25.7.20 Frankenstein, self and other
Self and other
‘(F)abrication throughout the novel is the making of an Imaginary Self, an "other one" (Hogle, 1980). Much has been written about ‘otherness’ in Frankenstein. Fiona Sampson, author of a biography of Mary Shelley, says of Frankenstein and his creature ‘they are both aspects of ourselves – all our selves… they both speak to us about being human’ (in Hewitt, 2018). The creator and the created.’
As a maker, fabrication is an essential part of my practice. I realise that most of my investigations in materials and making are driven by a desire to represent aspects of being human, of my self, and consequently of those aspects I have in common with my viewer. For many years I have had a sense of ‘otherness’ within my self, of multiple selves which make up the whole of me. My sculptural explorations are attempts to embody, or fabricate, these different selves, this sense of fragmentation and balance.
‘Collecting a Bafta for a different sci-fi monster fable, 'The Shape of Water', this year, Guillermo del Toro thanked Mary Shelley, because “she picked up the plight of Caliban and she gave weight to the burden of Prometheus, and she gave voice to the voiceless and presence to the invisible, and she showed me that sometimes to talk about monsters, we need to fabricate monsters of our own, and parables do that for us” (ibid).
I certainly find that making my strange sculptures is an effective way of ‘talking about’ them, both with my self/ selves and with others.
Helen Englebert outlines the many ways that Frankenstein’s creature is made ‘other:
Obsession
Frankenstein’s research is all consuming, so much so that he neglects his fiancé, his family, his friends and his other training. He says ‘Two years…I was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries that I hoped to make’ (in Shelley, 1818, p49). He describes it as ‘ardour’ (ibid.) He says he himself was ‘animated by an almost supernatural animation’, referencing the animation he was hoping for (Shelley, 1818, p50). His description of starting work is also poignant:
‘No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me on, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success’… ‘a resistless and almost frantic impulse’ (Shelley 1818, p52-53) I recognise this obsession when I’m at work, creating my own Frankenstein’s monsters.
Egginton, W. (2018) What Frankenstein’s monster really looks like Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/opinion/frankensteins-monsterhalloween.html (Accessed 20 July 2020)
Englebert, H. (2018) ‘The other’ in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Available at: https://www.grin.com/document/457176 (Accessed 25 July 2020)
Hewitt, R. (2018) In Search of Mary Shelley by Fiona Sampson review – the girl who wrote Frankenstein Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/04/in-search-mary-shelley-fiona-sampson-review (Accessed 25 July 2020)
Hogle, J. (1980) Otherness in Frankenstein: The Confinement/Autonomy of Fabrication Available at: http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/hogle2.html (Accessed 25 July 2020)
Lawrence, R (2018) Why Frankenstein is the story that defines our fears Available at: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180611-why-frankenstein-is-the-story-that-defined-our-fears (Accessed 25 July 2020)
Livneh, H. (1980) Disability and monstrosity Available at https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/37766384.pdf (Accessed 25 July 2020
Nayar, N. (2018) Frankenstein’s monster Available at: https://www.thehindu.com/children/frankensteins-monster/article25632763.ece (Accessed 20 July 2020)
Sampson, F. (2018) Frankenstein: an all too human monster Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/46233f88-1d4a-11e8-a748-5da7d696ccab (Accessed 20 July 2020)
Shelley, M (1818) Frankenstein London: Penguin
Self and other
‘(F)abrication throughout the novel is the making of an Imaginary Self, an "other one" (Hogle, 1980). Much has been written about ‘otherness’ in Frankenstein. Fiona Sampson, author of a biography of Mary Shelley, says of Frankenstein and his creature ‘they are both aspects of ourselves – all our selves… they both speak to us about being human’ (in Hewitt, 2018). The creator and the created.’
As a maker, fabrication is an essential part of my practice. I realise that most of my investigations in materials and making are driven by a desire to represent aspects of being human, of my self, and consequently of those aspects I have in common with my viewer. For many years I have had a sense of ‘otherness’ within my self, of multiple selves which make up the whole of me. My sculptural explorations are attempts to embody, or fabricate, these different selves, this sense of fragmentation and balance.
‘Collecting a Bafta for a different sci-fi monster fable, 'The Shape of Water', this year, Guillermo del Toro thanked Mary Shelley, because “she picked up the plight of Caliban and she gave weight to the burden of Prometheus, and she gave voice to the voiceless and presence to the invisible, and she showed me that sometimes to talk about monsters, we need to fabricate monsters of our own, and parables do that for us” (ibid).
I certainly find that making my strange sculptures is an effective way of ‘talking about’ them, both with my self/ selves and with others.
Helen Englebert outlines the many ways that Frankenstein’s creature is made ‘other:
- Appearance
- Provenance– ‘he can be considered as artificial because he is created and not born, on the other hand, as biological because he is made of organic material with ‘the dissecting room and slaughter-house furnish[ing] many of [his] materials’ (Shelley 43)…. of animal and human body parts. Because of this mixture of species, the reader cannot consider him as fully human.’ (Englebert, 2018)
- Implies death; ‘Frankenstein's monster is assembled from dead body parts’ (Livneh, 1980)
- ‘the non-transparent, 'depthless' eye’ (Engelbert, 2018) suggests that the creature is soulless and thus nonhuman.
- Superhuman strength and stature
- Physiognomy: It is ‘perceived as inhuman because it “differs from the most fundamental understanding human beings have of their own bodies: that of bilateral symmetry”
- Reviled before he was violent
- Referred to as ‘it’ (Shelley, 1818, p14)
- Referred to as a different species (Shelley, 1818, p42 & p195)
- Nameless (Engelbert, 2018)
Obsession
Frankenstein’s research is all consuming, so much so that he neglects his fiancé, his family, his friends and his other training. He says ‘Two years…I was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries that I hoped to make’ (in Shelley, 1818, p49). He describes it as ‘ardour’ (ibid.) He says he himself was ‘animated by an almost supernatural animation’, referencing the animation he was hoping for (Shelley, 1818, p50). His description of starting work is also poignant:
‘No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me on, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success’… ‘a resistless and almost frantic impulse’ (Shelley 1818, p52-53) I recognise this obsession when I’m at work, creating my own Frankenstein’s monsters.
Egginton, W. (2018) What Frankenstein’s monster really looks like Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/opinion/frankensteins-monsterhalloween.html (Accessed 20 July 2020)
Englebert, H. (2018) ‘The other’ in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Available at: https://www.grin.com/document/457176 (Accessed 25 July 2020)
Hewitt, R. (2018) In Search of Mary Shelley by Fiona Sampson review – the girl who wrote Frankenstein Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/04/in-search-mary-shelley-fiona-sampson-review (Accessed 25 July 2020)
Hogle, J. (1980) Otherness in Frankenstein: The Confinement/Autonomy of Fabrication Available at: http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/hogle2.html (Accessed 25 July 2020)
Lawrence, R (2018) Why Frankenstein is the story that defines our fears Available at: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180611-why-frankenstein-is-the-story-that-defined-our-fears (Accessed 25 July 2020)
Livneh, H. (1980) Disability and monstrosity Available at https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/37766384.pdf (Accessed 25 July 2020
Nayar, N. (2018) Frankenstein’s monster Available at: https://www.thehindu.com/children/frankensteins-monster/article25632763.ece (Accessed 20 July 2020)
Sampson, F. (2018) Frankenstein: an all too human monster Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/46233f88-1d4a-11e8-a748-5da7d696ccab (Accessed 20 July 2020)
Shelley, M (1818) Frankenstein London: Penguin