Spoiler Warning: This post will contain some spoilers for the movie – Mary Shelley. If you haven’t watched this movie, you might wish to stop reading now.
Mary Shelley is, of course, a movie about Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein, the book that started the science fiction genre. She was a teenager when she wrote that book and that’s the part of her life the movie dwells on.
This is NOT a documentary. Some artistic liberties have been taken as should be expected with any movie based on real people/events.
I tend to dread movies about writers because, if they’re realistic, they’re deadly boring (staring at blank pages isn’t very exciting – grins), and, if they’re fantasy, they make writing far more action-packed than it is.
This movie, however, gets so much right; I had no choice but love it.
One of the first moments that got my attention was how Mary’s father criticized her writing for being derivative. She was copying other writers’ voices, as many of us do when we first start writing. Her father tells her to find her own voice, to write stories in a way only she can.
It took me quite a while to find my own voice. Like Mary, I copied other writers’ voices. But that feels like wearing someone else’s clothes. It is awkward and unsustainable. Once I found my own voice, writing became much easier and more natural.
I now tell stories only I can. Even if another writer followed the same plot, her story would be different than mine because our voices are different.
I loved how we’re shown how Mary gathered the inspiration for Frankenstein. It isn’t a flash of genius as many movies depict it to be. She picks up bits and pieces throughout her life.
Mary’s mother died soon after childbirth. That prompts a fascination with death, with science, with medical knowledge, with the human body.
Mary is an outcast. She doesn’t fit into society. Frankenstein’s monster is an outcast also. He doesn’t fit into society. The situation might be fictional but the emotions are real. They are Mary’s emotions.
Dr. Frankenstein brings his monster to life. Mary gives birth to a daughter. She creates life.
Mary attends a demonstration showing how electricity can ‘reanimate’ a dead frog. That was the missing piece, the ‘science’ she needed for her story.
She collects bits of her story from her experiences and from the world around her. And then all of those pieces fall into place to create Frankenstein.
Once she has written the story, she hands it to her first critic—her husband. He reads it, praises it, and then asks her to change the story to one that is more ‘hopeful.’ What if the being Dr. Frankenstein created was an angel, a perfect being, and not a monster?
Oh my goodness. I think every writer has received critiques like that, critiques from people who might be talented but who don’t understand what we’re trying to achieve, the story we want to tell. Mary, to her credit, doesn’t take this terrible advice and leaves the being as the monster he was meant to be.
This movie covers other female and writer-related issues. Before she is published, for example, she struggles with her identity as a writer. Can she call herself a writer if she hasn’t published anything? After she has written Frankenstein, she receives rejection after rejection after rejection. People (i.e. male publishers) question that a young woman could write a story like Frankenstein.
I enjoyed Mary Shelley. I wished I had seen it in the theater, surrounded by other writers. That would have been an awesome experience.
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Doc’s Orders
She wants both sides of her cyborg—the medic AND the beast.
A fully functional cyborg is balanced. His machine half and his organic half work together to produce the perfect warrior.
Doc isn’t fully functional.
The G Model operates at the two extremes. When his machine is in complete control, he’s the logic-driven medic, saving lifespans. Once his organics take charge, he becomes the savage beast…and beings die.
Both sides of Doc want to be the first to claim his female.
Allinen is one of the few beings in her small settlement who wasn’t born with a fated mate. Determined to belong somewhere, she has crafted a plan to leave the planet.
That plan doesn’t involve a huge stormy-eyed male who alternates between cool seduction and out-of-control ravishment. Doc isn’t her fated mate. Allinen knows that. But his dual nature and forbidden embraces tempt her to forget forever and indulge in more immediate delights.
Neither side of Doc views their relationship as being temporary. Her conflicted cyborg is prepared to battle her family, her planet and death itself to keep her.
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