... In the older text, Victor appears to be driven by just in general his selfish actions.
Speaker: Just like him wanting like some type of glory, I guess. But in the text that Crystal and I read, people think that he is more just driven by destiny. There's like some other force that is like pushing him to do what he is doing.
Speaker: And I don't really sense that personally while reading this. Like he claimed, I think it's, so he's claiming it's destiny that is pushing him to do these things.
Speaker: In my personal opinion, I feel like it's like an excuse. And I'm curious what you guys think. Lindsay, how did you feel about like in that? Did you feel like it was just like being pushed by his selfish actions? or he was He was very arrogant. Yeah.
Speaker: It was very selfish. He had just this lack of humanity. At least that's how it ended up feeling. Like It's tough to explain.
Speaker: um i didn't realize there was a difference in the like there was such a difference in the language between the two. that It's not supposed to be. i think people just are.
Speaker: I think people look for. Yeah. It's supposed to be very minor, but their interpretations are different between the two. What about you, Crystal? What do you think? I mean, i read the third edition and I feel very much that he was selfish.
Speaker: it Like through the whole thing, not only is he driven to create this creature to prove that he is the smartest, the best, the you know, great. And like doesn't share this information. Right. So here he is.
Speaker: He's this scientist. He's studying with these other famous scientists. He's super excited to learn from them. And he discovers something. He doesn't share that with them.
Speaker: He doesn't share his discovery, his finding with these other fellow scientists. He wants to keep that for himself. He wants to prove it himself. He wants to do something that nobody's ever done before.
Speaker: You know, it's very selfish, entitled kind of thing. He wants to learn off the backs of all these other people and all this other research, but he's not willing to share his own. Mm hmm.
Speaker: And that's before we did even after he creates the creature, which I was shocked that he creates this this creature so early in the book. I don't know why I thought that there would be a longer process, but it's really fast.
Speaker: Yeah, it's very, like, in the beginning of the book. Most of the book is, like, him being, like, traumatized by what he did from his own actions.
Speaker: Oh, yeah the consequences of my actions. Yeah, exactly. hey And this is why I hated him, because it's all... Oh, look, the consequences of my actions. Pity me for having to face the consequences of my actions. Woe is me. I am the most miserable wretch that ever walked the earth because I'm facing the consequences of my own actions. Forget all the people that just died because of your actions.
Speaker: yeah Forget all the people that are mourning their lost loved ones because of your actions or their burnt up house because of your actions. It's you. You should feel bad for it. I hate that guy so much. sorry Did your opinion change from at all? like No. Even just a little bit from beginning to end of the book?
Speaker: No. At the end of the book, I hated him more. I have flags of examples of where I thought he was being the worst human being on the face of the planet. And i wish, i like, we talked about this in in your one of your last episodes, Lindsay, about, like, redemption.
Speaker: The possibility of redemption. I was like, he doesn't deserve redemption. Like, I was at the end of this book screaming about how much I hated this man. It was, i like I had to call my daughter and tell her, did you read this book yet? Have you read this book yet? How do you feel about this man? Because I hate this man. And she was like, I get it, mom, shut up.
Speaker: If you're watching the YouTube video, I don't know if you can see this, but I literally underlined this part. And this is where Justine is getting um accused of the creature murdering his youngest brother.
Speaker: And he says, the tortures of the accused did not equal mine. Victor says this. I underline that and I call him a bitch.
Speaker: I wrote it right next to it. Yeah. I was yeah live dead livid, livid. I couldn't believe my eyeballs. I have it towards the end when he's being accused of killing his buddy Kerwin. And he's gone into another one of his trauma naps.
Speaker: And then he mom wakes up in the jail cell. No one was near me who soothed me with the gentle voice of love. No dear hand supported me. you you i mean, you might not have been the one who killed him, but boy, Holly, it's your fault. Like, come on.
Speaker: yeah. Weiner. Yeah. i hate that guy so much. Lindsay, what about you? Did your opinion of him change at all? Like from beginning to end? Did it worsen? Did it get better?
Speaker: it definitely worsened. Yeah. Because in the beginning when he's younger, he seems so young and happy and innocent. And yeah, then he becomes arrogant and...
Speaker: selfish and terrible and like dude just speak up just speak up just speak up yeah this is also he makes the i pulled up a timeline because i was like i feel like this is a long time but maybe it's not but no it was a long time he creates the monster in november of 1792 but he but then the monster like disappears right he he goes back the monster's gone And then he doesn't really seem to care about it again at all until May of 1794, over a year and a half later.
Speaker: So what you you didn't stop to think, like, where'd I put my monster? Where'd my monster go? not No, you didn't you just were like, solve probably solved itself. I'm going carry on with my life. Yep.
Speaker: I hate this guy so much. Out of sight, out of mind. swear to god Yep. So moving on to the creature, ah what was your first impressions of the creature?
Speaker: Lindsay, what about you? ah just kept thinking Jacob Elordi and I felt really bad for him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What about you, Crystal?
Speaker: I would like to say i have never seen a single Frankenstein movie. So I don't have, like I have like the, like the Munsters, the uncle from the Munsters, you know, I've seen, but for the most part, I don't really have a picture in my head of what this dude looks like.
Speaker: who So right off the bat, I was just like, okay, he's eight feet tall. And then like, Frankenstein talks a lot about how he made the body in proportion to eight feet and sourcing the parts to make sure that all of the proportions were correct.
Speaker: um And so I'm trying to like just picture giant like eight foot. regular shaped proportioned dude. And honestly, I just felt bad. i just felt really bad because his, like you, you come into existence and your first experience is this man screaming and running out of the room and then you're on your own.
Speaker: Yeah. I, I don't know any creature that, you know, any sentient creature that could withstand that. So I felt bad for him.
Speaker: from yeah from the get i think it's interesting um he like described uh frankenstein describes it as like beautiful like he makes this like most beautiful creature and it's like the second it like wakes up it opens its eyes and becomes alive like it's so beautiful when it doesn't basically exist or have It's not alive. It's like beautiful and perfect. And then the second it opens its eyes and is alive, it's terrifying. It's disgusting.
Speaker: I'm running away. i don't want anything to do with it. Remind me of that you said that when we get to themes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm curious how your reactions to the creature changed throughout the story.
Speaker: Lindsay, what about you? I still just felt bad for the creature. get that he does murder quite a few people. But i I remember reading the part where Victor Frankenstein gets the letter from his father about his younger brother being murdered. So he leaves and goes to Geneva. And on his way there, he sees the creature and immediately knows. He's like, oh, the creature killed my brother. I know it.
Speaker: And, you know, I didn't really know anything about the story. I was like, how dare you? Yeah. yeah i took the same brain And yeah, well, then he did. He admitted that he did. Yeah. And then he framed the girl and I was like, come on, man.
Speaker: Yeah. Creature. yeah Immediately i was like, not my creature. then it was him. was like, oh. Yeah. yeaha Yeah. What about you, Crystal?
Speaker: I mean, honestly, I was just empathetic towards him the whole time. i just really, I just, I get it. I get that anger. i get, i i I don't know that I could ever bring myself to kill children and frame innocent people for it. But i also just really get that anger, those, you know, feelings of abandonment and and then trying your best, like literally trying your best.
Speaker: And it reminded me of, I might cry, shit. It reminded me of the wild robot, right? Roz the robot shows up on this island. She's different. She's weird. No one accepts her. So what does she do? She sits back. She waits. She watches. And she learns.
Speaker: And she teaches herself the language. And she looks at how people or the animals on the island survive and how they live. Roz was accepted. Roz was accepted.
Speaker: Roz helped the the the creatures around her and they accepted her. Well, the creature does the same thing. He sits, he waits, he watches, he learns, he helps.
Speaker: And they still rejected him. And that just hurt me inside. I cried. I literally cried at my heart. yes That just made me just, it just hurt.
Speaker: It was so sad. Yeah. I just felt bad for him the whole time. Yeah. I i think. Ling's not good. yeah Felt bad. Yeah. i I got really emotional at those parts too. And I think like, I don't know if Mary Shelley does this on purpose, but there's like, there's so many references of, you know,
Speaker: like birthing and like birth and creating life and things like that and I almost like when talking when the creature is like talking and talking about his creator and things like that like it almost like brings out as a reader like a like what am I trying to say like almost like a parent role feeling that comes out of you towards the creature.
Speaker: And i assume that she's doing that on purpose as a writer, but like, it's like you literally can't help for it to come out. And it's like, all these things can be avoided by doing specific things to help people.
Speaker: This creature, all of this could have been avoided. And honestly, something else I think about going back to Victor, I think also is a little bit of Percy Coded.
Speaker: Absolutely. little Percy coated in there. i'm not going to lie. But also I think that Victor and the creature, the way that they speak are very similar and how they recall their actions and where they have, they both feel so much remorse and they both feel so much misery.
Speaker: But the difference is that the creature blames himself. He continuously blames himself for the bad things that he does But I feel like Victor constantly blames everyone else, like the higher power, the destiny that put him here.
Speaker: Yep. You know, like he feels remorse. He feels the misery of being in the situation. But it's like because of the destiny that made him want to create this thing.
Speaker: destiny pushed him here and he never feels like the full responsibility of his actions. When the creature constantly feels the heaviness and the guilt of his actions.
Speaker: But like both characters are driven to madness in the same way at the end, but one due to the way they were treated and the other, because I think he's being punished. Right.
Speaker: By what he's done. So I do think that's interesting, but going, let's get into the themes. What are some themes that stood out to you or affected you the most? What about you, Crystal?
Speaker: It's the parenthood. It's yeah the parenthood and the responsibility. It's like you said, Victor was very excited by the idea of creation. He was very excited by the idea of, can I do this? Of, you know, what can I create this beautiful, amazing, fascinating creature And then the minute it's alive, because he he didn't consider what is my responsibility to something that I've created? What is my responsibility to this creation? And legitimately, i feel like this is, and I didn't want to get into it too much earlier because I didn't want to, I wanted to have this discussion. This is Mary Shelley's life in this book is making the babies is fun
Speaker: But then what happens when the baby's sickly, when the baby's not doing well, when the child doesn't work? Where's my husband? He helped create this. Percy Shelley did not get custody of his two previous children when his first wife died because he was declared an unfit parent.
Speaker: You know, he was not a good father. And Mary Shelley was left to deal with her pregnancies, the miscarriages, the you know children dying, the early premature births, and then even the surviving children, she was left to deal with that.
Speaker: She helped Claire and Claire's pregnancies and the men who left Claire to deal with children alone. and And that is what Victor Frankenstein does. He gets super excited about the idea of like, yeah, let's have a baby. Let's create a creature, you know, and then suddenly it's real and there's responsibility and work to do.
Speaker: and he realizes, wait, maybe I shouldn't have done this. And he just dips. He just dips. And I think this is why, i because like, like not to get too deep into my own personal life, but I'm a single mom because of a man who dipped.
Speaker: And this book made me so angry from the get that I felt, it's like you said, it does something to you as a mother. i just beat, I raged through this whole book. And then to hear Victor Frankenstein, oh, poor me. Oh, poor me through the whole thing.
Speaker: Oh my, god I'm still raging. I'm still, it's like this thing inside me. I'm so mad about it. Mm-hmm. Because and this this was this particular theme, this this responsibility to the things that we create, the things that we put into the world, the things that we turn out on the rest of society and how our creations affect the rest of society.
Speaker: It's a big deal. Yeah. And it's really well painted in this book, honestly. Like that might bump me up half a femur. Yeah. Half a femur. There you go. There you go.
Speaker: What about you, Lindsay? I just kept thinking of um nature versus nurture ah the whole time. Yes, that's what i was going to say. Yeah. ah Like, even Victor himself and the creature, I just, yeah, that was all I could think about, nature versus nurture.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, that's kind of like going off what Crystal is saying. I think it really, the like, I feel like that's what this entire book is, you know? It's this entire message about nature versus nurture,
Speaker: I think it really hit me where it was so freaking ironic. It was so ironic when at that scene when Chris was talking about when he made like the creature comes alive and he dips. He's gone. He's a goner. and Literally leaves his own ha his own place. Yes.
Speaker: And he immediately falls ill. you know like He immediately falls ill because it's just nerves are shot by what he's just done. like he It's not because you know he just a because he abandoned this creed this thing that he created, this human he created.
Speaker: It's all like now he's ill. Like he just can't believe it. His nerves are shot. And he has to be nurtured back to life, back to feeling better by his friend, by Clairvall.
Speaker: Nurtures him, nurtures Frankenstein to feel better after he just abandoned the human he created. Yeah, we're supposed to feel bad for him. Yeah, it was the most ironic thing.
Speaker: I had ever seen. And I was like, oh my God, Mary Shelley, you are so smart. Girl, you are so smart. I got you and I got it immediately. i just like, I love a good monster story because I honestly tend to feel like sympathy towards it. I mean, obviously not like a really crazy, like villain monster, like a really scary one, but like,
Speaker: It's just like I feel like every time I've read something like this, you just like feel a for me personally, I feel like a motherly like affection toward it where it's like, okay, let me help you. Like all of this like could have been avoided. Like I said before, i can see where all went wrong.
Speaker: Where like ah you just literally needed the nurture. The love and acceptance. Exactly. and but like Like in Nimona. She just wanted to be accepted.
Speaker: didn't want to be called a monster. All these tie together. This one doesn't end up in happy ever after. no I do like sometimes think I'm like i i mean I don't know if this is like a hot take or not.
Speaker: But I think like, is it possible, like thinking like scientifically in general, for like someone who wasn't selfish, someone who was more nurturing, like a more nurturing person like Clairvall or whatever, who could be capable of creating this scientific anomaly. Like the scientific anomaly is like insane and crazy And like, can you like also have not be emotionally checked in and do something like this and play quote, play God, basically.
Speaker: i think the people who could do it responsibly wouldn't do it because it's irresponsible. Exactly. You also have to keep in mind, you have to completely ignore your family and friends and isolate yourself.
Speaker: So there's there's a lot to it, apparently. Yep, exactly. Now that we've discussed our thoughts on the book, it's time to dive into the adaptation plan.
Speaker: So we you are watching 12 film versions, but with a twist. Each movie was chosen for how closely it sticks to the original story.
Speaker: Our goal? To put these direct adaptations head-to-head and crown the best one. As per usual, we split the list.
Speaker: Each of us will be watching four films. But instead of just discussing the differences, we're going to be kind of battling it out to argue which adaptation comes on top if it comes down to it.
Speaker: Because we had to make it even more fun and unpredictable, we randomized our picks with a wheel spin recorded back in November. So stay tuned for very funny reactions to that.
Speaker: We'll break down the full adaptation face off, including our extensive rating system to ensure each film has a shot to win in part one of the battle releasing next week.
Speaker: It's literally going to be insane. It's going to insane. It's going to great. Before we get into our previously recorded material, and if you're listening and not watching on our YouTube video where you can see our fun little wheel, here are the movie titles and their release year as they have similar titles that will be randomized.
Speaker: We have... Frankenstein from 1910, Frankenstein 1931, Curse Frankenstein from 1957, Frankenstein Frankenstein True Story from Terror of Frankenstein from Frankenstein from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein from Frankenstein from 2004, Victor Frankenstein from newest Frankenstein from
Speaker: and our honorary random one frank and weeny These will also be linked in a document in our episode description so you know exactly which adaptations we are referring to. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. As always, please reach out to us on socials linked in the description as we'd love to hear your thoughts on Frankenstein or even your favorite random Mary Shelley facts because I'm always excited to learn more. Don't go anywhere. Stick around for the next segment where we reveal who got which adaptation.
Speaker: Wish us luck. Bye. Bye. We're picking our Frankenstein adaptations for, wait, what season are we on?
Speaker: Season four. We'll be in season four. For our month of Frankenstein and Frankenstein adaptations for our March Madness. Made of Madness. Made of Madness. So, Crystal, you already got your 2025 Frankenstein adaptation because Lindsay and I have already seen it. We're making crystals watch that one.
Speaker: So, she's definitely taking that one. We're picking from 12 adaptations. Yeah. adaptations so So that we have six on each side of the bracket. So next, Lindsay's going to go. She's spinning a wheel so that it's completely random for all of us because so we don't pick random ones for each other.
Speaker: Lindsay, this is your turn. All right. Wheel of Destiny made of madness. Show me what you got. And... I'm doing... scared.
Speaker: Bye-bye! Curse of Frankenstein, 1957. Okay.
Speaker: Curse of Frankenstein, 1957 for Lindsay. All right, for me... you removed it from the wheel, right? I did.
Speaker: Okay. I'm scared. Carrie, you get...
Speaker: ah Dan Curtis's Frankenstein, 1973. Ooh.
Speaker: I have not seen any other adaptation outside of the newest one. I've never seen any. Not a single one, so. So this is to be so fun. I think I've seen couple, maybe. All right, Crystal.
Speaker: Big money, no whammies.
Speaker: Stop. Oh. franken weenie oh yes oh good that'll be one that i can watch with little man good stuff good stuff right lindsey let's see oh terror of frankenstein 1977 terror there you
Speaker: here you go I just know about to get the silent film. i can feel it and I don't want it. I want the silent film. Maybe we can do Tradesies after this. Okay. Alright, Lindsay.
Speaker: What am I getting? Frankenstein 2004. Okay. okay There you go. Alright, come on, silent film.
Speaker: Which I forgot to put it in there. but Wait, we are on me now, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, 1994. Ooh.
Speaker: See, I think I've seen that one.
Speaker: probably should have. All right, Lindsay. We're getting down to them. We're getting down. There's only three left, right? I got Victor Frankenstein, 2015. Oh, dang, I wanted that one.
Speaker: but That means the silent movie is you or me, Carrie. I know. I'm so bad. I really want it I really want it. Whose turn is it? Wait. who mind It's mine. It's mine. It's Carrie's turn.
Speaker: Frankenstein 1910. I fucking knew it. I knew it. but I freaking knew it. I knew I was going to get that 1910 one. ah Well, what does that leave me with?
Speaker: No, we still we still have ah several more left. Three more. We should each have four. Okay, okay. Next. Frankenstein, 1992. Okay, so now that's all yours, Crystal. Alrighty.
Speaker: We're down to the last two. Alright, Lindsay. Oh no. What? What do you have? Frankenstein, 1931.
Speaker: Ooh. Wait, what does that leave me with? I can't see the full title unless I spin it. Wait, what's the little last one? Frankenstein.
Speaker: True Story? oh Okay. 1973? Yeah. yeah You got a whole bunch from the 1970s. I didn't ask for this.
Speaker: ah You got like all 1970s. I got two from 1973.
Speaker: Well, what was going on in the 70s that they were so obsessed with Frankenstein? Yeah, there's Frankenstein, True Story 1973, and Frankenstein 1973. I got a 2004, 1910. You know what? i got a two thousand four nineteen ten you know what I'm upset. All right.
Speaker: Crystal got 2025 Frankenstein, Frankenweenie, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein from 1994, Frankenstein from 1992. Lindsay got Curse Frankenstein, 1957, Terror Frankenstein, 1977, and
Speaker: Victor Frankenstein 2015 and Frankenstein Carrie from trade We'll figure it out. my breakstein true story from nineteen seventy three frankenstein two thousand and four and frankenstein nineteen ten i'll trade you i'll trade you we'll figure
