FRANKISSSTEIN

The object of the present text is to provide a personal interpretation of Frankissstein, a postmodern novel written by Jeanette Winterson in 2019.

It is not meant to give definitive answers but only some possible conjectures about Frankissstein, supported by textual references and analysis.

To start with the title, it reminds to the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley (1816-1818).Therefore the reader may understand the novel is a science fiction with the presence of the creation of something new. The title is formed by the words “Fran”, “kiss , “Stein”. The reader can suppose the novel is a love story.

Moving to front cover, the reader notices the wallpaper is blue (it reminds to him a mysterious sensation) with red and fuchsia writings; the color red refers to blood (life’s essence) and fuchsia (inspiration and sensuality). Moreover there is a white line probably Frankenstein’s scar covered by three red XXX which may be stitches to cicatrize.

“A love story” is in small to make the reader understand the love story is not the topic. Turing the book, the back cover has the same color. An important aspect is the quotation “I AM WHAT I AM, BUT WHAT I AM IS NOT ONE THING, NOT ONE GENDER. I LIVE WITH DOUBLENESS”. Therefore one of the novel’s topic are the multiples identities which change according to our relationships and through a “web of discourses”( Nice Work by David Lodge).

According to the title and to the book’s covers, the novel is a revisitation of Frankenstein, consequently past influences present. An other novel’s topic is the love story, it is difficult to understand the novel is based on doubleness and duality.

Opening the book, the quotation “We may lose and we may win though we will never be here again” Eagles, “Take It Easy” belongs to the song “Take It Easy” written by Eagles, a rock band from Los Angeles born in Seventeens. The possible meaning may be that life is in people’s mind and it is impossible to live an eternal life. In addition the novel may be about some tentatives to live an eternal life.

Moving now to the structure, it is organized into two plots: the first one is about Mary Shelley writing her novel Frankenstein and in the second one J. Winterson gives voice to Ry Shelley, a transgender doctor dealing with Artificial Intelligence.

There is a parallelism between the two parts introduced by subtitles to distinguish them.

Frankissstein constantly shifts between past and present: the first part is set in Lake Geneva in 1816 and 1818 . It represents past while the second part is set in Great Britain at Brexit Time and across the Atlantic in Phoenix and Arizona in the 21st century. It represents the present.

There is a parallelism also between the characters of the two plots: the characters of the first part are Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein. She wrote Frankenstein in 1816 when she was at Lake Geneva (Switzerland) from 1816 to 1818 with her husband, her stepsister Claire Clairmont, Lord Byron, an English politic and poet, Polidori who was a doctor. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein after a visit to a castle in Geneva with her husband, where a man told them the story of a monster. The main topic is the creation of a new life from Victor Frankenstein; he creates a monster( symbol of people’s scares about new technologies and new world’s progression). In addition MARY SHELLEY believes in the power of the abstract substance of life, the soul and the mind.She shows itself through nature, desire, language.

The characters of the second part are Ry Shelley, who is a transgender doctor. His name comes from the last two letters of Mary and it not define a sex gender. Claire is a secretary, Victor Stein a cryogenesis scientist, an artificial intelligence doctor who find some methods to extend people life , Lord Ron who is a sex robots’ creator and last but not least Polly D. who works for Vanity Fair. Moreover RY SHELLEY is an open-minded transgender attracted and scared at the same time by the unknown and progress. A transgender who believes in the power of desire.

VICTOR STEIN is a man who believes in the power of the human mind and desires and wants to make human brain immortal.

Moving to the narrative techniques and strategies, there is a first person narrator: in the first part J.W gives voice to Mary Shelley. In the second part to RyShelley. She used a mixture of formal and informal registers, postmodernist attitude, to make the narration suitable to the context. It is also used a rhetorical language(hyperboles, metaphors, similes, alliterations, irony).The litotes are used to make concepts clear, to add meaning to narration, to provide a more effective image of topics, to allow full comprehension and to create a specific atmosphere. The frequent use of double meaning expressions is used to convey the doubleness the novel. Jeanette Winterson used both telling, showing and dialogue and a lot of descriptions to create visual images in the reader’s mind. In addition there are the body languages’ exaltation to express characters emotions and intentions, the use of different expressions according to the situation and words belonging to the semantic field of sex, science, mystery, innovation. The stream of consciousness (not linear concept of time but a simultaneous one —> the present is affected by your past and future expectations and you grow up accordingly to your past experiences, you are embedded in a net of discourses, the ones of your family, community, society and circles you live in), self reflexivity, retro, the concept of relativity: every mind is a world and the World is made of one’s interpretations of reality.

According to the novel’s topic, the reader may notice that both Mary Shelley and Ry Shelley asks the same essential life questions: “How are men and women different?”, “Is reality concrete or is it just a human mind interpretation?”, “How can A.I. help the human being?”, “How is man possessor of his future?”, “Can man know all the secrets of human mind?”. In addition the writer focus the attention on people’s interpretation of consciousness as something which both mysterious and significant in human mind. In addition there are explained some of nowadays problems and news, such as cryogenics and new efforts to extend life, individual freedom and freedom of expression , man’s desire to create and control his own creation, the double faced nature of Artificial Intelligence, gender identity and trans humanism, dualism and doubleness, the nature of humanity, love and the presence of intertextuality.

All things considered, I think that Jeanette Winterson provides the concept that the future is not as far as people think and the world is an ever changing reality. People want to create new form of life but they are not always aware that artificial intelligence may escape man’s total control. In addition nowadays most of people appeal to cryogenics to extend their life. Many human being’s body are iced to live an other timethanks to science.

Last but not least one of the main topic is that reality is water-soluble and it exists in people’s mind only where everything is settled (memories, suffering, pains, emotions, situations, hope…)

The presence of the rain reminds to the analogy between reality and water. Reality exists only in people minds there is not a unique world but it constantly changes according to people’s interpretations.