Frankenstein/Remix Thoughts

(Because if it has a pretty picture, you'll read it, right? Also because this is what my brain is currently doing with Frankenstein and Remix)

In the spirit of RERO I am going to record my thoughts on Frankenstein as I have them and hopefully glean something coherent from them in a later draft or post. So this is less of a post and more of a research log I guess. I put my most coherent thought at the top.

One thing that we do when we study literature is make connections between texts. We highlight how they are similar, how they are different, and how they matter. Remix is one way of drawing connections between digital "texts." A visual (or auditory) demonstration of connections.

This thought was inspire by this video, titled "Inception-FRANKENSTEIN: Mashup trailer 2011"

When I saw the description I was interested in watching it because I wondered how the creators were going to connect these two stories. As it turns out it was just the Inception music laid over the famous creation scene, but it got me thinking.

A Frankenstein Rap: 

Really not my thing. But, from the little that I was able to listen to without sticking sharp objects in my ears, it is clear that this guy read the book and isn't just rapping about the pop culture version. I don't much like it, but this guy has remixed the story in a way this is (apparently) fun and meaningful for him.

So, what? The usefulness of remix doesn't just have to lie with the end user. It can be useful for the creator, who can explore a topic in a way that is meaningful to them, rather than just dry or forced academia which might not be useful or interesting to them.

Remix supports Web 2.0: " In a Read Only culture, a small professional group produces all the culture that is then consumed by the masses. The public can only absorb and take in the culture, but it leaves no room to interact with the culture. " (Wikipedia). So, remix allows us to engage in the conversation rather than just viewing boring, non dynamic Web. 1.0 pages, as it were.

Other Assorted Thoughts

The  R. Walton (the explorer guy) goes looking for one thing in the arctic, but finds quite another. Similarly, sometimes we go into the digital world looking for one thing and find another.

"...I shall certainly find no friend on the wide  ocean, nor even here in Archangel, among merchants and seamen.  Yet some feelings, unallied to the dross of human nature, beat even in these rugged bosoms," (5).

"One man's life or death were but a small

price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for

the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of

our race.  As I spoke, a dark gloom spread over my listener's

countenance.  At first I perceived that he tried to suppress his

emotion; he placed his hands before his eyes, and my voice quivered and

failed me as I beheld tears trickle fast from between his fingers; a

groan burst from his heaving breast.  I paused; at length he spoke, in

broken accents:  "Unhappy man!  Do you share my madness?  Have you

drunk also of the intoxicating draught?" (13)

-Two views on the sanctity of life


"I spoke of my desire of finding a friend, of my

thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever

fallen to my lot, and expressed my conviction that a man could boast of

little happiness who did not enjoy this blessing.  "I agree with you,"

replied the stranger; "we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up,

if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves--such a friend ought to

be--do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures,"  (13)

-Walton had expressed earlier his desire and inability to find a friend on his voyage. By travelling into this Brave New World, he finds one-just like the long tail (right way to describe it?) of social groups


Frankensteinia-a blog dedicated to Frankenstein

Looking into some Frankenstein Remixes:

 I, Frankenstein.

A new Frankenstein movie (with some pretty big names) Imdb's description reads thus: "Frankenstein's creature finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans." I'm wondering why it is useful to have the creature as the one getting caught up in the war as opposed to someone else.

Thoughts:

All of the pop culture versions seem to portray Dr. Frankenstein as the quintessential  mad scientist type. However, he does not seem to be a mad scientist in the book. He's tormented certainly, but not mad. Why the differences?