We had a pretty good discussion of Shelley’s Frankenstein in MBL this evening. People will be coming back with a couple of relevant questions that demand reading the tensions between Frankenstein and his creation, now known as Victor Jr or VJ. Is the bargain they come to reasonable given the context of the agreement? Does this bargain reestablish a legal or natural balance to their affairs: legal in terms of justice; nature in terms of the cycles Frankenstein disrupts through his application of scientific knowledge, if indeed he disrupts anything?

Moreover, what is the nature of VJ? Since he is a human creation, animate in a seeming death/life process, is he life in the classical sense, souled? Upon death, will he go to Shelley’s or Milton’s heaven? As his life get’s closer to being created, it seems that Frankenstein dwindles in stature and behavior.

Outsiders, darkness, questions of the spiritual–it’s all in Shelley.

Also, I’ve added a link to the Rimantic Circles Weblog in the lists at the right of this page.