Monster Mash

SUNDAY MATINEE:  We had lots to try to get done (as usual) around the house on Sunday, but in the morning, I remembered I'd responded to a Facebook-posted event for a screening of the Mel Brooks' movie "Young Frankenstein" at the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) for that afternoon. When I signed us up to attend, it was because the movie is a hoot, and I figured CJ and Annabelle would enjoy it. 

Come Sunday, I honestly didn't really feel like going, but when I reminded Christian, he was a big "Yes!" And so, we went.

The movie was funny, as always, but, gosh, the lectures before were amazing! I'm so glad we attended!

Before we showed up at MoPOP, I vaguely remembered that the event started with some sort of book talk and signing. 

At 2 p.m. sharp, artist Bryan Moore was introduced. He had just completed a lovely bronze bust of Mary Shelley, author of "Frankenstein," for the museum. Annabelle can tell you more about that. 

Bryan Moore is a sculptor and artist known for his elaborate bronze busts of horror and sci-fi authors. On October 21^st, he unveiled a bust of Mary Shelley (famous author of Frankenstein) at the Museum of Pop Culture, AKA MoPOP, in Seattle. The bust was done in honor of the original manuscript’s second centennial, as it was written in 1818. He based his bust on one of the few paintings of her, as while photos existed during her life she didn’t have any taken. Her most famous portrait shows her wearing a violet brooch, which Moore replicated in the detailed bust. During the unveiling, he also noted her sad expression – possibly due to how much death she faced in life. She had two miscarriages, her only living child died young, her husband Percy Shelley drowned, and his first wife had committed suicide. Bryan Moore somewhat exaggerated her face, yet still faithfully sculpted her hair tucked behind her ears much like most paintings of her.

He mentioned how difficult it was to create a bust with so few reference angles, but the result is stunning. While the dress is a blend of ones featured in other portraits, the face is a perfectly stylized version of her expression in the image. This same style is shown in his other projects, which can be found on http://www.theartofbryanmoore.com/, or his Facebook page. Bryan Moore has also created busts of famous authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker. The Bram Stoker bust is currently located in MoPOP’s “Scared to Death: The Thrill of Horror Film” exhibit, and the Mary Shelley bust that was revealed will go on display in the same museum very soon.

Bust photo courtesy of Bryan Moore

Here's a video I found on YouTube from Bryan Moore about the bust. (Interestingly, it looks like the bust was dedicated a bit later than originally planned.)

Below is a photo of the sculptor and his daughter shortly after the unveiling.

Next up on the program was a fascinating talk from Leslie S. Klinger. CJ can share more about that portion of the program.

On 21 October 2018, my family went to MoPop's JBL Theater for three purposes: The first being to see the unveiling of a bust of Mary Shelley (best known as the author of Frankenstein), the second being to hear a presentation given by renowned author Leslie S. Klinger (and later buy his annotated version of Frankenstein,) and the third to view a screening of the classic horror-comedy film Young Frankenstein. In this essay, I will be primarily writing about Klinger:

Leslie S. Klinger, according to his website, is "considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, H. P. Lovecraft, Frankenstein, and the history of mystery and horror fiction." Klinger has received a number of awards over the course of his career, including, according to his website, "[the] Edgar for Best Critical-Biographical Book in 2005 for The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories and the Anthony for Best Anthology in 2015 for In the Company of Sherlock Holmes (co-edited with Laurie R. King) and two nominations for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Nonfiction book." In addition, Klinger has also worked as an attorney for. At the event that I attended, Klinger promoted his book The New Annotated Frankenstein with a lecture about Mary Shelley's life.

Shelley was born in England on 30 August 1797 to feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft (who died less than a month after Shelley's birth) and anarchist philosopher William Godwin. Following Wollstonecraft's death, Godwin was left to raise his daughter on his own. According to Klinger, Godwin was the kind of parent to treat a library as a (partial) substitute for parenting. In fact, Klinger remarked that he doesn't think Godwin would've been much of a "hugger," so to say. At the age of 17, Shelley began a relationship with Percy Shelley (a follower of the theories of William Godwin,) with whom she had four children (only one of whom, Percy Florence Shelley, lived to adulthood.)

There are two primary versions of the Frankenstein text. There is the 1818 version, published when Shelley was 21, and the 1831 revised version, published when Shelley was 34. There are a number of differences (a short summary of which can be found here) between the versions published a baker's dozen years apart.

During the Questions and Answers part of the lecture, I asked Klinger if he preferred the 1818 or the 1831 version of the Frankenstein text. Klinger replied with the 1818 version, stating that it is more "raw" than the revised version.

There was also a version of Frankenstein called the Thomas text, in between the 1818 and 1831 versions. Shelley started with a rewrite, and abandoned it, leaving it with 

If you'd like to learn a little bit more about Shelley, here's a link to a short video:
https://www.biography.com/video/mary-shelley-female-fright-writer-21400131545

Another thing we learned on Sunday is that thanks to the Shelley-Godwin Archive, anyone can read all the known manuscripts of Frankenstein. Fortunately, each hand-written page comes accompanied by a typed transcript.

Below is page one of version one of Frankenstein, 1818: http://shelleygodwinarchive.org/contents/frankenstein/

Shelley, M. W. "Frankenstein, Volume I", in The Shelley-Godwin Archive, MS. Abinger c. 56, 4r. Retrieved from http://shelleygodwinarchive.org/sc/oxford/frankenstein/volume/i/#/p1

IN MEMORANDUM: Since it has just been days since MoPOP founder Paul G. Allen passed away, I expected to find some sort of memorial to him during our visit to the museum on Sunday. Sure enough, on the main floor, adjacent to the amazing, multi-story column of instruments, there was a rather tiny sign. It wasn't even the size of an 8.5x11 piece of paper. 

They gave nod to two of Allen's most prized possessions - the original (discolored!) Spock uniform from "Star Trek" (the original series) ... 

 And the guitar that Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock. What a gem!