Describing The Spectre

I chose a picture of the best-known actor in the most iconic representation of The Monster to illustrate this post. Boris Karloff was my introduction to Frankenstein. Chances are he was yours, too.

Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog is two years old today. I launched in the high summer of 2007 with a quote from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley:

“I busied myself to think of a story.... One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror — one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart…

What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow…

I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper."

I thought, then, that the quote did a good job of introducing the subject. Today, I find that it reads more like a mandate.

To paraphrase the author, I busied myself to think of stories that speak to our mysterious fears and our enduring fascination with the vast cultural universe created by Mary Shelley. I believed what had so engaged me would engage others and I have endeavored to describe the spectre, as it were, in all its manifestations.

Over the last two years, this site has logged over 240,000 visitors and some 375,000 page loads. I have met, exchanged and often made friends with fellow bloggers, scholars and historians, writers, critics and filmmakers, artists and creators, Monster Kids and Frankenstein fans. I am most grateful to those of you who have stepped up and subscribed to the blog through RSS, Google Friend Connect, MySpace, Networked Blogs, Facebook and Twitter. The combined number of registered “followers” currently stands at 1,987 and counting. Thank you all so very much for your continued interest and your precious support.

I have been honored me with blog awards like the Premio Dardos and, recently, the Honest Scrap Award. Please forgive me for rarely passing them on to other bloggers, as is usually prescribed by the award rules. I am simply too busy, most of the time, to participate, as I try to focus all my online energies to Frankensteinia itself. Check my blogroll, on the right hand column, for a permanent list of the blogs I most enjoy.

That being said, allow me to acknowledge Jeanette Laredo of the elegant and excellent Monster Land who kindly bestowed a Necronomicon Outstanding Blogs of Horror Award upon me, adding that my blog inspired her to launch her own. Thank you, Jeanette! Thanks also to Brian Solomon of the formidable The Vault of Horror who said mine was one of the first blogs he fell in love with, and thanks to my friend Gor Mandra of Draculand and Vade Retro Me Satana who also found inspiration in Frankensteinia (and Monster Crazy). I am utterly thrilled that my efforts have made ripples. Truly, this makes all the time and care spent on this project feel absolutely worthwhile. May I say, unpretentiously…. I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper.

Last year, I celebrated my first blog anniversary with the launch of a picture blog, Monster Crazy. Thanks, by the way, to all of you who visit there. This year, I celebrate the start of Year Three with a renewed commitment to you, dear readers, to put forward the best blog I can muster.