STORY TIME:
To give a little back ground. I have been taking a semester of Gothic Literature. One of the assignments was to choose one of the books we had read and to write a sequel. I chose Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
This was written during a summer in the Alps 1818 and the weather was abysmal. The suggestion was made that each of the folks present write a ghost story.
She was only 18 or so at the time. She was extremely well educated. Her mother was a famous Women's' Rights person who had written something on the order "Justification of the Rights of Women". Revolutionary work and very upsetting to the powerful mainly men who had total ownership of their wives and could do with them as they wished. The following is what is wrote for the assignment April 1999.
BIG MAN R. Alden
The hunting party found a large unconscious man lying on an ice floe. They saw that he had burned his hands and that his face had been badly stitched together in places.
The men talked among themselves and decided to take the big man with them and see if he would live or die. The hunters put him in the umiak and began paddling west. The man eventually awoke enough to understand that he must eat the raw seal meat or perish. So he ate the seal meat and the oil spread on his burns and gradually healed them.
The hunters paddled hard and sang songs and taught the man their words by pointing or demonstrating what the words meant. The man learned quickly and was soon thanking the hunters for sharing their meat with him.
Before long he was able to take part in the paddling of the boat. Occasionally they would stop on a large ice floe and hunt for more seal. One time a polar bear stalked them and tried to take the dead seal from them until the big man roared so fiercely that the bear was scared away. The hunters called him Big Man after that.
After many days they arrived at the place the hunters called home. It was a small village and everyone was very happy to see the hunters and made many exclamations over the big man that they brought back.
During the long trip the Big Man had time to think and decided that perhaps was not done with man. He decided to make his home with the people who he had come to admire and live. More importantly, the people seemed to accept Big Man for what he was, a man, if a bit larger than usual. No one seemed to mind his scars, many of the hunters bore scars of their own.
The children loved Big Man because he was so tall. They would clamber up his legs and on top of his shoulders to be able to see very far in the summer. It took many of the children to topple him to the ground in a wrestling match. Though he did struggle as hard as he might have.
Many years passed peacefully. Big Man became a valued member of the village. He became a skilled hunter and gatherer. He favored gathering berries and roots in the summer. The elder women taught him to recognize important plants fur curing various sicknesses. The people came to trust Big Man's wisdom and he was content.
In the simple ways of the people, he took a wife, once she had made him aware that she was attracted to him. His wife was happy with him and in time they had twelve children. The first five were named Victor, William, Justine, Elizabeth and Henry. He took his wife's advice for the names of the rest of the children.
When Big Man died he had twenty-five grandchildren and five great grand-children, all of whom were a little taller than average and very, very strong
.
When Big Man died he was buried in the sky, they had saved several whale ribs and were able to construct a suitable bier. He had made baskets of baleen and several small ivory carvings. Most mysterious of all his belongs was a leather bound book. The book contained his writings and many drawings. These were left with him as well.
Many years went by and the village was eventually abandoned.
White man's civilization came to the area a hundred years later. Scientists and anthropologists came to study the archeology site.
Big Man's collapsed sky burial was found and his belongings catalogued and the book was filed under the description: leather bound journal labeled "Frankenstein, V", where is remains carefully filed away in the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska.
One of the anthropologist's notes from that period report the body of a well preserved large man wrapped in furs, his teeth were good and he had black hair. The autopsy findings noted many healed scars and theorized that the man had suffered these injuries and survived well into old age tended by members of a surprisingly caring society and extended family.
Addendum: My professor, Mr. Turner, said he thought the first line sounded like the beginning of a joke i.e. "A Rabbi, a minister and a priest were all on an ice floe.." He also thought the idea was original in that Frankenstein's monster found acceptance among the Inupiat. He also suggested a bit more back plot to explain how he came to be alone on the ice. And it would be helpful for the reader to have read the original Frankenstein. I agree.
THE END
To give a little back ground. I have been taking a semester of Gothic Literature. One of the assignments was to choose one of the books we had read and to write a sequel. I chose Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
This was written during a summer in the Alps 1818 and the weather was abysmal. The suggestion was made that each of the folks present write a ghost story.
She was only 18 or so at the time. She was extremely well educated. Her mother was a famous Women's' Rights person who had written something on the order "Justification of the Rights of Women". Revolutionary work and very upsetting to the powerful mainly men who had total ownership of their wives and could do with them as they wished. The following is what is wrote for the assignment April 1999.
BIG MAN R. Alden
The hunting party found a large unconscious man lying on an ice floe. They saw that he had burned his hands and that his face had been badly stitched together in places.
The men talked among themselves and decided to take the big man with them and see if he would live or die. The hunters put him in the umiak and began paddling west. The man eventually awoke enough to understand that he must eat the raw seal meat or perish. So he ate the seal meat and the oil spread on his burns and gradually healed them.
The hunters paddled hard and sang songs and taught the man their words by pointing or demonstrating what the words meant. The man learned quickly and was soon thanking the hunters for sharing their meat with him.
Before long he was able to take part in the paddling of the boat. Occasionally they would stop on a large ice floe and hunt for more seal. One time a polar bear stalked them and tried to take the dead seal from them until the big man roared so fiercely that the bear was scared away. The hunters called him Big Man after that.
After many days they arrived at the place the hunters called home. It was a small village and everyone was very happy to see the hunters and made many exclamations over the big man that they brought back.
During the long trip the Big Man had time to think and decided that perhaps was not done with man. He decided to make his home with the people who he had come to admire and live. More importantly, the people seemed to accept Big Man for what he was, a man, if a bit larger than usual. No one seemed to mind his scars, many of the hunters bore scars of their own.
The children loved Big Man because he was so tall. They would clamber up his legs and on top of his shoulders to be able to see very far in the summer. It took many of the children to topple him to the ground in a wrestling match. Though he did struggle as hard as he might have.
Many years passed peacefully. Big Man became a valued member of the village. He became a skilled hunter and gatherer. He favored gathering berries and roots in the summer. The elder women taught him to recognize important plants fur curing various sicknesses. The people came to trust Big Man's wisdom and he was content.
In the simple ways of the people, he took a wife, once she had made him aware that she was attracted to him. His wife was happy with him and in time they had twelve children. The first five were named Victor, William, Justine, Elizabeth and Henry. He took his wife's advice for the names of the rest of the children.
When Big Man died he had twenty-five grandchildren and five great grand-children, all of whom were a little taller than average and very, very strong
.
When Big Man died he was buried in the sky, they had saved several whale ribs and were able to construct a suitable bier. He had made baskets of baleen and several small ivory carvings. Most mysterious of all his belongs was a leather bound book. The book contained his writings and many drawings. These were left with him as well.
Many years went by and the village was eventually abandoned.
White man's civilization came to the area a hundred years later. Scientists and anthropologists came to study the archeology site.
Big Man's collapsed sky burial was found and his belongings catalogued and the book was filed under the description: leather bound journal labeled "Frankenstein, V", where is remains carefully filed away in the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska.
One of the anthropologist's notes from that period report the body of a well preserved large man wrapped in furs, his teeth were good and he had black hair. The autopsy findings noted many healed scars and theorized that the man had suffered these injuries and survived well into old age tended by members of a surprisingly caring society and extended family.
Addendum: My professor, Mr. Turner, said he thought the first line sounded like the beginning of a joke i.e. "A Rabbi, a minister and a priest were all on an ice floe.." He also thought the idea was original in that Frankenstein's monster found acceptance among the Inupiat. He also suggested a bit more back plot to explain how he came to be alone on the ice. And it would be helpful for the reader to have read the original Frankenstein. I agree.
THE END
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