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Also this issue: Henry Rollins Polite Madness On The Money Change Is Good |
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February 6-12, 2003
mixpicks
The story of Frankenstein has a much greater depth than its legacy of campy cult cinema and bad Halloween costumes. An exhibit opening this weekend at Drexel's Hagerty Library investigates the original intent of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel ("the best book ever written by a teenager") versus the way it has been received by the public over time. A traveling series originating at the National Library of Medicine, "Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature," contrasts then and now through 1820s theatrical posters and 1930s film stills, as well as antiquated medical sketches and modern medical photography. It places the sensitive monster of the book alongside Boris Karloff's robotic screen portrayal and compares Shelley's commentary on 19th-century medical ethics with similar concerns today. "With all the debates about biotechnology and cloning, we're getting to the point where we can almost invent life," says Jenifer Baldwin, a Drexel librarian and local organizer of the exhibit. "We can do now what Shelley only imagined." To flesh out the exhibit at Hagerty, a lecture and film series is also planned over the next month. Topics include grave robbing, the use of organ transplants and perspectives on the human soul, as well as analyses of the Frankenstein films, Abbott and Costello and -- huh? -- My Fair Lady. "They're both experiments," says Baldwin. "[They share] the idea of creating something and having it turn out completely different than expected."
“Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature,” Feb. 7-March 21, Hagerty Library at Drexel University, 33rd and Market sts., 215-895-2755, www.library.drexel.edu/frankenstein.
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