Frankenstein & Pynchon & V.

[Doug Millison]

I just finished re-reading Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary
Shelley, in part because a copy literally fell off the shelf into my hands
the other day, and because I had recently looked again at Pynchon's "Is It
OK to be a Luddite?" essay. As I read the novel, I was thinking specifically
of P's comment:  "The story of how he got to be so Bad is the heart of the
novel, sheltered innermost: told to Victor in the first person by the
creature himself, then nested inside of Victor's own narrative, which is
nested in its turn in the letters of the arctic explorer Robert Walton."
What is it that makes V. Frankenstein's creation Bad?  Frankenstein rejects
his creation because of its appearance; after a series of rebuffs by humans,
who respond with fear to the monster's attempts to befriend them,
Frankenstein's creation grows embittered and decides to make life miserable
for his creator:  love thwarted and twisted into a desire for vengeance
which grows murderous when Frankenstein refuses to create a mate for his
original creation. P calls the novel a "warning of what can happen when
technology, and those who practice it, get out of hand."  But I think there
may be more going on re the way Frankenstein works its way into P's novels.

Frankenstein might be seen to connect with Vineland and M&D.  One of
Vineland's threads is the Gnostic heresy which sees this world as a flawed
creation from which the Creator retreats -- the Lillith (the real first
woman, who came before Eve) story is part of this Gnostic heritage. Vineland
also revisits the Godzilla myth, another "monster" that finds its genesis in
humankind's messing with technology in ways it shouldn't.  In M&D we see
Pynchon nesting a Gothic story, bringing its characters into the frame
story, The Captive's Tale; P brings in the Golem, too, if I remember
correctly. Victor Frankenstein is inspired by the natural philosophers of
his day; that's what Mason and Dixon do for a living, of course.  F's desire
to get at and understand the ultimate mystery  reminds me a bit of Pointsman
in GR.

Pynchon's V. at one level is the story of Stencil's search for V., who is
V.? Where is V.? Frankenstein the novel is at one level about the effort of
Frankenstein's creation (I hesitate to use the word "monster" because it
seems to loaded) to discover who he is, what place he has in the world.  V.
arrives at the disassembly of the novel's eponymous character, while F. the
novel concerns F's assembly and animation of his creation.  Perhaps others
will have something to say about Frankenstein and V.