#for me I’m rereading Frankenstein

[meraarts]

I’m bored and nosy. Please reblog this with the book you’re currently reading.

[afterartist]

Over 200 years and still most people don’t know how Frankenstein ends

[cabeswaterdrowned]

I have best of the year shelves on goodreads that I make and wow looking back at my last year shelf compared to this one I’m having such a better reading year compared to the last… three years honestly I feel good about that!

[can-of-w0rmz]

Talking to people who aren’t REALLY into classics sucks sometimes bc it’s understandable enough yk, acquired taste and all that, but also it’s like I SWEAR I’m not being pretentious by saying my favourite novels are Frankenstein/Dracula/Les Misérables THEY GENUINELY ARE 😭 IM GENUINELY ATTACHED TO THE CHARACTERS AND GENUINELY HAVE REREAD THEM MULTIPLE TIMES (except for Les Mis. I am… still not finished my first read it’s a long-ass book ok man leave me be) AND IM GENUINELY EXTREMELY ARTISTICALLY INSPIRED BY THEM ALL IM SORRY I am but a simple history nerd who genuinely likes reading about old men with psychological problems and almost-human-cryptids that are metaphors 🙏🙏

[faretheeoscar]

Victor Frankenstein has plagued my mind for the past few days, thanks to the pictures released on set I decided to reread the book after many many years of the first time I did back in middle school and man, it’s so terrible how poor Victor suffers a lot and lives under a shadow of constant sorrow and his own demons 😞

So it gave me the inspo to sketch this Victor.

I cannot wait for the adaptation Guillermo is gonna give of this story! I’m so excited cause he is one of my favourite directors and also the fact of having the representation of both of my countries there by Oscar and Guillermo feels totally unreal.

Drawings Masterlist

[once-in-a-blood-moon]

Not All "Victors" are Gold, Some are Silver

Solomon x GN! reader

Summary: Everyone grieves differently. Instead of grieving properly, Solomon spirals after losing you and does the unthinkable to bring you back.

AN: It's Ween time, folks! Whoop whoop! I've had this idea for awhile since I've been rereading Frankenstein (my fave), so I've been working on this for the spooky day. Idk Victor Frankenstein kinda reminded me of Solomon... So, here we are, lol. Do enjoy and have a happy Halloween! 🎃👻

Warnings: dark themes, Solomon pulls a Victor Frankenstein, lots of angst, mentions of gore, blood, nausea and vomiting, grief and loss, death, maybe slightly yandere?, ambiguous ending... I think that's it :)

“What have you gotten yourself into this time, Solomon?” his own voice reaches his ears in a strained and solemn whisper. Denial gnaws at his nerves while dread worms its way into his heart where a sense of longing had burrowed before.

It’s all so mundane and quiet, and yet, the overwhelm in his mind makes him hyperaware of everything within the walls that seem to be slowly closing in on him. Back and forth, his stirring makes the murals of neglected cobwebs in the highest corners sway from the subtle breeze. The rushed taps of his soles on hardwood fall out of time with the infernal ticking of his many clocks. He can even hear the flick of his cloak that follows in his restless agitation and the pulsating of his pumping blood as he presses his palms over his ears – growing louder and louder, it’s all too much!

His bloodshot eyes dart around to loose scattered pages, most of which are piled on top of his desk while some have long fallen to the floor. What had been his life’s work for the past five years and had once been intelligible to him was now indecipherable. Or at least he wishes it was. He moves quicker than he can comprehend towards his desk, tears welling in his eyes as he shouts in anger.

“I’m a fool! Why did I do this?!” In one fell swoop, he clears the desktop, and the rest of the pages with anatomical diagrams, alchemic symbols, and maps full of red markings fall to the floor. In another, tools of the surgical kind clang against the floorboards, making flies that had gathered to feed from the drying bloodstains jump and buzz about.

Solomon doesn’t want his research to make sense. He should’ve let it go instead of selfishly clinging to the desperation to bring back what once was. None of it feels real. It’s like he’d done all of it in his sleep only to wake up to a nightmare of his own creation.

The pitter patter of tears dropping and soaking into the wood of the desk is the only sound that accompanies the ticking now. His Adam’s apple bobs in his attempt to swallow down the burn of holding back more. Curses and names are thrown around in his head looking for someone to blame; someone that had to have noticed his decline, someone that should’ve intervened, someone that should’ve known what he was up to. Though he knows it’s a ridiculous pursuit. Solomon had hid himself away with plans only the mind of the genius – or the bothered – would entertain, refusing to confide in his closest friends of the awful state he was in. He has no one to blame but himself.

With a slow pivot, Solomon turns in the direction of where the result of his madness lies, glaring at the blurred outline of his locked closet. Even though it’s only on the opposite side of the room, the dim lighting makes the closet seem to brood miles away from him, reminding him of the millions of miles his eternity has forced him to endure and the lessons he’s learned along the way. Although this time, he’ll be walking towards his punishment for a lesson that should’ve been learned long ago.

A sigh escapes his lips as he pushes off while wiping his eyes with the back his shirt sleeve. His steps keep their normal confident cadence, but the muffled sounds from behind the door create a storm within that almost forces him to falter. A queasy, sickly feeling squeezing at his gut. He reaches into his pocket for the key as he approaches, pulling it out once he’s right in front of the door. With a hard swallow, he inserts the key, twisting slowly until he hears the “click.” Solomon, before losing what little courage he’s retained through this ordeal, grips the cold doorknob and turns it. The slight creak from the hinges is the last thing he hears before the light pours in to let him gaze upon his work.

There, kneeling on the floor with thick, clunky chains fastened around boney wrists and ankles is his greatest love and greatest loss – you.

He took every liberty in giving you a vessel that mirrored your living one. Though due to late harvesting of your already buried body, most of “your” parts had to be taken from other sources, all “ethically procured” from those who had freshly departed. Solomon figured they didn’t need their useless limbs more than he did to rebuild you. He wishes he could feel pride upon seeing you living freely and healthily, but all he can manage is despair as he takes in your rot and decay.

The scratches you gave him on the night of your reanimation hidden beneath his shirt seem to burn in the wake of seeing his blood and skin caked under your fingernails. His eyes lock onto yours that are so cloudy and pale, and lack a certain twinkle of the living. He smells the sick, rotting flesh that crawls and spiderwebs along muscles that tense under the weight of the chains. And he despairs at the visible pumping organ in your chest that doesn’t resonate with the sound he used to listen to before…

Before you left him.

It all hits Solomon too quickly and he falls to his knees, retching violently. The contents of his stomach are spilled onto the floor, and he tilts his head up between heaves to watch you merely blink in indifference to his misery. This isn’t you. He knows because you lack the humanity you would’ve shown him in a moment like this. But in bringing you back, he’s taken away that part of you – and it’s something he can’t sew on or replace. There’s a reason people warn against necromancy and the like, and this is why; you are not the same as you were.

You are a victim of his selfishness. And he is a monster.

“I’m sorry… Forgive me!” he shouts down at the floor with drool and tears joining the pile of vomit below him. He finally breaks down as the weight of his actions crushes the emotion out of him.

Solomon rolls away to lay on his back while sobbing, staring up at the ceiling as he pictures the life he’s made for himself – feeding and watering you while still in your chains to avoid your animal-like aggression, confining you to a life of captivity and darkness. He’ll have to take care of you; God knows he can’t take this life away from you now that he’s given it back, even if it isn’t you. The guilt would destroy him.

Between sniffles, he whispers out in anguish, “what am I going to do?”

[fr-ogii]

mundanities

luke castellan

x gn!reader; poc friendly

masterlist

the two of you sat on a bench somewhere near the edge of camp. you had a book open in your hands and one of your legs was across his lap. letting it rest there gently, you were content with feeling his warm skin on yours.

“are you sure you’re reading that? i don’t think i’ve seen you turn in the page in a bit.”

luke was right, you’ve been rereading the same page for the past ten minutes. it was really hard to concentrate so close to him. it was pathetic, really. just how much you struggled to be around an attractive guy.

“i’m just a slow reader.” it was a foolish lie and both of you knew it, you were one of the fastest readers at camp (mostly because so few campers even bothered trying to read a book; their dyslexia overpowering any desire they had). you tried again, “and… it’s just not a very interesting book. hard to get sucked into it, you know?”

“what’s it about?”

gods! that’s probably the worst question he could’ve asked you. you truly had no idea what book was in your hands.

“just something stupid about a fairytale or something. you wouldn't like it.”

“you sure?” he let out a soft chuckle. “maybe my dyslexia’s acting up, but i’m pretty sure the title is ‘frankenstein.’ doesn’t seem like much of a fairytale.”

accepting defeat, you closed the cover -- not even bothering to mark the page -- and pulled your leg out of his lap.

“okay fine. you caught me. now what?”

[medievalanchoress]

Hi, if you ever feel up to it, I'd love to see a books recs post from you! ✨️

without ruminating too much on it, off the top of my head, my top five authors are:

-Virginia Woolf (The Waves, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando). if you’re having trouble getting into her work, begin with A Room of One’s Own.

-Marcel Proust (Swann’s Way, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, The Guermantes Way). an absolute must-read at some point in one’s life and i hope to one day reread the first four volumes of La Recherche and make it to the seventh!

-Elena Ferrante (The Neapolitan Quartet, The Days of Abandonment). if you enjoyed My Brilliant Friend (or even the tv series), i’d highly recommend reading her collection of essays, Frantumaglia, too.

-Vladimir Nabokov (Pnin, Pale Fire, Lolita, Invitation to a Beheading; Speak, Memory).

-Marilynne Robinson (Housekeeping, Home, Lila, Gilead). an American author who writes in spare, beautiful prose with a theological underpinning; the first book here broke my heart while the last three books listed form a trio of sorts, an expanded rumination on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. 

beyond the above list, many of my favorite books from high school still feel fresh: Sula by Toni Morrison, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Hemmingway’s A Moveable Feast, as well as the iconic sad girl books that i think are damn well-written: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath & The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. 

my favorite classics include Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, My Ántonia by Willa Cather, Kafka's selected short stories, Aeschylus' Oresteia, and, of course, Homer's Iliad + Odyssey (trans. by Fagles). i’m not super up to date on contemporary novelists but i like include John Banville (The Sea), Michale Ondaatje (The English Patient, Cat's Table), and Donna Tart (for her fashion sense, reclusive lifestyle, and The Goldfinch & The Secret History obviously). Rachel Cusk's work is also dryly witty and good. finally, i have a soft spot for well-written memoir; it's a genre that gets put down sometimes but Lit by Mary Karr, Firebird by Mark Doty, and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (btw i highly recommend her fiction too) saved my life in small but meaningful ways. 

well, this answer is itself fast approaching a novel, so i will end by saying, if anyone would like a book rec, tell me a few books you like or what you’re in the mood for and i’ll try to come up with a reply. 😌

xxx Ana 💫

[cari-canes]

I recently reread Frankenstein after watching the Underverse Series and BOY do I have thoughts. I’m going to separate them into a few posts over a few days because it would actually be an essay if I put it all down in one post.

For now - I’ll leave quotes that I found most impactful from Frankenstein (and other gothic horror/horror) stories with a few of the characters from the Underverse Series.

Also - sorry for the bad grammar. I’m typing this on my phone at like midnight.

Ink: Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it. (Frankenstein - Mary Shelley)

Obviously, Ink or Cross would be “the monster”. I think it’s even more fitting that although the “monster” never really has a name in the book, Mary Shelley did reference him as “Adam” in her earlier version. The “first born” creation. I think it’s very fitting, especially as Ink’s role, how his cannon role was formed, and what his new “goal” in the multiverse is.

Cross: I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other. (Frankenstein - Mary Shelley)

OR

I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel. (Frankenstein - Mary Shelley)

For Cross’ quote, I actually had a difficult time choosing which fit him better, so I went with both. Cross being one of XGasters creations who “breaks free” is just amazing. XGaster was so focused on perfection and trying to make his timeline perfect that he completely abandoned his creations in the meantime. This causes Cross to meet Ink, Dream, and eventually Nightmare and start his own reign of terror.

Dust/Killer: The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone. (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson)

A different book for the two killers felt fitting, especially considering Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - at its core - is about addiction and loss. (It’s also a murder mystery but that’s besides the point). Both kill everyone in order to prevent another Gen*cide, but in doing so, allow themselves to be completely alone. (I’m also obsessed with the religious imagery but that’s another ramble for another day.)

Nightmare: To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. (Moby Dick - Herman Melville)

Obviously, Nightmare was going to be Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. He’s chasing a goal that’s frankly, nearly impossible. He let the corruption completely take over him “for hates sake”. (I also think this is something Nightmare would actually say in cannon).

Error: Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm. (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson)

For Error, I had a very difficult time finding just one quote. He has so many complex layers to his character, especially in his own cannon. But I eventually landed on the Jekyll and Hyde quote, as I felt it resonated more with him. No matter what could or could not happen, he always has the antivoid to return to. The story of Jekyll and Hyde being about addiction and loneliness only made that point clearer for me, especially with the duality of man potentially paralleling the duality of Errors own psyche.

Fresh: Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form. (Moby Dick - Herman Melville)

I think this is pretty self explanatory for Fresh.

Dream: When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness? (Frankenstein - Mary Shelley)

Finally, Dream. He spent so long thinking that he was the one who killed his own brother, that the ‘truth’ was so painful that he couldn’t necessarily come to terms with it. His brother no longer exists and is instead consumed entirely by the corruption.

I think using gothic novels as a starting point, the Underverse - or at least the Undertale Multiverse could become a fascinating story about the connections between creation and creator, dark and light, and the pursuit of an unattainable goal.

[oneinterests]

Hi! i really wanted to make a post describing all of my favorite books (especially since i just reorganized my bookshelf to get one whole shelf for all of my all time favorites) They’re all technically in order from “least” favorite to absolute favorites :D

8: The Golden Compass- This was one of my favorite books/movies as a kid. I wanted my own alethiometer so bad and from what i remember i actually tried making my own with paper. Rereading it again now that i’m older made me feel very nostalgic, and it’ll always hold a special place in my heart :) also the scene where Lyra eats a seal kidney raw is burned into my mind 10/10 i love the weird gory moments in this book.

7: The Subtle Knife- i never knew that The Golden compass had a sequel until a classmate asked me my favorite book- and when i said The Golden Compass he asked me if i liked the other two books. I was so shocked and for some reason never thought they would have a second book out. I really enjoyed this one, and the deaths physically made me put down the book. I 100% need to reread this one again.

6: Bluebird- From what i can remember, this was recommended to me as a Gardians of the Galaxy type adventure with a lesbian main character fighting against oppressive governments. I really enjoyed the story and the characters developments throughout it, and i should really reread it again :)

5: The Salt Grows Heavy- I finished this one in about two hours? it’s a quick and gory read that’s basically about characters from a very fucked up horror fairytale. A mermaid traveling after destroying her now deceased husbands kingdom, and a frankensteins monster like creature being haunted by their past. i love the descriptions of the two main characters and the horror is so so good. if you don’t like flowery writing (i think that’s what it’s called lol) you probably won’t like this one. i love complicated writing, especially if it’s in a novella.

4: This is How You Lose the Time War- Speaking of flowery writing, this one is basically poetry with how in depth the authors go into their writing. Two agents named Red and Blue fight on opposing sides of The Time War. This book really just throws you right into the deep end and it’s really a sink or swim type of read. I love books that make you think or ones you have to reread multiple times to appreciate everything fully :)

3: The Spirit Bates its Teeth- How do i even explain how much i love this one. It’s so horrifying but so hopeful at the same time? Meeting Daphne for the first time made me cry, she’s one of my favorite characters in the book. So many trigger warnings for this one, i thought i was ready but i had to take a break part way through reading it. So worth it though.

2: The Entire Murderbot Series (Seven books so far, and i literally cant rank them)- Quite literally one of two of my most favorite series of all time. It’s very Sci-Fi, with a self proclaimed Murderbot grudgingly saving its humans and figuring out what it wants to do after breaking free of its governor module. All of the characters are LGBTQ+, and there’s multiple polyam characters :D The only downfall is how expensive the books are, and 90% of them are novellas. I believe when i bought the first book it was $15? But i personally think it makes up for the price since i have reread them all at least four times now :)

1. The locked tomb series. (1-Nona, 2-Gideon, 3-Harrow to be specific) :D

I physically can’t describe how much i love this book series. I’m planning on getting a tattoo of one of the quotes in GTN after Alecto drops. They’re absolutely insane books, with random meme references sprinkled in. (“None Houses with left grief.” fucking threw me for a loop when i first read it) They are absolutely books you have to read multiple times to understand- the first pages in GTN took me three months to get through because i didn’t understand half of what was going on. But as soon as it clicked i flew through it and finished the book in under a week. Nona is my absolute favorite, and i annotated the shit out of my paperback copy. (Which i might make a separate post about… because i have literally no one to talk about these books with lol)

(Also yes. I do have two copies of each book… i bought the first two as paperbacks first, and the third one only had the hardcover available. I wanted a full set of matching books after reading them all, especially because i wanted to make a mini shrine for them on my shelf. i can’t wait for Alecto to come out.)

and that’s all of them so far!! i still have 39 books on my TBR shelf, so i might update this list whenever i add to it! :)

[writerswhy]

When I have too much on my mind I start making lists to help me sort it all out. It also serves as a reminder as I have the attention span of a goldfish and the patience of a squirrel: 

Kaname. I think he’s a very important character, especially once you start thinking about the Seireitei, captainhood, and the nature of justice. (I’m rereading Frankenstein and I can’t stop thinking about him. Like, he’s the Seireitei’s monster, and he’s his sword’s [and Kakyō‘s soul] Frankenstein. Also Les Misérables.)

Anon asks! I’m so sorry, I will try to get to them as soon as possible.

There’s an entire section in the Poetics of Space dedicated to poems about forests and I’m thinking of Hinamori here, always: 

“Silently the birds Fly through us. O, I, who long to grow,  I look outside myself, and the tree inside me grows.  This is a tree always destined for grandeur, and, in fact, it propagates this destiny by magnifying everything that surrounds it.”

The nature of zanpaktou and its relationship with the soul, inspired by Jeff Wall’s “Photography and Liquid Intellegence”: 

“I think this is because the mechanical character of the action of opening and closing the shutter—the substratum of instantaneity which persists in all photography—is the concrete opposite kind of movement from, for example, the flow of a liquid.” 

Mmm, maybe it fits kidou more, now that I’m thinking about it.

Soul Society headcanons on time and existing and death and dying. I don’t think it’s canon and this may go against the overall theme, but I like this idea of failing to accommodate for death/spaces left by loss and what that looks like. From shoving ghosts who will reincarnate in a day with those who take decades to do so, to grieving the “wrong” way (like Orihime who thought she was mourning her brother the “right” way - by moving on - only to have that result in her brother’s hollowfication).

Vaguely related, but this GIF set of one of my favorite ships from Until Dawn sparked a little Hitsuhina interest. Like, maybe it’s best to not know everything and experience everything with a person, no matter how much you love them. I’m sure Hinamori would rather enjoy a nice meal with Hitsugaya than fight alongside him or I don’t know, train with the purpose of becoming a captain as well (which I think Hinamori would very much not like or enjoy. That’s not where her ambition lies imo).

Bleach’s orbital laser - the hogyoku! I’m really excited about this one :)

I want to rewrite this post. Maybe break it up into parts.

Aizen and Hinamori. I have a lot of thoughts on these two and they’re the reason my interest in Bleach never truly went away. I already stated that Hinamori saw in Aizen what she was looking for outside Seireitei’s framework as the wonder started fading not just as a captain but as a man, and given she quotes him from time to time post-TYBW (quotes that openly question the order of things), I think Hinamori had an inkling of Aizen’s opinion on SS.

In @sillier-things’s Becoming (one of favorite fics of all time <33), Hinamori says his title rather than his name when they’re together and I love it <33 Love the desecration of his title in the captain quarters.

Also, I don’t know why this stuck with me but it briefly came up during a convo with @graphesthesia (hey friend~) that Aizen never creates his own kidou like Hinamori. I know it’s most likely because he doesn’t need to, but I like to think it’s indicative of his modus operandi to dominate (kinda like the Seireitei). In my very delusional opinion, I see Hinamori as thesis and Aizen as antithesis. In this essay I will - 🧍‍♀️💥🚗

[send-me-a-puffalope]

HI i was burythepast/i wrote a vanessa fic called frankenstein ages ago but i’ve been getting back into vanessa lately. i wanted to say hiii

SCREAMMMM!!! CELEBRITY IN MY ASK BOX!!!!! HELLOO!!!! OMFG!!!!! God top 10 asks that make me wanna reread all my saved Vanessa fics, dude that fic *chefs kiss*

Not to shamelessly self promote but this is my blog so,,,, I wrote a Vanessa fic too !!!! and so much goddamn Vanessa art. I’m so glad I have another person to brainrot with again, I have to get more active again on tumblr

[abby420]

i really was not worthy of reading frankenstein in high school i’m rereading it now in my 20s and it hits so hard 16 year old me never could’ve appreciated this. like. “Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it” she was not ready for that. and “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change” like?? and don’t forget “There is love in me the likes of which you've never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape.”like omg

[a30somethingslookatpopculture]

Top 5 Animated Scooby Doo Movies 

Scooby-Doo On Zombie Island

What happens when the monsters are real? The Scooby-verse is flipped on its head in this one, as we discover exactly that. And what an amazing soundtrack! Seriously, “It’s Terror Time Again” is an absolute banger! 

2. Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost

Three Words…The Hex Girls! This is the debut of the all female, goth rock group we all know and love! So for that alone, it’s a MUST for me. But I also really love the story of Sarah Ravencroft and the Autumn theme. It’s a delightfully witchy good time! And let’s be real, Ben Ravencroft is totally Stephen King inspired! 

3. Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase

Full disclosure, this one is probably only one of my most favorites because of nostalgia. It is the Scooby film that my family and I watched religiously. I recall when it was coming out, and how excited we were .Scooby was (is) kind of a big deal in my family. This one is a fun, cyber filled adventure where the gang has to progress through a computer game in order to defeat a phantom virus. It’s complete with cool Scooby Gang cyber versions, and an eventual face-to-face. 

4. Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School / Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf

I put both of these together because I love them both for the same reason…their inclusion of the classic movie monsters! The Wolfman, Dracula, The Mummy, The Frankenstein’s Monster, etc. Or in the case of Ghoul School ,their daughters (with small appearances from them). I’m Dracula obsessed, and to see the character in the Scooby Doo franchise makes me so happy! Ghoul School has its moments. Any time it focuses on the ghouls, it’s fantastic. I just think it has a pretty wonky, all over the place plot. As for the Reluctant Werewolf, I love the Wacky Racers-esque story. And shaggy himself becomes a werewolf! How cool is that! 

5. Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders

Shaggy and Scooby get abducted by aliens! And they both fall in love with a hippy girl and her golden retriever (who turn out to be the aliens). It’s just really fun to see how this all plays out, and how those two handle it. As well as how Velma, the brains of the group, copes with the idea of alien life existing. 

(I moved one of these around as I was typing this, because I realized as I reread it that maybe I liked some others just a bit more. Either way, these are still my most favs from my childhood!)

[laddersofsweetmisery]

So excited to start the books I've picked out for October. I'm especially eager to read this little beauty. Two chapters in and I'm appreciative of the amount of research and care taken to tell the lesser-known elements of the behind-the-scenes narrative of Mary Shelley's masterpiece, Frankenstein. She's so fascinating. More so, I am always floored by anything new I learn regarding her mother, often regarded as the first feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft. Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, is a biography of sorts exploring the lives and work of Mary Shelley’s haunted circle of literary contemporaries—with a particular focus on the four poets and friends with her the stormy night she was inspired to write her gothic tale. Also featured in the book are those who influenced her magnum opus, Frankenstein, but were only in the room with her in spirit.

Poets and friends from that stormy night:

Lord Byron was that famous English Poet described in the book as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” He’s attractive, intimidating, and has a thing for scaring his guests. After frightening his guests with a reading of Fantasmagoriana, a collection of German horror stories, during a stormy night, he proposed a contest where they all take a shot at writing a ghost story of their own.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, or “Mad Shelley,” was fascinated by the occult and married to our equally fascinating Mary Shelley. He wasn’t as popular for his work during his life, likely because it was cut short when he drowned at 29, but his work gained notoriety after his death. He is considered one of the major English Romantic poets.

Dr. John Polidori is credited for the first and most influential novel about a human vampire: The Vampyre. His haunted figure is likely inspired by Byron himself. The two didn’t really get along. The Vampyre was also written as part of the ghost story contest proposed by Lord Byron.

Claire Clairmont was the mother of Lord Byron’s illegitimate child and Shelley’s stepsister.  

Before we make our way into Mary Shelley’s circle, we are introduced to her immutable parents William Godwin and his wife, who I’m casually obsessed with, Mary Wollstonecraft. No joke, their love story will bring you to literal tears, my god. I felt genuinely sick reading about her death and how those who very clearly despised her feminist views took her death as an example of the weakness of her sex. I hope she haunted those fuckers to madness.

Wanna read with me this October? I'll be reading the following books over this month, feel free to pick them up, too! This year, the classics are calling my name 🎃🕯 Since starting Monsters, I'm really craving more so I’ll be reading and rereading works that relate to it in some way :)

Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler (We’re starting here, obviously.)

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (We just have to!!!) Available on Kindle Unlimited

An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, by William Godwin (We just have to read from the parents who raised our beloved Mary Shelley.)

The Wrongs of Woman, or, Maria, by Mary Wollstonecraft (Again, we have to! Plus, it’s one of my favorites. I need to share it with everyone who crosses my path.)

Fantasmagoriana, “Tales of the Dead” (Why not read what inspired that stormy night writing contest?) Available on Kindle Unlimited

Lord Byron: Selected Letters and Journals, edited by Leslie Marchand (I wanna know more about this fella. He is also mentioned in The Wager. This one might be a little hard to find, but I’ll post what I can.)

The Vampyre, by Dr. John Polidori (Let’s end our October reading about a lil vamp and finding the comparisons to Byron.) Available on Kindle Unlimited

I'll be posting my thoughts and pages that stick out to me at the end of each day <3

[daisychainsandbowties]

Rereading by such slight ligaments we are bound… so enjoyable. Thank you again for your efforts writing it.

i wrote ligaments back when i was coming off a three-year stint of writing poetry exclusively, so prose felt unusual and difficult and also strangely freeing in my hands.

reading ligaments now it’s so… i don’t know, vulnerable in a lot of ways. i gave lilith my way of seeing the world and i still think that ligaments lilith (and how she is in the lilith saga) are the best versions of her i’ve ever managed to make. sometimes i feel like i couldn’t possibly have written any of it at all.

it was an odd time for me too, when i wrote it, crawling out of a haze of indifference to everything that’d lasted seven years. i’m always grateful to lilith for that - being the hand i took, at last, and that’s part of why ligaments is so intertwined with Susan Stryker’s famous essay “my words to victor frankenstein.” what it, as trans literature, did to me, for me, what it made clear to me. the kind of courage it handed me which is what ligaments is about; having the courage to exist, to want, to be strange to many and very very beautiful to a precious few