Curious, how do you shelve? Alphabetically? By title or author? Read and unread together, or separated? Do you have a “Short List” section? Or do you prefer random? (Shudders)

Back when I had reals (they’ve almost all been replaced on digital now and donated to the library book sales), I could never decide and would change them all the time. It was 4 six foot shelves, so it was a lot.

I recently did a post here asking for everyone's takes on what Frankenstein is about. Sadly, I only got one comment, so I thought I'd do my own research. Here's pt. I

Queer - parable of repressed queerness and being transgender

Historical context Mary Shelley is speculated to have been bisexual. She was also friends with Lord Byron, a famous bisexual, and she was married to Percy Shelley, who is speculated to have been queer. Being gay carried a death sentence in England at the time she was alive, and Lord Byron fled England with one of the reasons being rumours about him having relationships with men.

Most of Frankenstein's discourse focuses on the father-son relationship between Victor and the Creature. A queer reading recontexualises it as a relationship between a man and his repressed homosexuality. Victor pursues the creation of life (maybe by extension - procreation) without the aid of the female body. He turns heterosexual sex as something unnecessary. However, once he manages this non-heterosexual sex act, he’s immediately disgusted, prompting him to reject his creation, a metaphor for internalised homophobia. The Creature acts as a symbol of Victor’s sexuality - it hunts him, pursues him, he’s unable to escape it until the day he dies.

Another reading is that the Creature is a metaphor for transgender identity. The Creature laments being made of “horrid contrasts.” He represents body dysmorphia, where the body is alien and treacherous. However, the body is only evil because of the judgment of other people rather than internal immorality.

“The transsexual body is an unnatural body. It is flesh torn apart and sewn together again in a shape other than that in which it was born. I will say this as bluntly as I know how: I am a transsexual, and therefore I am a monster.” Susan Stryker (”My Words to Victor Frankestein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage”).

Race and Ethnicity - the black slave and dangerous Other

Historical context Both Mary and Percy wanted to see an end to slavery. They abstained from using sugar as a form of protest to distance themselves from the goods of the Atlantic slave trade.

In this reading, Creature is a different race, running amok and threatening the safety of Europeans. It’s a stand-in for European anxieties about slave revolts and enslaved people who made their way into Europe.

Frankenstein is physically contrasted with a yellow-skinned Creature who he immediately deems inferior based on his appearance (while the Creature is supposed to be beautiful, there’s still something uncanny about it). Frankestein creates the Creature by extracting it from a its natural homeland (graves, cemeteries?) and bringing it into subservience in a foreign land of Europe. Walton describes Creature in the book as “savage inhabitant of some undiscovered land”. It plays on the fear that the slaves will invade the civilised society in search of revenge. Alternatively, that they will demand independence and acknowledgment of their place in society.

Like the enslaved person, the Creature is denied control and fulfillment in sexuality. Slave families were routinely broken up, reproduction was controlled, marriage and parenting was rarely permitted. Victor refuses to create a partner for the Creature because “a race of devils would be propagated on the earth, who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror.” Further beyond slavery, it touches on eugenics and forced sterilisation of Black Americans as well as 2020s concerns about the diminishing white population in comparison to non-white people worldwide.

I haven’t read Frankenstein in ages, so I’ll have to re-read it in that way, but just remembering bits and pieces, watching the recent film, and getting some passages from the Internet, I can see the Creature as a story of mixed race child, specifically a child of a white slaver and an enslaved woman. The lack of the mother, the abusive father, who is partly in awe, partly in disgust for his son. The son’s need to get recognition for being human from his father. In a way, it’s very reminiscent of Heathcliff’s story in Wuthering Heights.

With the end of the year fast approaching, tell us about your reading goals for 2026! Got a certain number of books you want to read? New genres? Any books you’re excited for? What about new book resolutions? Please feel free to share them here! I’ll start: I want to read at least 20 books this year. I want to try reading longer books, which has always intimidated me (800-1000 pages). Maybe try my hand at science fiction (mostly I’m a fantasy and horror girly). And the book I’m most excited to get my hands on is The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow!