Frankenstein
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Endued with Vital Warmth
Over at The New Republic, Francine Prose writes about Frankenstein’s conception, as a bet in a drama-fueled writer’s group, as fueled by a young soon-to-be-mother’s anxiety, as a cleverly-plotted Gothic novel, as stories embedded in stories, as something altogether wonderful…
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The Rumpus Interview with Laura Mullen
Acclaimed poet and writer Laura Mullen talks about her new book, Complicated Grief, obsession, germ theory, and exposing the arbitrary and superficial protections that have failed us.
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Old Books for Cold Weather
Lit Hub has been sharing excerpts of classic favorites to help weather the brutal cold—or, well, the mild cold, as is the case here in New York. Cozy up with the quiet desperation and harsh weather of James Joyce’s “The Dead,” Mary…
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All Those Stars
Twenty-one years ago my mother stopped her dialysis treatments before they’d barely begun, a decision that prematurely ended her life.
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Between Living and Dying
At the Public Domain Review, Sharon Ruston examines contemporary influences on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, specifically with regards to scientific developments in discovering the line between life and death.
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The Saturday Rumpus Review of Ex Machina
Ex Machina is pretty adept at tricking viewers into thinking we’re smarter than the film.
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Feminism in the Family
The Wall Street Journal interviews biographer Charlotte Gordon about Mary Shelley’s relationship with her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, and how her mother’s feminism permeated the future Frankenstein author’s entire life.
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His Greatest Masterpiece
The banality of evil hides in people, and who they unleash it upon become forever tainted by their names. They become one. Creator and monster. Evil by association.
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Ghost Stories with Neil Gaiman
Vulture spent time with Neil Gaiman perusing the special collections of the New York Public Library, which includes early drafts of Frankenstein, engravings from William Blake, and Jack Kerouac’s blood stains.
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Lord Byron was the Original Vampire
On the same night that Mary Shelley released Frankenstein’s monster, John Polidori, Lord Byron’s personal physician, wrote “The Vampyre,” the first fully realized English vampire story. The Public Domain Review takes a look at how Byron served as the model…
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Frankenstein’s Legacy
For the Guardian, Neil Gaiman discusses the import of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, suggesting that the book arrived and redefined gothic fiction at a culturally apt moment: Ideas happen when the time is right for them. The ground had been prepared. Gothic fiction had been all…
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Casa Azul Cripple
“I wanted to be sexual/sexualized, but not fetishized. But was becoming someone’s fetish the only way? How was being fetishized different than being desired for having a unique, unrepeatable shape…or would the one leg always and forever be the only…