We’re coming to
the close of this first month of the new year and, as we look back,
we’ll see that January has been filled with both joy and sadness in
sci fi and fantasy culture.
Frankenstein 200th Anniversary
The first day of
2018 actually marked the 200th anniversary of Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein! And the world seems to be celebrating.
Universities and other intellectual institutions all over the world
are commemorating the event, including the library in my own home
area of Sacramento! Even the U. K.’s Royal Mint is making a 2-pound coin that will
commemorate the book. However, unlike the U.S. Postal Service with its Frankenstein
stamp that it released as part of its Universal Studios Monster
collection years ago, the coin won’t bear the image of the Monster
as Fortune.com claims. If Fortune is right about this then I suggest
that our fellow horror geeks on the British Isles circulate a
petition demanding to put the Monster’s image on the coin! Without
the Monster, where would Mary Shelley’s story story have gone?
Victor Frankenstein’s creature itself has become iconic not only in
horror and sci fi, but throughout pop culture in general.
Frankenstein
was first published January 1st 1818. Since then, the
novel has influenced speculative fiction. When the Universal film
adaptation came out in the 1930s, the story influenced pop culture in
general. However, Universal’s film wasn’t the original as most
people may think. The original movie adaptation was a silent film
made in 1910 and instead of the monster being made with the parts of
corpses and brought to life by lightning, it was made by mixing
chemicals in a cauldron! However, neither of these two versions’
creation of the monster stay completely true to the book. In the
book, Victor Frankenstein does not reveal to anyone, reader included,
how he brought the monster to life in fear of someone repeating his
“mistake”.
New Background for the Site
At the beginning of
the year I said that one of my resolutions was to give the Fantastic
Site a new look which hopefully you’ve noticed by now. As much as I
like the subject matter of the new blog background, there are a few
things that concern me about it. However, I won’t tell you what
they are because I want to give you a chance to tell me what you like
about the new background
and what you don’t like about it. If enough of you don’t like it
too much, I’ll chose another one.
So let me know what you think in the box below (the comments box,
that is).
Ursula Le Guin Dies at 88
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| Credit: Wikipedia.org |
Sadly, the year has
started with the loss of one of the greatest science fiction/fantasy
writers of all time a week ago today—Ursula Le Guin. Ms. Le Guin
was one of the early feminist science fiction writers of modern
times. She was a writer of high quality speculative fiction that
explores social and cultural issues and how the future could be
shaped by them. One of Le Guin’s most famous and award winning
novels was The Left Hand of Darkness which, according to
io9.com, will be made into a TV mini series.
Next time, I hope to
have some great sci fi/fantasy news to begin the new month of
February and I’ll fill you in more on my own writing projects.
Until then!
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