Frankenstein: Conclusion Edition

     Welcome to the conclusion edition of the novel Frankenstein! Here, we will post several thoughts about the novel that the author of this blog, Nate, had felt! Free of spoilers or other issues. Stay tuned for more info!
     (A small intermission plays, in which a pseudo-realistic man covers himself in green paint and announces: "Hey everyone! Tired of your own creations trying to destroy your life? Get my patented product, Victor's Vicious Monster Miasma! Guaranteed to remove any pesky problems you may be having in your lively life! And don't forget to use as many awesome alliterations as possible! V-Frank out).
     Okay, hey everyone. I wanted to sorta write my thoughts on Frankenstein, so I'll try to be frank. I am tired, after all, and I have several tasks I need to do in order to be ready for my finals this week. Here goes.
     The book was a lot better than I had originally expected. If you had not read my previous post that described how I was not too excited to read this book, then you would have a good understanding of how I felt starting to read it. 
     Luckily, most of the book didn't go through the annoying letters process, and it was only the beginning of the book. I think the main reason I disliked that format is because of the stop-and-go process that it makes my mind squeeze through. Not the easiest thing to stay focused on when suddenly you are having a three month time shift. That may be the other problem too. I like books to be linear, so when suddenly a chapter jumps around several months I feel like something important is missing and my mind strives to want to fill that gap. Either way, the book didn't end up like this.
     It really nicely explored the themes it presented as well. To name a few off, there was the theme of what it means to be human, and what defines being human; there was the theme of how science can go too far, tying in a sort of man vs. nature theme; and finally there is the value of friendship and family (a subject I will likely write about next week). Each one was distinctly explained and shown in the novel, although my favorite is the one about what it means to be human. Throughout the novel, you are presented with the idea that the beast is a monster; an un-human freak of nature which wishes to destroy villages and eat people's raw flesh. Even the media represents him that way.
     For many of us, we have seen a Frankenstein movie before we actually read the book. Whether it was Young Frankenstein or Frankenstein or even The Bride of Frankenstein. Each one sadly portrays the creature as this inherently evil demon. When you read the novel though, you do have to ask yourself...

Who is the real monster? Frankenstein? Or the creature?

     This question arises from a variety of topics. Mainly, the fact that the creature did not intend to try and be harmful and filled with hate. He wanted to be a functioning part of society. He wanted to have friends, to have a family, to be knowledgeable, and to be loved. Yet, every time it got close to these dreams, they were dashed by the fear of his unsightly, hulking body and gross appearances. The main perpetrator behind the creature's failures though was his creator. Many times in the fiction, the creature wishes he was not created to be so hideous, and blames Frankenstein for his disfigurement. When he asks simply for a companion to live the rest of his miserable life with, Frankenstein betrays the creature and rebukes his promise.
     Frankenstein's argument was that it was bettering mankind. That two creatures procreating and releasing their wretched spawn across the world would bring an end to it. Yet it was out of what seemed fearful visions that Frankenstein believed this. Had he originally kept his promise, I think I can safely assume that the creature would have held true to his promise, and left forever. Victor would have ended up with a lot more friends and family if this was the way it had gone.
     So was the creature, with his thirst to simply be human, actually a monster? And could this have possibly been an allusion to the situation which Shelley grew up in?
     I learned progressively more and more about Shelley's character while reading this book. It can't be ignored that Shelley was raised in a household the regarded feminism in high esteem. Her mother was even one of the first wave feminists. The monster might possibly be a reference to the women who were oppressed in society at the time Shelley had lived. With a thirst for love, knowledge, and acceptance in society, they were constantly shut down. I could probably write an entire blog post proving this, with evidence. But I'd rather not.
     So that's what I leave you with tonight. Good luck everyone this week with finals. May the patron god Bullshidicus and his muses Caffeina and Thesaurae be with you all this week to provide you with assistance.

Hobey ho, 
-- Nate


(Word count: 873 words)

I Find It Kind of Sad.

     Welcome back.
     Shall we continue?
     Lets begin with a small intermission.
     It perhaps wasn't the most smart idea to have written this as a two-part post. At the moment when I had been writing the first entry, my brain had been on a single track; I felt exotic, I felt weird, I felt like I had been nothing more than a mass of meat and matter floating on a lump of damp space rock as it zooms through the infinite universe. I feel a little different now, and I am having trouble relating my tale in the same manner I had related it earlier. In fact, I hardly even remember what I was going to write today. Nonetheless, I will force my hand to make an attempt, for better or for worse.
     Where were we?
     What do we truly know? What is straight hard evidence? And what is nothing more than a figment of imaginative thought, springing from the complex connections of circuits, wires, and electricity which constantly rushes through our heads? As I pointed out in my story earlier, I am unaware of what the truth is anymore. I want to believe that it happened the way I tell it everyday, and that might be the only thing keeping me sane. It might be the only thing keeping any of us sane.
      In English we discussed a very thought-provoking concept. What if we all see different colors? What if for you, you saw the sunsets in beautiful shades of blue and purple? What if the trees all had ghostly white bark with blood red leaves? What if you saw black as white, and white as black? Would anyone know? Since birth, we were directed at colors and told what they were. We took it for granted and accepted it for our entire lives, but if we weren't would we know any different? There is no way to tell if the lives of others are radically alien. No way to understand the way that you perceive color, thoughts, sensation, or other perceptual senses. That's one thing that begins to scare me.
      Because the only thing that I, or any of you know for certain is that we are alive. Our pasts, which include the infinite amounts of knowledge and memories we have experienced, are nothing more than memories. There is little to no physical proof that they technically every happened.
     In a way I believe this a form of quantum physics. We don't perceive the past anymore, therefore it doesn't exist. We may have trinkets that remind us of the past, but no actual proof per-se. Sure, the stuffed animal you have sitting on the shelf is a constant reminder that you had a childhood, but how do you know that for sure? Depend on a somewhat unreliable memory?
     In the end, that's really all we can do. We have to believe that our memories are true with all the imperfections and discontinuity. Throughout generations, memories are passed down to retain traditions. Memories create everything that exists today, so that poses my last question...
     If everything is created in one form or another by memories, what good is society.
     The answer is, it isn't. But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. In a perfect world, everyone would be perfect--and when everyone is perfect, no one is. The fact that we have inconsistent memories and that we all may share memories or have those that stay secret forever is what makes us unique.
     It's what makes human.


I find it kind of funny,
I find it kind of sad.
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had.
-- Mad World, Tears for Fears

(Author's Note: The Gary Jules version from Donnie Darko is a much better version of this song, but I do want to credit the original artist.)


(Word count: 647 words)

I Find It Kinda Funny,

     This weekend was kind of weird for me. I'll try to be brief.

     I found out that the world is a small, weird place. You don't truly know anyone, but you know everyone, if that makes sense.

     I've felt pretty odd every since the weekend. For whatever stupid reason it is, it's put me in a mood where I am not sure about anything anymore, except what is happening right now.

     I'll try to explain.

     So we all have that story that we tell everyone about from our childhood; we stuck our tongue to a flagpole and it got stuck, forcing our teacher to call the fire department to get it removed. Or maybe you were just a tiny little eight year old bundle of romance and you got your first kiss under the willow tree with some girl who ended up moving away forever.

     Think about that story, try to remember ever detail. Every. Single. Detail. Do you have it? Now try to figure out which details are wrong. The ones you put in there yourself to make the story more appealing, whether it made your story more humorous, heroic, or hectic. Over the years, your story has come to be somewhat of a half-lie, and a half-truth.

     For me, my story takes place in fifth grade. I'm not going to go into detail, but at this point, reflecting on it, I'm not sure if it actually ever happened. Maybe it did, but it was way less dramatic than I make it seem to be. Maybe it was close. Maybe I tell the story the way it happened. I've told it so many times, adding so many half-lies into the story that I don't know what the truth about it was anymore. In my memory, I even see it occurring to me in the third person.

     In case you don't know this about me, I dream in the third person. That may be a confusing way to describe it, so I'll clarify; I dream as if I'm in a movie. When I dream, I see myself doing actions, with other people doing things unto me, or the world happening around me. I am aware of my thoughts, and what I am going to say. I can sometimes affect the outcome of the "story". I am perfectly aware of my surroundings and where I am. But my view from the dream is limited to a camera. My view is watching at a difference, experience and feeling my character, but not quite being there in his eyes. I'm not certain this is the way I dream at all though, but as I wake up and recall my dreams; I recall them in the third person.

     Back to the story at hand.

     This memory is in the third person. It makes me speculate whether or not it actually happened. I have no physical proof that it did, besides my memory, but even that is sketchy. If I can convince myself that it did happen, even if it didn't, what is the point?

     Then I look back at all my memories, and nothing seems real. Did I really walk home today? What was my proof? Did I go to Six Flags earlier this year? Have I already gone to Pasadena? The mind is so fragile, and so easy to lie to. It's hard to tell the differences between thoughts and truth.

     For example, one time I dreamt that a friend of mine had come up and told me that he was going on a vacation for the next week. When I went to school after the weekend had ended, I asked him why he wasn't gone for vacation. The dream had felt so real that I couldn't tell the difference between if he actually said that or not.
     Even worse, if I ever happen to take a nap, I get so disorientated that I am often in a state of confusion for the rest of my night. The dreams I have during this time are so exotic and real; they tend to frighten me.

     So where do my true thoughts actually lie? At what point is my brain storing my dreams and my experiences and merging them together in one? Archiving my negatives away in old video banks, to be accessed when they need to be? Why are these negatives decaying and suddenly changing?

to be continued...

(Word count: 738 words)

Doing That College Thing (Otherwise Known as Scholarships)

     Well, I've been doin' that college thang. We were given an assignment in my English class to write for a scholarship a 300 word essay about our career and education plans, as well as how our current situation, including our skills, personality, and experiences, applies to that.

     I've almost done that.

     I have spent the last... Hour and a half trying to write this stupid thing. My first draft --which was a wonderful metaphor that weaved my voice in and out of my essay, informing in an alluring manner what my passion was, which would definitely have been a Grade-A essay-- ended up being somewhere closer to 400 words. That just won't do.

     So I cut out the flowery metaphor. My paper was a lot more... boring, but it was also shorter.
     Final result? A 303 word essay. At this point I really just want to be done with it, but I am three words off from completion. Right now I really can't figure out what I want to get rid of. Since this was the "first draft" of this essay (in the most basic sense of the phrase), I think I'll be able to let it slide.

     Now I just have to get it to my teacher and talk to him about what I need to do to fix up my three-word dilemna. I'll have him look at it, maybe find a few words, and maybe find a way to make it even better. Because free money.

     Anyways, here's what my essay looks like...

            Have you ever wanted to be a teacher? Not many can say that they want to tackle the challenge of interacting daily with students, parents, or teachers, or to scale the mountain of massive workload that is often thrust upon them, or more importantly, to teach a future generation of students and shape a better world. One of my career plans that took shape and was sculpted into a beautiful possibility during my high school experience was the dream of being a teacher. It isn’t just the thought of wanting to be a teacher that made this goal a possibility though; it was the combination of my personality, my strengths and weaknesses, and the occurrences I have embraced that creates this possibility.
             Teaching is a career in which I can use the confidence and social skills I have, and apply them to a real world situation where I can change lives. What other careers require you to undertake the role of cooperating with thousands of people, all while maintaining a positive demeanor? Yet my personality is only a single link that chains together success in this career. I also have a passion.
            This passion is of literature and English. Ever since I was a child, I’ve always been a book-worm. Throughout my teen years, I consumed books more often than I did food. I was once told that it takes passion to be successful at anything. A passion for this subject is just what I need to be inspired to pursue it.
            Finally, the events and occurrences that have surrounded me throughout my life; the teachers and heroes who inspire me to do better, stand out as the most important aspect to this career. I felt inspired, because the same traits I see in myself are so prevalent in the teachers who have already made the decision to shape the future, by shaping young minds to be smart, creative, and thoughtful.
            So do I have what it takes to be a teacher? I have the passion, the knowledge, the personality, and the experiences. All that is left is for me to take the leap to shape my future, as well as the worlds.

     Well that's all I got for you guys today. Enjoy your nights and good luck with all your toils and foils.

Hobey ho,

 -- Nate

(Word Count: 649 words)

Procrastination 101

     So I'm sure we're all amazing high school students, who turn on their work on time and ensure ourselves an amazing future. No? Perhaps you forget to turn something in every once in a while. Perhaps that new popular app is begging to be played. Perhaps there is a million other reasons that we aren't doing something. I believe we all have the potential to be that "amazing high school student."
     I know what is stopping me though...
     Procrastination.
     I'm sure many of us battle this... thing. We see the overwhelming Work Monster (probably looks something like this) and suddenly we're a little moist at the waist and are running towards the nearest exit. From that exit, we find the bliss of procrastination...! Suddenly even the most boring task sounds fun and we tell ourselves that we will have time to finish. Usually we don't. I'll spend six hours watching a new Netflix interest, or playing some of those new games I find online, or making food to make myself not hungry even though I never really was. Sometimes, I even clean the house.
     It's these demons that are the toughest to kill. Today, while telling myself I was gonna get on homework, I went and browsed through my Tumblr and Facebook feed. I've got a sticky note on my right that is telling me all the important work I need to get done today. Ha. Hahaha. So whilst browsing through this feed, one of my friends shared an article about Procrastination.
     "Hey! This will be a good thing to read rather than reading Frankenstein! Lets do that!" I told myself. I assume you can understand the irony of this situation. So I read it, and it was actually pretty cool (if you're interested, you can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here). That post is actually the inspiration I had to writing this blog post today. It explained procrastination in a way that really helped rationalize the situation; it explained ways to combat it. The post was light-hearted but serious, so I felt as if the writer had a clear understanding on the subject (and spent some time thinking about it, rather than just throwing thoughts out there as I usually do in my blog posts).
     Well, I don't have much else to share with you guys today. I wanted to share this post, and that it could possibly bring you a beacon of hope that you can get over it. I'm overwhelmed and worried about my own problems, and that it will cause many more issues in college. So I'm gonna try to tackle it, one step at a time.

Hobey ho,
-- Nate


(Word count: 451 words)