Sara & Cariad's Weirdos Book Club - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley with Vanessa Hammick

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

This week's book guest is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.Sara and Cariad are joined by comedian, writer, playwright and friend Vanessa Hammick.In this episode they discuss AI, dissertations, Kenneth Branagh, broad strokes, and Emma Stone.Trigger warning: In this episode we discuss sexual assault and child murder.Thank you for reading with us. We like reading with you!Follow Sara & Cariad’s Weirdos Book Club on Instagram @saraandcariadsweirdosbookclubProduced, recorded and edited by Naomi Parnell for Plosive.Artwork by Welcome Studio.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Pasco. And I'm Carriead Lloyd. And we're weird about books. We love to read. We read too much. We talk too much. About the too much that we've read. Which is why we created the weirdos book club. A space for the lonely outsider to feel accepted and appreciated. Each week we're joined by amazing comedian guests and writer guests to discuss some wonderfully and crucially weird books, writing, reading and just generally being a weirdo. You don't even need to have read the books to join in. It will be a really interesting, wide-ranging conversation and maybe you'll want to read the book afterwards. We will share all the upcoming. books we're going to be discussing on our Instagram, Sarah and Carriads, Weirdo's Book Club. Thank you for reading with us. We like reading with you. This week's book guest is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. What's it about? Victor Frankenstein builds a man and then spends a long time trying to escape him. What qualifies it for the Weirdo's Book Club? Well, the main character is an animated quilt of corpses. In this episode, we discuss AI, dissertations, Kenneth Branagh, Broadstrokes and Ember Stone. And joining us this week is Vanessa Hammock. Vanessa is an amazing comedian, writer, playwright, and she also happens

to be one of our best pals who went to university with us. Trigger warning, in this episode, because of the content of the book, we do talk about sexual assault and child murder. Welcome to the podcast, Vanessa Hamick. Hello, Vanessa. We're so excited to have you. I'm excited to be here, guys. So, you came into our lives a very long time ago at university. We all met. Three of us came to each other's lives. Yeah. We all met at the same time.

Our country's good. Yeah. That's Sussex University. Yeah. Suds. Sudd's Drama Society. But more recently, you were very enthusiastic about Frankenstein. And why we should talk about it in the podcast.

Yes. I've been reflecting on that. So I feel a lot about Frankenstein. Yeah. I don't know if I know a lot. Okay, great. Yeah. Our feelings, not knowledge.

Yeah. That's how we have got this far with our feelings, Vanessa. Yeah. When did you first read it? So this is how I came into it. It was poor things. the film, Poor Things. Oh, right.

Which is based on a book by Alistair Gray. Yeah. Did you see Poor Things? No. I know. I got it wrong on a quiz, frustratingly. I feel like it came out just as I was having one small baby. And so I missed it and then I have never caught up with it.

Yeah. But that's Emma Stone, right? It's Emma Stone. Yeah. And it's Janice. Who did the Lobster. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Who she works with repeatedly. Yeah. So I absolutely loved poor things. and it's very Frankenstein-like. The basic premise, a scientist, reanimates a corks of a woman and brings her to life. It's really controversial. A lot of people hated it.

I'm used to this, really loving something. And then everyone's like, it's so anti-feminist. Bloodlines. I'll never forget. Oh, it's an absolute banger. It's a banger. How conflicting. But then the lyrics.

Sing them louder, be conflicted. I'm not a radio station. I'm just a woman, okay, sorry. So when I saw the film, what it is, is Emma Stone produced it and obviously had a huge hand to bring it about. And what I saw was an actress getting to play the most liberated woman with no social conventions, completely free and wild and able to be whatever she wants to be. The plot twist I think people had a problem with is... Don't tell us. Do you want to watch it?

You will see it. And this is early on. It's a pregnant dead woman. Right. And he reanimates her by taking the brain of the baby and putting it in the brain. So it's a woman's got a baby brain. Yeah. The reason I don't mind this is having just read the OG text,

which let's just say does not pass the Bechdale test. And I would not consider this in any way a feminist book. No, sure. So in terms of a remaking of it and also there are some logic problems with this monster's brain. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Mary Shelley was 18 when she started. As a source text, look, go crazy. Yeah.

Go crazy. Absolutely. And people do. And that's another thing that I think is really, really interesting about it. But so for a lot of people, they couldn't get past. Wait, you're telling me that's a child's brain in a woman's body because she has a lot of sex. Right. And she becomes a sex worker.

Right. And so I was just like, oh, this is fun. And like that thing about the baby's brain is like a bit of macabre humour. But not everybody thinks that. That's funny. But that's great. This is so great. So that was your way in.

So you hadn't read Frankenstein, but you weren't the place telling. So you didn't read at uni, right? Because I didn't read at uni. I didn't read it. I thought you two went to a lecture and I missed it. I was like, I did not read this. No, absolutely. I know nothing.

And it's similar for me to Dracula. Like, I haven't done Dracula. No, I don't you know anything about it. I'm so aware of it. Dracula was so scary. I cried and then I had to stop. Do you think it's scary? I could not finish it.

Scary how boring it is. I just went to Transylvania and tried to read it in Transylvania. Oh my gosh. It's just a gentleman on a train. Anyway, so that's why you've got to France. Yeah, so I loved poor things. So this is kind of funny, actually. If you read the book by Alistair Gray, there's this one scene in the film that I was like,

that didn't make sense to me. It's when they go to Athens or something like that. And I'm like, I'm going to get the book and just see, like I want to read that full chapter and if I don't know what happens. And that full chapter, unlike any other chapter, it's one page and it's written in child scroll. And it's like 10 words. And I was like, oh, actually the film did really well at adapting that into a scene. And I could see what it makes sense. But then that took me to Frankenstein.

And then I don't know, I was just like, it's not, I don't actually love it because it's, I fear it. I dread reading it. I dread watching it. Yeah, because like it's dark. It's bleak. I thought it would be very scary. And I, it isn't, I don't think this is a scary book because someone who's terrified of everything. No, but it isn't like, do you find it drags down your soul into a dark sad place?

I think the reader would have to do a lot of work. Yeah. To put themselves in this kind of situation. What do I call it? Suspend disbelief. because the writing, it tells you it's horrorful rather than being horrible. Well, I guess also it's the birth of horror.

She was 18 when she started, 19 when it finished. Although she did three sort of versions of it through her life. So the version we've got is her updated version. Although I was really on Kindle, the early version, and then I bought the paper, the proper one. And I didn't realize this was the updated one, the 18. 31. 31 version.

And also that Percy added bits and did edits for her. Yeah. I just want to work a quote that was in the introduction because initially when it came out no one believed that woman wrote it it was reprinted. It was an instant bestseller at that age and it was reprinted and then they put her name on it properly

and there was an amazing quote from Blackwoods exclaimed for a man it was excellent for a woman it was wonderful. I thought she was trying to pretend it was a man writing it anyway because of how she wrote the women and how she wrote men's view of women. I felt like she was really

trying to pretend Yeah, yeah, I'm just a man saying this. She's pretty. Anyway, I want to jump back on to you because, so this is what you've absorbed of Frankenstein before reading it, which I think is quite important. Culturally, you know so much about this myth. And this is, before you get to the source text. So I've never seen an adaptation of Frankenstein. So I'm reading this and going, I've never heard anyone talk about the family in the house.

He watches for a year. I know, I know. I know. I was like, he's in a hobble learning to eat. I know. So I just asked my dad this morning, are these in any of the adaptations? Do they include all these stories within stories? So the Tadoro, which I watched on the Netflix, the most recent version.

And that's the one you watched as well. Yeah. Yeah. So that is a really weird mix of faithful and not faithful. Okay. Yeah. Like traitors. Yeah.

It does a really annoying thing with his family. So the dad is evil and the mum dies because of like and the brother survived. It takes loads of stuff. But it does include. going to live in the hovel next door to the family but it changes again. And they never know he's there. This massive, yeah.

Yeah. So look, the reason I think they'd have to make the dad evil is because otherwise it's so boring. He's got a nice dad and a nice mum and they adopt a girl who's your sister that you have to marry. Yeah, I mean classic. Is that in the adaptation?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, no, no, they change it completely. You can't have marry your sister. Marry your sister. Pretty common by then, though. Well, and also she's not his sister. She's like biological sister. They adopted her young.

But I think that's quite an interesting element because I think Elizabeth is supposed to be like the, I think it's like the ultimate virgin bride. Yeah. Because she's like, she was a child. Because his mother died. She's caring for her. He's always like, it made me think of Elizabeth, which made me think of my mother. Yeah, yeah. And so she's the ultimate female icon to then be murdered.

But also purity, and that's what I mean about it looks like a man's writing it. Yeah. None of the women have any agency. What she keeps saying over and over again is this woman was so supplicant. even like the Arabian, and I say that in inverted comments. Oh yeah, that's mad. I never knew that that happened, like an Arabian turned up with this family. But these stories are not in the stories, yes.

The story of the stories, yes. And sometimes you're like, what? Why are you telling me about this woman called Justine or this child? Oh, no, just telling me. I know. Oh, Justin, I thought. That does become relevant later on. But when she's first telling you, they've got five children.

And this child, you're like, I don't care. It definitely, I was surprised when I started reading it, because again, hadn't read it, have read lots of 19th century literature assumed it was going to be like, oh, a tome. Yes. But you are really reading a teenager's version of stuff. When you hear, oh, she was 19, you think, oh, my goodness, it's super genius. And then you read it, go, it would be amazing what an editor would do with this now. A gone girl does not have 30 pages about a family and a hovel that's not relevant to the mystery.

Lots of 19th century novels have sidebars that definitely don't need to be in there. George Elliott. I agree. I disagree. Yeah, I really disagree. Look how thin it is. You've got an abridged version. No, no.

It's because ours has got all the essays at the beginning and the changes. I still had to double-checked because I was really surprised when I was trying to buy it. How many versions were abridged? No. It says complete and unabridged. I'm a horrible bastard. You're writing's tiny. I take it all back.

I thought, why are there somebody abridged versions? Then I read it and I understood. They've taken it back down to the actual monster story. But Sarah, I think it's really interesting that you've not seen any adaptations in it. And I was thinking of you so much when I was reading this. because I really think there's an adaptation because you're really unattractive and you scare everyone.

That's our story. Yeah, yeah. And her writing's time. Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. I didn't write it myself, Sarah. Sorry, but why did you think of me? I thought of you, Sarah, because the creature, the monster,

who can help but refer to him as Frankenstein, right? Because that's what Einstein's monster. Also, he's not a doctor, Victor Frankenstein. Why do they call him Dr. Frankenstein? I think he might have a PhD. He didn't. Well, he studied for sciences. He did half a year and they went to bed for three months with a fever.

It never qualified. I think in Geneva in 1830 that was you're a doctor. You're a man and you went straight. No one ever calls him doctor. They call him Monsieur. Yeah, M Frankenstein. Yeah, so he's never a doctor. So that's also another add-on from adaptation.

Yeah, probably from, so from the 1931 film. Yes. And then also, young Frankenstein, which was Mel Brooks comedy parody from the 17. My dad was talking about that. Those have really cemented the iconography that we see. Yeah, the hammer horror, the bolts, all of that bride of Frankenstein. Like, yeah, the 20th century take on it is very strong. So it is interesting, you haven't seen it because that, I think, when you come to the book,

you're coming with so many expectations of what the monster should be. Yeah, but that's it. So if I was going to tell this story without reading it, I would have said it's about a doctor who assembles bits of corpse. I knew about the galvanisation, the electricity, and then it comes to life, and he regrets it. But I didn't know, obviously, what the actual story. Yeah, what happens.

That's what I didn't. I also didn't know what the monster part of the story was. And I knew that it was like a sad, a sad, like monster. It's not a happy one. But he becomes somewhat of a noble creature through literature, through books. No, that's what pissed me off, man. That pissed you off. Okay, I'm like you're...

Can I tell you, can I tell you some things... I'm so happy to watch it from this side of you. Because it's normally me going, what? No. Okay, so here's some stuff. Mary Shelley, no longer with us. Yeah. I wouldn't be sort of going into this heavily.

Pour one out of a big Shelley. Living author. So, logic-wise, this isn't a baby's brain. It's a brain. No, this isn't... There's no memories of being alive. So she has this passage where she's talking about the monster, the wretch, sort of learning to see, like, light and distinguishing.

Then, he learns to speak English in a year. He gets Paradise Lost, which is one's duerlingo in 1830. So he goes and reads three books that he's actually nicked or found. Yeah. And he speaks. And never at any point, does Victor Franks? go, look, you're an absolute state, but your English is incredible. I know.

You were just born. Although it should be French because they're in where they are. But I love that because, I mean, so to me, what this book is about, it is about ambition and it's not, it's called Frankenstein for a reason. It's not about Frankenstein's monster. It's Frankenstein. I almost thought, but I don't want to say it because you just had Jodie Harsh saying it. No, say it.

It doesn't real. The monster's not real because, but here I think it's really, really strong that monster's not real. And don't you think to me, this is a book about writers and about a woman surrounded by writers who are obsessed. Who don't message you home because that's the bit. When he goes away to go and study, he doesn't write to his sister-wife, his dad. Yeah, who love him and miss him terribly.

Exactly. And then he's like, oh, I just couldn't write. It's like, what are you doing all? Like, he's not doing it 24 hours a day. He's self-obsessed. Yeah, he's obsession. But I think this is a book about not having a mother because the monster is born only and has a shit dad who doesn't like them. And they're going back to the dad going,

you are God to me, you made me, I'm only Adam. This Adam thing comes up a lot. And that's why the whole thing, please give me an Eve. I have no one if I don't have you. And the dad still rejects him. And obviously she didn't have a mother.

I found it interesting because all I've ever been told or absorbed is that she lost three children and it was kind of all about and her mother. Yeah, I've heard it more in kinds of motherhood. but I read a 19-year-old girl whose mom died at birth and the monsters she creates and this this dark agony that you cannot get rid of obviously my take was like

but this was parental grief this is someone who's like I was born into sadness I didn't understand it like the Frankenstein's monster says like I don't understand the sadness that I've inherited and I was like that sounds like a grieving child that came up to you. And also if you're not kind to me I will become rageful.

Please be kind. Isn't it interesting? Because I think I'm a bit, it's like I really enjoyed the beginning actually. And then I got, when the monster came live, I was like, sorry, what? She was like, he was there. And I was like, she skipped over that a bit.

Yeah, it wasn't like a sci-fi writer where someone wants you to know the logistics. But I think the thing that I loved about it was like it's so full of ideas. Yeah. It's like, it's living, breathing, especially for 19th century texts, which often not only are boring,

are dry and you have to really be like, well, I suppose I could say it's about capitalism, but you're searching. Whereas this is like, it's leaping off the page how much she's trying to get something to you. But only about men. So fortunately about women, the story she keeps telling is really beautiful, very innocent, died. But I don't mind her telling that, considering where she was living. She's basically like on holiday at this point with Byron Shelley. And she says as well, she just sat there silently listening to them.

I'm not blaming her for it, but me as a reader. And, you know, we had this question the other day about Middlemarch, do we need to read these things anymore? That's the thing. Like, when Justine is in the court and she's talking about how fit she is, I'm like, mate, this guy needs to stop finding women beautiful when they're about to die.

I can't get over that. I found that so bleak and brutal. That little boy, William, that's murdered. But the coincidences, the coincidences of like, how did the monster find his brother? No, but the frankenstein's were a big, You don't know. They're a big family, aren't they?

But I felt like that. I know what you mean, Sarah, because I was a bit like, oh, hang on, that's what? It's a different country. I was like, you can't crime writer brain what she's doing. She's not doing that. She's telling you a very emotional story. But you can't go into the logic of it.

Why could you just set them all in the same village? Not having around on boats. Well, she was travelling around Europe. Edinburgh. The whole south of town he does around the UK, just so she could go, St Paul's Cathedral, off to Edinburgh. But then that's really funny because the Datoro version,

there's so many bits where they're sort of in a hybrid of London, Edinburgh. You're like, where are you? And then they just go and then they're in France and you're like, it really feels like someone gone, Europe is one place. Yeah, and it looks like this. Poor things does that as well. It's quite a thing, it's London, Edinburgh thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

In both the films. Like 19th century. But I sort of, I agree with you, but I didn't mind some of that because I felt like I was. I didn't mind it. I would mind it if someone had written it now. Oh, yeah. I did. Sure.

So I guess it's just worth. saying. Also, I kept reading The Monster as Alan Partridge. Why? Because when the monster's talking, there's big passage where they are talking to Victor Frankenstein saying what they've been up to and sort of making their excuses. I guess arguing their ability and this sort of plea for desperation, I want this woman one, you need to give me this thing and explaining what happens with William. It would just be things like, oh yeah, I learned geography. I learned geography because the blind dad had a pamphlet. Talk myself it.

You know, I did that. Talked my dogography, actually. Yeah. I would love to see that version. I had the last, but then I kept thinking the monsters Alan Partridge. Red Paradise Lost. Easy than you think. Every man deserves a friend.

I'm completely friendless. Every time I go to the village. Oh my God, this is genius. You really should pitch this. This is so brilliant. But also, I think you're hitting something really interesting, which is Alan Partridge, Essencey, is an incredible comedic character that has this deep, deep sadness,

vulnerability. And this monster is this, like, it's so, sad. It's such a sad book. It's so sad but you're so right about the comedic because what I think is really interesting is the way the world has gagged to make this a comedy. And I think this is really odd to make

the Frankenstein's monster sexy. Yeah, there's a lot of... Where's it sexy? In Young Frankenstein. There's a lot of Bride of Frankenstein. Yeah. Again, there's always a female character that's very virginal and sexy. And Jacob Allerdy, looking like Jacob Allardy with his head shaved.

Yeah. He's a sexy. And Mia Goth who I love, because this is the thing with Elizabeth, because when it's dramatised, obviously, who you cast as Elizabeth makes a huge change. So brilliant, she's like, Mia Gough. Naomi Harris did it when it was at the National Theatre. But Mia Gough, I was very irritated with the film version because they make Elizabeth, they keep the brother alive.

It's so mad. And then they marry Elizabeth to the brother. It's so weird. Then they turn up and then Miss Victor is like, hey, your fiancé's hot and basically tries to seduce her. And then she's like, I'm in a kid, you may not have to trap me, I like butterflies. And she's basically manic pixie dream girl, but with like a big green dress on. Oh, she's gorgeous and perfect.

No, I found what they did to Elizabeth. She's really annoying. Going back to Elizabeth, oh, but Mia, gosh, are you listening? Anyone who is listening who hasn't read the original. So we meet Elizabeth when she's five. She's got some siblings, but she's much fitter than they are. So when Victor Frankenstein's mom, Mrs. Frankenstein, goes around.

She sees five kids, but one of them's blonde and much nicer. She goes, I'll take that one off your hands. But also the mom doesn't like her. That's what they said. mother doesn't like her. That's Justine. That's not Elizabeth. No, no, that's Elizabeth. That's why she's telling. It's too. It's very confusing because Justine and Elizabeth are both kind of adopted

in similar second. She's at the same time. But they say, don't they say that about Elizabeth? No, there's Justine. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's really confusing because it is a very, very similar version. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With Elizabeth, it's that they can't afford all their children. Oh, okay. And she's so beautiful and so sweet and so helpful. She's like five-old and this bright blonde hair.

So they adopt her and take her home. Yeah. With Justine, her mom was really horrible to her. And then all of her siblings die. die and then the mother does want her back so she's been with their family she takes her back but it's very easy so Elizabeth comes to live with the Frankensteins yeah but they as like an extra a new child but they always say they wanted a daughter they wanted a daughter yes they always say Elizabeth will marry Victor that's the plan even when they're like babies which did happen did happen in that time yeah obviously yeah it's how you keep things also um the whole thing

with Elizabeth this is another detail yeah I don't know if this clanged with you so she's so poor they have to take her off her family but when they get married she's got a little place on Lake Como. Yeah, because the Austrian government step in to give it back to her. That's what it says. The Austrian government step in to make sure she has it. That's what I mean about, you don't need to go to Lake Como, just stay there. It's going to murder you on your wedding night. It's told you that. Why do you have to go

away? I sort of wonder if it's like early Jane Austen of like she's, I felt like she was a dot writing in the way that books were written that time. She's capping the way that those epic novels, romance novels would have been written. That you did have to go to Geneva, Transylvania and she wrote it in Lake Como. so it's just like, I'm here, so I guess they'll I'm here.

Yeah, there is a little bit of bugging. I'm like, oh, now you're on Ireland, are you? I know the Alps so well. Well, she's very racist about the Irish, I have to say. I couldn't work out when she was saying we don't, if it was racist or not racist, because they said... She was saying that the Irish were racist towards the British, the English. Wasn't she?

Yeah, that's not. That's not cool, Mary Shelley. No, it's not cool. And also, of its time, obviously. I know, of course, so don't go there. Don't go to Ireland. But I thought she was saying they were pro-Irish because she was like, were like we're not kind to villains and they think he's evil.

So I thought she was being pro-Irish. Maybe she is. Like they're like, no, we're moral compared to you. It's so, so much of this is so open to interpretation, which is why it's made so many amazing adaptations. Why do you believe there is an adaptation for everyone? And the Alan Partridge's one might be the one for you, so yeah. But also.

So good. Who would play Frankenstein of Partridges as a monster? Timkee? He'd be a great Frankenstein. Yeah, of course. And then who's going to be Alice Lowe? No, Chris Morris is Victor Franklin. Lancenstein.

Do you know that... Alice Lois Elizabeth. Tim Key would be the character that actually doesn't exist. Henry Carvel. The Ego Fritz character, which is the hunchback assistant. Who only does in the films. Oh, really? But it's such an icon.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Also an iconic character. So Henry, who does exist, Henry Charvel, is you name? That would be Tim Key. Yeah, I guess they sort of tread Ego into that. The friend who just always comes along. Just to socialise with him. So how are you feeling full of anguish, full of horror?

My eyes flow with tears. Because I watched it last night with my husband, Ben, and because we both didn't really like the film very much, we started recasting it for CBBs and decided that the monster would be Mr. Tumble and that Andy Day would be Frankenstein. Mr. Tumble would play, Justin would be the Doctor Victor Frankenstein

and Mr. Tumble would be the monster, right? Oh, I see, both you played both of course, of course. Did you and Ben, did it bring back any of Nina Forever for you? Oh, no, no. You did discuss Nina Forever? No, his film, your husband's film, Nina Forever. Where a dead woman comes back to life? No.

Didn't come up. No, didn't go. I didn't come up. I know what you're saying. And again, I guess it's like, this is why she's so interesting, isn't it? Because she is the person who puts that idea down. But mainly, I just found his changes. Tell you what, right?

Yeah. My dad had to stop watching it. I have to say. I found the thing that annoying changes, I get that. He said it felt too manipulative. Well, I found most annoying is I think he made it very male. So I found it very irritating that it was like, oh, the dad used to beat me and was horrible to me.

And my mother died in childbirth, so I hate my brother. And then there's that scene where he goes to Edinburgh and he's like, he's like, I could do this. I can do this. Whereas what I love about the book, but what I love about the book is someone has a nice life. Has a nice life. I didn't find it boring. I was like, it's just a normal person.

He goes to university. He's got a good family. He's been loved. There's been tragedy. Hang on, hang on. And then just trying to do something, sort of accidentally finds this mad idea, realize this is could do it, does it, runs away from it. And running away from the mistake, the mistake follows you and goes,

you cannot run away from the fucking mistakes that you make. And I found that. Instead of the showboating of the film is like, Men are great, aren't you, we're going to build this huge castle. And I was like, what, the book is the smallness of it I love. I love that it's just like, the internalness of it. I thought I was just doing something without thinking about it. And I didn't think of the consequences.

I didn't think of, like, I'm a teenager. I didn't think this would ruin my life. And that's why the Justine thing broke my heart. It was like, not only has it. it caused my agony when the monster, this isn't a spoiler, come on, it's old, murders my brother. Then this peasant girl, this servant girl is hung for this. I found that like, oh, this is pure Victorian melodrama awful. But even bigger than that, so, because the important details in that are that he could have told the magistrates, oh, I went down the graveyard,

yeah, totally, don't me. I assembled some things because I've got this fascination with the natural scientist. Then I once saw some lightning hit a tree and got into electricity. I accidentally brought it to life. The instant I did, I then had a fever for three months and the monster ran away. That's who killed my brother, not this girl. I didn't mind it in terms of plotting at that point. I really minded later when he goes, oh, I'll go on honeymoon with you, Elizabeth.

And you're like, this is the time. Why would you marry her? So the monster has said, on your wedding night, this is when I'm going to do my final act of violence. But it's really emphasising the book that Victor Frankenstein thinks it's going to be him. and he's like he's going to kill me. And Elizabeth will be fine and that's how you protect you at Elizabeth. Yeah.

I don't know if in the book if you're meant to kind of be one step ahead but it's so hard when you've seen adaptations not to fill in the gaps. Yeah. But also, but it is, it's Greek tragedy. It's fatal flaw character stuff. He's so obsessed with something

you can't help himself making it and then he does sort of deviate occasionally because this whole thing about how he cannot be around this monster. But he does stand there listening to him for 60-odd pages in a case. to find out of that bit. And the same in the film where they're like, and that's why you can't do a faithful adaptation.

Because I thought, no, one. Like, you have to take what's interesting to you about this story and tell that version of it. But he made it so, like, he made him a villain from the beginning. He made him destined for villainy, Victor. And what I like about the book is it's like, anyone could make this mistake. Oh, absolutely.

And we all do. Yeah, but I felt the film was like, well, your dad bullied you. Your mum died in childbirth. And like, and he set him, and your brother's perfect. And I thought you've pushed our villain character so we know what he's going to do but I love that Mary Shelley's like he's just a person like you, like me who has from a nice family

goes to university and accidentally. Yeah, it's science isn't it? You want to see if you can do something. Yeah. You don't think about the ram of a catch. Should you be doing it? What's the saying? We're so busy trying to see it because you can.

We can. It's just that. It feels like that. And then but then the same thing with the, the thing with the wretch, the monster. this poor guy, he isn't born evil, he's just born unattractive, and it's the way the world treats him. And while, you know, he doesn't have emotional regulation

because it's an animated corpse, so he does some really bad things, and then we hate him and we fear him. But that's such a pivotal part of the book, and what's kind of frustrating is it's cut out of so many of the adaptations. Because don't you think she's kind of ahead of her time? Or like, it's so relevant. It's so relevant now, this idea of like nature versus nurture. and actually the reason he becomes a monster is because he's completely abandoned.

The moment he opens his eyes and it's bizarre in the book, Victor Ferguson goes, oh, oh, you're hideous and runs away straight away. I've got some opinions about this. I know, it's a big one. Men after a one night stand. They really, really, really want it.

And the second they've spunked, get out. What, what did I do? Yes. Yes, there's a lot of that way. Why don't I do this? I didn't understand why the monster had to be so big and disgusting. You made out of human parts Why are you to stop?

What do you use? But that thing of constant rejection and also another thing with the gaps I haven't heard it No no There's no In young Frankenstein It's explicitly explained

It makes him easier to work on Because of the details work Which they do say in the Gilland d'Atoe Yeah they say I've made it bigger But like how did you make thighs bigger? But I think it's because I think it's that fundamental thing He has to be an outsider

Like a wig won't fix it That's why the Jacob will all date I'm like Put him in a wig I'm sorry, and a nice pair of jeans. At the end, he looked like he was in a Calvin Klein advert. He had this like ripped body, this like ripped fur jacket, his greasy hair like this. And the ice behind him, and I was like, you're like your fucking male wonder.

Also, why does he only eat acorns? That was such a weird detail. I don't even eat meat. I don't eat lambs or goats. I only have acorns. You're a vegan, sir. Exactly. So why, we always get such shit people.

And it does a lot of disservice for veganism. Do you know how many twats are vegan? Well, there's another one. I thought you'd feel more kindly towards Frankenstein's monster than you do. I really like him. You do? Yeah. I don't, I don't, I do like him.

But he's self-educated. He's like, I know you have grievance about the literature stuff, but like, didn't you think like this man, he's a self-made man. What do you think about the ambition of Victor Frankenstein? Did that resonate? As two ambitious writers, you're both ambitious writers. I always replied to texts. Actually, that bit where Victor didn't reply to text, I thought was a bit on the

knows where people get texting him. His mum's just died and they're all grieving and he's like, okay, I'm going to go away and study. Don't expect it here for me in six months. He was consumed. He was obsessed. But as people, you know, you're both in showbiz. And surrounded by ambitious people, don't you? Didn't you say something of that like? Oh yeah.

The self-obsession, not in you, but in the people around you. And you can see it taking people down the wrong track. Yeah, I really enjoy, I enjoyed the university bit where he fell into the sciences and he just couldn't stop studying. And it was like, he'd been reading the wrong books. And this teacher's like, here's the books you should be. And his brain. is like, oh my God, my God, there's this whole other part.

I thought that was, again, really, like, I loved it. I was like, yes, I'm absolutely in this European university. And I can see what you don't write back to your family. You're just too, why does he just sometimes have fevers for three months? Exactly. Oh, that's a bad thing. They all had fevers. But the moment he achieves his goal, the moment he achieves his goal, he abanded it in

timely. So what do you think of that? What do you think of that? That's what I thought was one night standy about it. You really, really wanted to get it. Yeah, I think it's the person. of something, isn't it? He's obsessed with the pursuit and he's not thinking about what the consequences are of the pursuit. What he's going to do with it?

Animated human. I think he gets consumed by self-obsession. Yeah, yeah. Of what it means he is. He can't handle that he is God in his own frame of reference. And then he's like, what does that mean about me? What am I? And he completely abandoned Frankenstein. Then Frankenstein's monster is just this looming, fearful dread of what he's created. A bit like when you put out bad tweet, I imagine. And you're like, oh, God, I You shouldn't have said that, but it's out there now. But the way he takes no responsibility and he doesn't act.

Oh, his lack of accountability. So it's like Kristen Bell with that post she did on her wedding anniversary that she's not taking down. What was she did? She made a joke about how, she's like wedding anniversary for 13 years with the guy who once said, I could kill you, but I won't. And she put out this jokey thing and then people said like it's really bad taste and, you know, do that. And she's just refused to take it down, which means that the comments and the arguments are still happening. Oh, domestic violence.

Yeah. He said I could kill you but I won't. He said loads of guys kill their wives. Yeah. It's a horrible... And he was joking. Or he said it erased. He was joking and she was posting it as a joke.

Right. And then it was pointed out... It's not that funny. It's not that funny. Because it's so common. It's so common. And either is this a cry for help or... It's a little bit like the Lily Allen with those horrible flowers.

Like these are bad luck flowers. Oh yeah. And you go, you're saying it like this is funny. But what we're reading into it is this man. okay. Is, yeah, is, yeah. I just want to come back quickly to defence of fevers in the 19th century because Jane Austen's books are literally full of a girl having a twisted ankle

and that being the entire plot reason. But it's important for the plot. The point I think the fever's important. Okay, so after Henry's body is discovered, he then goes into a fever for three months in a prison cell. Why? Oh, I wasn't talking about that fever. No, no. So in Jane Austen it would be so that you're at that person's house so you can meet the brother.

There would be a reason that you're incapacitated there. Jane Austen is everything is relevant. I'd never say any of these things. I thought you were angry at physical ailments in the 19th century. I understand the body and how sick people got. It's that for his character... I guess what she's saying is like he's so sick inside. The eternal torment.

The heat and the torment, like Vanessa's saying, he cannot handle what he's done. He can't cope with it. Did you like American Psycho? No. I haven't watched it. I just know the bit about the dog. Have you read the book?

No. Oh my God. Tom Golding was obsessively. with it at university. Was he? Yeah. That's interesting. But it's very, well, actually, it's very about internal torment.

I think you might get a bit frustrated with internal torment. No. No, I don't think I do. I don't think I do. I think internal torment is brilliant. I think I had to rush read a classic for a podcast and occasionally I'd go, why? Do you know what? It's a tough, it's a tough rush read.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, the first, I should say, the first half was on that train to Peterborough where the drunk women were sick. Christmas carols. The drunk woman's saying Christmas carols. And it was much more. When I'm explaining, it wasn't like at any point I didn't want to finish reading it. And I wasn't glad I was reading it. I was thinking, how funny because these things wouldn't happen now.

Someone would just go, you don't need that fever in Ireland where you're three months and thing. So that we meet a character who comes in who's a bit harsh with you. And it's interesting that she did three edits as well. She did the edits in it. But I think the gaps in it are so important because that's what's made it a cultural icon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's what's given other people the opportunity to do other things with it. When you...

It's like with Shakespeare, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the problems to be solved are why you need another version. It's so like Shakespeare. And because also the other thing that I love about is right, Shakespeare, where it seems like a pretty smart guy. Mary Shelley seems like a pretty smart lady. But these are so broad.

The strokes that they both write in. You're like, well, that one's just had a cut tongue out. I think that's bad. Like, it's kind of like liberating when really intelligent people write, really easy to understand stuff. And I think this is pretty easy to understand. Yeah, I know what you're saying because I think what's good and bad. That's what I was surprised about.

I felt the same as you said. Like there was definitely bits in the plot. I was like, what have you? Like I had to keep going back to the bit that the monster came awake. Because I was like, I missed. Yeah, I explained that. I was like, where's the scene? Yeah, where's the scene?

Also, so the explanation is that he's not, Victor Frankenstein doesn't mind going to the graveyard to get bits of bodies because his dad didn't want him to fear the occult. Oh, is that why we don't go raiding graveyards? Yeah, his dad was very clear. My fear of the occult. So he doesn't believe in life after death, but does that mean that he's not a Christian person

that's not really sort of delved into, even though they're talking about Adam, and we assume that he's Christian. But this, that scene is missing. Yeah, and he actually assembles the body. I really went back a couple of pages. I was like, I feel like the monsters alive, but there wasn't a bit,

which there isn't all the adaptations, the lightning, ah, like he's alive, he's alive, and the logistics of, sewing it together. No, there isn't that. And I think that is Mary, Shelley, not knowing, I think she was really interested in science.

She's obviously interested in galvanisation. I think that sort of through line of, I'm into natural sciences, I'm into this kind of sciences, I'm into this now. I imagine that's her and the men she's around's interest with what's going on in science at the time. But it's interesting, isn't it,

that she can do that. You can skip over it. And like I said, but the ideas are still so fascinating. But like, yeah, I tell it's such, it's hard to look at it from this point of view, I guess, isn't it? Because it doesn't behave in a way and not a novel should. Like it needs editing. I wouldn't want to read and reread it. No, no.

Oh, but you could forever because it would be like, you'd find something different. And you can even just read a chapter. Read one of the stories within a story. I think the stories with a story. And again, I think that comes from people. used to publish weekly or fortnightly and get paid by the things. So, of course, she would go off on these sort of, Sir John's. And also, very much of this time, starting with a letter to somebody.

Oh, yeah, they love a letter. Because realistically, the letter he sends to his sister is, let's say. Yeah, mad. So long. 12,000 words long. No, not 12. When I got to letters, I'm a multiple letters. 80,000 words.

No, the last one, when he says, I'm going to, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to write you up his story. And then his story becomes the record. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's 60,000 or 70,000 words long, the letter that he then sends to his sister, saying, oh, don't worry, Victor had a little edit of it, because he said even though he wants to die, his version still at least be correct. What do we think of the ending? Oh, I love the ending.

Okay. Okay. Tell us why. Well, it's terrible. I mean, it's, right, so, because that's a very interesting thing that they changed in the book. Yes. In the film, sorry. In the film, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what's the ending in the film? In the film, they have a very redemptive ending, so they meet on the boat, and the monster base is basically like a couple being like, I can't believe you, and it's like, I'm sorry, man, and he's like, I'm sorry. We should talk also.

I am sorry, you are my son, basically. The monster has a bit of a northern accent, which is also quite funny, because he learns from David Bradley is amazing, and his actor has a slight Yorkshire, so David Bradley's doing that. And so occasionally the monster does them a bit of like, my heart is pumping.

A little bit funny. Well, and he might have been doing him, Heathcliff at the same time, maybe. Oh, yeah. So they have a very redemptive forgive moment. Victor dies and he kind of walks off into the sunset. To die. To die.

But you don't know. Although they make him kind of unkillable. Yeah, he's immortal. He cannot, like if he just self-heels. So he's going off and the boat is frozen. He saves all the sailors, even though he's murdered loads of them. And he pushes the boat off the ice. And he sort of walks off into the sunset and the ice.

And it's a bit... I guess about for a horror film or a horror ending, the monster doesn't it? We'd be scared of the monster. And I'll tell you what, really fucking pissed me off. What's at the end of the Datorial film? A Byron quote. A Byron quote?

Yeah, I know. A Byron quote? Strange. And then it comes up. Frankenstein, Pramisa's tale. Mary Shelley, tiny writing, gone. It's like, she fucking wrote, wherever we think of it. She was 19 and she wrote a book.

The good decency to put a Mary Shelley quote at the end of it, not fucking Byron. Again, that's why I felt so mailed to me. So was it a Byron quote about Frankenstein? No, I actually don't, it's like a, I can't remember the quote. It may be about Frankenstein, but I still think you could have done the good deed and put a Mary Shelley quote on there. It really annoyed me. Absolutely.

So in the book, it's, so in the film, it's, it feels like he might go and die, but he might go and just live alive for being immortal. Yeah. Well, in the Kenneth Branagh version, I'm pretty sure. I pretty sure they both go off together. They both float off on a piece of course together, Victor already dead. Because he's in the book, the monster is going to build a pyre and build himself to death. But I just think with this thing, because, for the first of him, for me, because of him, he's right. me the idea of the ambition that consumes everything and then both ending up on top of the world

finally to meet their death and by that point the death is a relief. I'm just like oh my god wow because to me this is so much about all consuming ambition. Not ambition actually self-obsession within that because the thing that I think is so sad about this is kind of interesting it is fun when he's obsessed with the project but then the obsession with the project drops and it just becomes this internal self-obsession and I think in my own life I can really see where I've gone from like really being ambitious in a good way, which is when you're focused on it, to being something else, which is consumed with what I am and what this work makes me. And to me, I feel that in this book so much. Yeah. Okay. And it really resonates

with me. I think that's why this book has lasted the test of time. Yeah. Because you're right, the broad strokes in it mean it can be read. Yeah. All sorts of different ways. But there is so much emotion in the book. Like there is so much emotion. And I can't help, you can't help but tie in her story. Like it's so impossible to not tie in the story of this girl born to radicals who was so famous and how many men she must have had to sat near listening. And she even, there's a bit in our Penguin Classics version where there's a quote from Sherley Mary saying that during the holiday she sat in silence listening to Byron and Percy talking all night. And that when he, when Byron posts the ghost, he's like, right, we're all going to write a ghost story.

she writes to someone saying like oh every morning i i have to mortify to myself that i have to say i don't have an idea yet so everyone else has got an idea bairn started the physician has started percy started and every morning she's just to come to breakfast with these people and they're like oh mary have you got yours she's like oh no not yet and you're like she was fucking 18 and i just i just feel like maybe it's reading too much into it but i i feel like you can really i can very much relate to that. And then there's something about writing a man like that. So I think you're right, the women aren't great, but she does understand what it's like to stand next to a man going on about something. Oh yeah. For sure. She definitely understands that. And then she went on to create

one of the greatest cultural icons of the last two centuries. Yeah. And the fact, I guess, you know, like Jane Austen, it's like, it's constantly being adapted. The fact that Givirot has just done this version of it. Apparently it's been his life's obsession to be that film. So is there a thing at the moment, I mean, obviously there's like, books being adaptations, but like classics, it does feel like there's suddenly a slew of them. There's a big thing about IP, isn't there at the moment? And that definitely studios are obsessed with like, sorry, it just turned into the rest of entertainment. There's a big thing about online music expenditure, how Warner Brothers are working. But there's a big thing of like, because

there's so much content, because that people are overwhelmed, if you have something that people know, then you've already got 10% of their attention. And because no one has any attention, it's like, if I say Frankenstein of Pride and Prejudice, it's like, oh, great. So they're all going back through all of their IP, which is why something like Batman is on like its 20th film, which I still find like, and someone will correct me. And the hangover only got three. I'm so keen to ask you guys a couple of questions. One is, do you think the monster rapes Elizabeth before he kills her? Oh, that's interesting. Jesus Christ. I love the asexuality of the monster because the monster is so much more fucking scary if he's got a raging hard on. Oh, for sure.

But that is where a lot of the adaptation is going. Because he has no regulation. Yeah. When he asks for his bride, this woman, it's about living in contentment, living in sympathy, having something to be kind to you. It isn't like, I need to get my end away. I need a baby.

It doesn't say passion, doesn't say share a bed. I looked at the language so carefully. And I thought, the monster's asexual. I think so. And also the monster is three. So if we're talking about a child brain, let's just say this is a baby who taught himself English in a year. and now

very smart parents Milton it's funny because a lot of the language though around his murder because I Because the first thing So in the films

They make it sexual with Elizabeth Yeah the first adaptation Yeah Not in the Deltore film at all It's actually quite asexual Well except for Elizabeth

I think it's a different I'm really horny For the fucking Elizabeth story Like He gives her a leaf And she's like Leaf This is leaf

And then later you see She's got a little leaf In her book And I was like They met once And he was a The monster The monster

She's in the monster with the monster. She's immediately like stroking his chest. It's really bizarre. It's really fucking weird. And he gives her a leaf. And then she's like, honestly, it's Manic Pixie Jumga. I said they should have given them a bowl of spaghetti. Instead, they got this little leaf. And then later on, she basically, Victor is like, why wouldn't you marry me? She's like, I've made my choice, even though she's not in love with her brother at all. And you see, she's kept the leaf that the, like, she's like, he's innocent. He's so innocent and pure. And it's like, and he's fit. He's fitted than the other men who around you, Elizabeth.

But she's quite macabre. She is fascinated in the line between life and death, that version of Elizabeth. She's because she's picking up all these skulls and like staring into them. And also Mia Gauth is a massive horror movie actress. Yeah. So she kind of comes with a bit of branding of like somebody who kind of straddles the lines between sex, death. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exciting, isn't it?

I'd love people to say that about me. Oh, Pascoe. Oh, she's always straddling the line between sex, death and life. Yeah, it's not comedy, but it really straddles sex and death. I do say that He talks about consummating the murder I mean I don't think I don't think he does rate her in the book

I didn't get that at all yeah I have to say I didn't get that He talks about his impotency as well but a lot of people are like oh it's heavily implied and I'm never confident because when I read Tesla the Derbethills She gets sexually assaulted I'm turning down my language for the podcast And then I didn't realise it

And then she's pregnant I'm like why is she pregnant And then I was awful No I remember crying at that But I was at university reading it. To me, he came...

It's horrible. The man was there and then an angel starts crying. And I was like... Again, 19th century, you have to really look. That's what I'm never sure

with this book. And with that, I'm like, are we meant to... Also, Tomas Harder just wrote the saddest books. Oh, the saddest. It must have been such a sad man. But this is an interesting thing

that you were watching the adaptation with Ben last night and when I said you didn't talk about Nina Forever. I just remembered in that adaptation, they don't make the female creature that then Victor immediately.

kills as happens in the book, which is so bizarre. And so, of course, in the Kenneth Branagh version. And this is a kind of opportunity that I felt like Mary Shelley left wide over for Kenneth Branner. When Elizabeth is murdered, he resuscitates her. And she becomes the female and one of the star. Which is also the bride of Frankenstein or the 1930s horror stuff. Yeah, made by the same people. I haven't seen that one yet.

Made by the same people who made the 1931 one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I definitely, I didn't feel like that. And I felt like you. I felt that was quite an asexual. And I also felt like Then if you take a step back My opinion is it's a 19 year old girl

Writing these things Like it's not someone You don't get that feeling for the monster of like Yeah I want to go out I want to fuck everything It's like I want to be loved Yeah I want to be loved

That's it I say the strongest literary parallel I've got is Lenny from mice and men Lumbering want to care about you My hands have accidentally killed the rabbit Like it's that Curly's wife Well and that's pretty much what happens to William

He does kill William to Libby I think, but it almost is that. But William's shouting, he's trying to make him quiet. Yeah, he's just trying to, and that is really sad. And in the 1931 film, the little girl who, in the book, he saves and then her father shoots him because he's the villain. So it's kind of like, I've just saved your daughter and yet you're attacking me because of how I look.

So it's very much a book about the outsider. But in the film, the little girl was playing with him and they're flowing flowers into the lake. And then he runs out of flowers. So because she's pretty like a little flower, he throws her into the lake. thinking she'll float and she drowns and then you've got her dad carrying her through the streets. We could barely watch it.

It was so bleak. Is that the Kenneth Branagh one that they do that? No, that's the 1931 version. Oh God, that must be so bleak. That's the other thing that keeps me coming back to Frankenstein. Kind of against my will. Yeah. You are in a relationship with this book.

I hate it, but I will never... Any adaptation that gets made for the rest of my life I will watch. I have to. Yeah. Yeah, it's got you this book. It's completely... I don't know. So can I ask you, okay.

Yeah, yeah, I want to know. So this we're doing Vanessa Hammock. You've written it, you're directing it. Oh, yes. Who, so what story are you telling? What's your version? Oh, my God. Well, obviously I fantasise about doing a one-woman version of it.

Why don't you do that? Yeah, because I'm amazing. But I just think it could all just totally be inside his head and just this self-obsession, this self-obsessive loops. But it does, it does, she offers that several times. I can't trust my version of it. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't sound true.

Yeah, I don't know. I've been so fevery. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So I think that would be the obvious thing. But obviously, I do really love poor things, the film.

The book is brilliant as well. But I just think what Emstone brings to the film is what, like, it just really elevates it for me. Oh, gosh, you've really asked me now. But can I ask you something? No. To answer a question. Okay. Okay.

I will actually have a thing about your adaptation. But one woman version is enough of a answer. But what do you, what is it like why this. but what is it the make you think that has drawn you to this book? I don't entirely know. Oh, that's interesting. And so the ambition thing, okay, I've figured that out, the horror of the bleak, bleak romance,

because also in adaptation, so in the Danny Boyle version. And I get this, actually, when you think of staging it, when he sets that house on fire, the family are in it, guys, the family are in it. Oh, the stage version you saw. And that was the first thing that I saw, the stage version. Yeah, you can watch it on Entie at home, and you can watch it both ways with Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller, who I think is just so underwonder.

It's such an amazing actor. With them swapping roles and it's really good. Naomi Harris. Having not seen it, reading it, I thought, what a wonderful thing to do to stage it so that both actors have played both sides of this relationship, which is so codependent, even though one of them is running away and the other person is being chased. Classic codependency. Classic codependency.

I don't need you. I don't need you. Well, that is the thing with like the final sort of fifth where there is this chase. Sometimes the monster left signs just in case I did actually ever losing. Like they don't want to lose each other. Yeah, they're so interlinked. That comes back to what you're saying about Victor. There's loads of times where you're like,

why don't you just tell people and then this problem goes away? You could just say, I went to a monster, let's get a lynch mob, let's go and kill him. That's what happens in the 1931 film. Yeah, but it takes so long. I know. He can see he doesn't handle it in any way. Because he's totally self-obsessed. But this is the interesting thing.

So he's all this focus at the beginning to actually get the monster made. And then after that, no focus. Absolutely. Yeah. Dissolved focus. hyperfocus and then he can't find one. And then when he's supposed to be making a woman one, he's like just putting it off three months over here,

go to England, I can't be bothered to get the stuff to make the woman one? Victor, have you heard of ADHD? I just feel like maybe some medication. It's kind of odd with a woman one that he makes her and she's more attractive and then to just kill her straight away. I didn't think that's shocking.

I completely misread this. I thought it started assembling her and didn't finish her and then scattered the pieces. Oh, okay. But I think she was pretty much, does not, Frank, the monster seized her. The monster comes in and goes, oh, you've given up, because he scatters the pieces of her. I think he's getting there.

He decides I'm not going to do it and then messes everything up. And then the monster goes, you promised me this. And comes in, like, so sees that he's decided not to. And that's why I'm going to come and get you on your wedding night. Oh, I see. That's the reminder. Which is obviously Elizabeth he's going to get. I feel like that's really obvious.

Oh, really, like reading that bit and he's like, I decided to go for a walk. And you're like, don't go for a walk, Vinger. Like, what? I left Elizabeth in the cottage. I knew she'd be fine. I just wanted to walk around and check. I was safe. Yeah, yeah.

I'll leave that woman of mine by herself also. But that, again, I suppose, comes back to what you're saying of, like, we think he's obsessed with the project. Is he ever obsessed with a project? Or is he always obsessed with himself? Like, is the project, again, just there happens to be a byproduct of being obsessed with yourself? Is that this ego literally appears?

Yeah. I'm annoyed we didn't do a university, because you could write so many fucking essays about this. And so many versions of it. And luckily, they do exist. Like, it's just such a gift to culture. Yeah. book. And when I've been like looking about it online, some of the things that it's been

seen as a parable for, homosexuality, disability, motherhood, and like the absence of it. But I just thought, wow, that's, you know, some of those things have never even occurred to me. Yeah. I would have done a dissertation about whether Mary Shelley's misogyny undid the feminism of her mother. That's what I would have done. That's very good. That's what I would have done. I would have done a dissertation about early parental grief and looking at studies of children who are grieved early and the effects on literature.

That's what I would have gone for. Lovely. What was you done for this one? Those are your adaptations? No, there's our dissertations. Oh, no. We're going for dry here, academic dry. Also, race, slavery and postnatal depression.

It's been seen as analogies to all of those things. Come on, what's your dissertation about it? My dissertation. Postnatal depression is a great one. Yeah, you could do a post-native depression one, on it? Something to do more to do with, like, the ego and ambition and self-accession. Oh, yeah, taking in modern.

You could do Jeff Bezos compared with Victor Frankenstein. Thank you so much for bringing Frankenstein into our lives. This is due enthusiasm. Yeah. And it's so interesting. So interesting. And in terms of whether it's adaptations or a bridge versions of like, this is a story that could be told and told and told.

And I would say like go and watch an adaptation, go and read, but whatever, there's something for everybody to at least be aware of this, like this iconic story. Either where, the source text or a dissertation, dissertation. Of Vanessa's one-woman version? Yeah. Well, yeah, and because we are in the dawn of a new Frankenstein, aren't me? Which I would say is like AI, the anxieties around that now.

Oh, Vanessa, write that book, please. That would be my dissertation. Yes, that's amazing. I honestly could talk about this forever. I know. Thank you so much, Vanessa. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to The Weirdo's Book Club. My book, Where Does She Go? A Kids Picture Book about grief is available to buy now, as is Sarah's brilliant fiction debut, Weirdo. Yeah. I mean, it says Debbie a bit. was our ages ago. You can still get it. You can still get it. You can find out all about the upcoming books we're going to be discussing this series on Instagram at Sarah and Carriads Weirdo's Book Club.

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