Frankenstein

I didn't finish Frankenstein in time for Halloween, but I did finish it.  It made me think that I can't remember the last fiction book I read this year, but I do remember reading several non-fiction books - something I thought would be so undo-able for me that I didn't even bother making it a goal.  It just happened naturally.  Twelve Years a Slave, Pioneer Girl, Ken Burn's Lewis and Clark, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Rhett and Link's Book of Mythicality - I may have forgotten one or two.

So Frankenstein - while I was reading it (that is during the same space of time, not while it was actually in front of me) I was also seeing lots of online new stories about self-learning A.I. and the end of human-kind.  Actually I've seen those stories for a while now - and I can't help but find them creepy.  Sure I like my washing machine,  I don't want to go back to washboards, but I like being in control of my machine.  What I didn't realize is that this fear that a created thing might become superior to its creator is not a new idea.  That is the terrifying story of Frankenstein - that his hideous monster has a greater capacity for love and beauty, a more intense feeling of hate, and superior strength and dexterity - and he's out there somewhere watching for his opportunity to get revenge. 

But I think the real theme is that not everything that can be done, should be done.  The narrator of the story is an explorer traveling to the North Pole and Frankenstein warns him not to make the same mistake he did.  A blind fascination with animating something un-living became a monster that took everything he loved.

Frankenstein was written almost 100 years before Dracula, yet it seems a more modern novel.  It humanizes the monster and blurs the lines between right and wrong.  Definitely a spooky read that stands the test of time.