FRANKENSTEINit was in the summer of 1816 that mary shelley and her lover/future husband, percy shelley, were visiting their friend, lord byron, in switzerland during a period of particularly cold and wet weather which reduced them to the indoors for entertainment - before sleep that night, they discussed ghost stories and decided they would each write a short version of one - later, mary, in what is described as a "waking dream" developed the story of frankenstein:
I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling
beside the thing he had put together.
I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then,
on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life,
and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion.
Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be
the effect of any human endeavour to mock the
stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world...
6 comments:
A waking dream? Interesting.
yes - i wonder how that differs from a lucid dream??? thanks for coming by!
I always loved this story! The path of creativity is....well, weird.
I love that book. I've read it quite a few times over the years.
I always have wondered about dreams...dreams at times are like a parallel life . waking dream seems to me a vision ..those can be very strong..right before awaking in the morning ..or just a vision..when you are fully awake..and all of a sudden something flashes before you...interesting that that senerio flashed before her....hummm
thanks, all, for the comments - marlene, i think you're right about the parallel life and dreams - i read/heard that in cases of two people having the same dream on the same night, it is perhaps parallel worlds -
trish and rob - i love the precise term "weird" in describing the path of creativity - so appropro!
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