“I don't know why it is that Frankenstein's monster is my go-to guy to fight the blues” writes Arbogast, in a short post that manages, intuitively, to capture the meaning of The Monster, a metaphorical stand-in for the rejected, the oppressed, the lonely, the sad.
Needing to Feel Better… is a concise, wonderful reflection.
Meanwhile, The Monster as metaphor, and more precisely as a metaphor in American culture and its “racial resonance in the United States”, is the subject of Black Frankenstein, by Elizabeth Young, from New York University Press.
This is the real stuff, hardcore scholarship, meticulously researched. It’s a fascinating, provocative and challenging book.
I am currently plowing through this one and I’ll post a proper review when I’m done reading and thinking on it. Here’s the NYU page for Black Frankenstein, where you can access the book’s chapter-length introduction.
For those of you eager to dive in, Black Frankenstein is out now and its available through the Frankenstore.
No comments:
Post a Comment