This year marks the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s famous novel, “Frankenstein.” The classic tale is about a young scientist obsessed with the idea of creating humans out of inanimate objects. Thinking he is doing mankind a service, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster that wreaks havoc on the society that shuns him.
In celebration of the anniversary, Shimer Great Books School professors invited students to take part in more than a month-long series of events. The events included several screenings of the “Frankenstein” films, multiple novel discussions and a week-long reading of the 1818 manuscript.
“Around the world, there are groups doing live readings as part of an initiative started by the program Frankenreads,” said Professor Stuart Patterson.
According to their website, Frankenreads is a program that “encourages people around the world to organize and participate in events celebrating the novel, especially by conducting readathons of the entire novel.”
The live readings started on Oct. 24, covering all three volumes of the novel over a weeks’ time. Each day of the reading covered anywhere from eight to 14 chapters read by multiple speakers.
“It’s fun to participate in something that people are doing all over. It’s also a very different experience to listen to a book that I’ve read, taught and given exams on,” said Professor Ann Dolinko, one of the volunteer readers.
Professors decided to take the worldwide readings to a new level by incorporating film screenings and discussions into the whole experience as well.
An interesting experience for all students that participated, each were able to take turns reading different sections of the novel over a two-hour period each day. Students agreed that it was an eye-opening experience that allowed them to see the novel in a new light.
On Sept. 27, Shimer hosted a film screening of “Frankenstein” (1931) and “Bride of Frankenstein.” On Oct. 17, they continued with “Son of Frankenstein” (1939) and “Young Frankenstein” (1974).
The celebration wraps up Nov. 6 with a final novel discussion. However, there are hopes of possibly extending the celebration into December.
