Blog Post 1

            My first exposure the Frankenstein’s Monster was from the original Scooby Doo cartoons that I used to watch as a kid. However, my memory of his portrayal is quite vague, and therefore, my most recent memory in which the “monster” made an appearance in contemporary art would have to be in Van Helsing. He is one of the first characters that the viewer is introduced to at the beginning of the film, and is displayed as a victim, somebody who did not choose to be brought into the world, but was instead created by a monster. The people of the town formed together to lynch the creature, based solely off the fact that he was different, taking on a misshaped and unpleasant form. On the contrary, Frankenstein’s monster was more of a peaceful and mentally disturbed outcast, and not the villain he was made out to be. I do not have much familiarity with the creature prior to this class, never having the chance to read the original novel by Mary Shelley. I do know that the creature is an iconic symbol of Halloween and has his fair share of appearances on many animated kids shows. In modern pop culture, Frankenstein’s monster is represented in superhero comics such as DC and Marvel, and even shows up in popular video games such as Castlevania. Aside from this, the theme of reanimating the dead is widespread in mostly horror genres, in which the reanimated does not come back to life as expected by its master.