Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Frankenstein

The Monster of Them All 11 CAPSULE: Victor Frankenstein's Story, Part I 15 I Am Galvanized: Frankenstein Science, Then and Now 22 SIDEBAR: Dexter's Laboratory 26 SIDEBAR: Charge It: When the Monster Gets Wired 27 Ten Easy Steps for Setting up a Mad Scientist Laboratory & Creating Your Very Own Blasphemy 28 SIDEBAR: The Word "Monster" 30 SIDEBAR: The Importance of Parents 32 Fainting Spells: The Monster Onstage 34 In 1823, the Monster gained an unnamed but starring role on the Stage and has seemed reluctant to relinquish it since. The Electrifying Monster: Film Takes to the Monster 39 From the beginning of movies themselves the Monster has been there, starting with Edison Studios Kinetogram in 1910. Suture Self: Boris Karloff, Not Bela Lugosi, Sews up a Big Role 46 SIDEBAR: June 16 50 Perhaps the most important day in Meru hi re.Hint: waking dreams and a man named Leopold. SIDEBAR: Bolt Upright: The Monster Walks 51 Does the Subtitle Explain It All? The Modern Prometheus 54 SIDEBAR: Prometheus at the Movies: What's Worth Bringing Back) to Life? Sci-Fi Movies and the theme of Frankenstein 58 Making a Monster the Van Helsing Way. 61 SIDEBAR: How to Make Your Own Frankenstein Monster 63 If you want to get out of your bed, bath, or armchair and try your hand at the messy work of creation, here are all the ingredients you might need. Mary Shelley Tells a Birth Story: The Teenager Who Wrote Frankenstein 64 MAP: Mary Shelley, the Fecund Writer 70 A map showing the travels of Mary and Percy Shelley in 1814 and 1816. (Victor Frankenstein will follow in their steps.) A Selection from Mary Shelley's Reading Lists, 1814-16 72 SIDEBAR: Frankenstein in Common Parlance 74 Doing the OED one better, we provide all possible explanations for the origin of the word Frankenstein. EXCERPT: Victor Goes to the Mountains and Meets the Creature 75 SIDEBAR: How Sublime! 78 CAPSULE: An Orphan's Tale The Monster's Story 79 Frankenstein in the Funnies 85 SIDEBAR: Dan Piraro: Why I Like Drawing Frankenstein's Monster 87 Sit Down!: Frankenstein's Monster for Children 88 SIDEBAR: The First Flower Child and the Change in the Message of the 1931 Frankenstein 94 Why I'm a Vegetarian. An Exclusive Interview with the Monster 97 No, it's not for health, he asserts, though he attributes his long life to his vegetarian diet EXCERPT: Victor Describes How the Monster Demands a Mate 100 CAPSULE: Victor Frankenstein's Story, Part II 101 MAP: Here There Be Monsters. A Map of Victor's Travels to Scotland and Back, until His Marriage 106 SIDEBAR: It Wasn't Incest! Victor Frankenstein Defends His Marriage to His First Cousin 108 A Good Cast Is Worth Repeating: Bride of Frankenstein 110 The 1935 film may be the best horror movie ever made. How James Whale and the cast and crew achieved it. SIDEBAR: I Was the Bride of Frankenstein. Elsa Lanchester 113 Pyramid Themes: Frank in Egypt, Intentionally or Not (an Acrostic) 115 SIDEBAR: The Creation of the Second Monster 117 Frankenstein: The Musical? 119 SIDEBAR: Rocky Horror Picture Show 122 SONG: Frankenstein's Valentine 124 CAPSULE: "All at Sea": Walton's Story 126 Polar Opposites: Does Victor Renounce Over-reaching and Will Walton? 132 The Jabbermock: A Cautionary Tale on Messing in God's Domain without a Permission Slip, in the Style of Lewis Carroll 134 Monsters on Ice 135 Lurching Ever Onward: Charles Addams, Ted Cassidy, and the Monster 137 The Monster Gets a First Name: Television Embraces the Comic Side of Horror 139 SIDEBAR: Living with the Munsters in Waxahachie, Texas 140 From Ice-olation to the Fireside Hearth and Back Again: The Story Takes Shape 141 SIDEBAR: Safie's Independent Mother and Mary Wollstonecraft 143 Does Mary Shelley place her mother in the center of the novel? Simulacrum and Disfigurations 146 The story line in the novel versus the 1931 film Missing Persons Advertisements. 148 Several key people in the novel are absent from the 1931 film. We place some advertisements in hopes of finding them. PUZZLER: A Frankenstein Quiz 150 13 Ways of Looking at Frankenstein (with apologies to Wallace Stevens) 151 Scholars have been busy explaining Frankenstein; with so many theories abounding, we provide the abridged explanations. SIDEBAR: Of Gods, Monsters, and Homosexual Panic 155 What to Do if You Meet a Monster: An Etiquette Guide 158 Don't worry. Our Miss Monsters addresses all your concerns what not to say, what not to serve, what not to do. The Son of the Bride in the House of the Ghost of Frankenstein: Successor Universal Movies after Whale 160 Collectors: An Interview with Donald Glut 162 The novelist, amateur filmmaker, and author of The Frankenstein Catalog, describes his introduction to the idea of the Monster as a teenager, his Frankenstein films, and what surprises him most. Bill of Lading to Chick Young and Wilbur Grey 165 A bill of lading that demonstrates what happens when weirds collide. More precisely, when Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, the Wolfman, and Dracula (with a guest non-appearance by the Invisible Man). Monsterbilia 167 He's everywhere! Frankenstein action figures, lights, candles, salt-and-pepper shakers, nutcrackers, earrings, napkin holders, masks, soft cuddlies and other monsterbilia run amok throughout the book. How the Monster has become both myth and icon. SIDEBAR: The Way of all (Pumpkin) Flesh 169 How They Died 170 They were all together on the night of the ghost story in 1816 and many of their deaths were strange, some were tragic; one inspired Henry James. How Byron, Polidori, Clairmont, Percy, and Mary Shelley went to their graves. (Or not.) SIDEBAR: Fire and Ice in the Frankenstein Story 174 A Hammered-out Plot 175 PUZZLER: A Monstrous Crossword Puzzle 178 Herr Frankenstein Is Greatly Changed 180 Comic book artists draw on the Monster's story. SIDEBAR: The Role of Women in Monster Comics 185 SIDEBAR: The Postmodern Prometheus 185 The Animated Director: 187 Tim Burton's windmills and other Frankenstein icons that find their way into the strangest places in Burton's films. Oh yes, a teenie-weenie dog, too (well, all right, not a teenie-weenie one but a Frankenweenie dog). Collectors: An Interview with Forrest J Ackerman 190 One of the authors makes a pilgrimage to Los Angeles to meet the man who was there at the beginning of the Universal phenomenon. What a history! What a collection! And, yes, she touched Dracula's cape on her way out. All Stitched Up: The 1818 versus 1831 Editions: A Publishing History 193 Frankenstein v. Bialystock 197 What better way to pay homage to the achievement of Young Frankenstein, itself a wacky homage to the 1930's Frankenstein films, than to inhabit Mel Brooks's imagined world and push at the edges? Yes, Bialystock is in trouble again. A Frankenstein Film Test: Can You Identify Which Films Were Never Made? 200 A Frank Success: The Frankenstein Stamp 201 "You've Been Overexposed." A Memo from the Monster's Agent 202 Putting the Monster Behind You 204 Acknowledgments 207 Answers to a Frankenstein Film Test and the Crossword Puzzle 208