Thorsday, July the 19th.
Funny that I should start reading Mary Shelley’s work not with the essential “Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus” but with a small compilation of gothic stories she wrote, known as “The Mortal Immortal & Other Stories”. I am admittedly just getting into reading frequently, as it had proved to be a taste I’d take sometime into acquiring.
I can positively say that by the second story -“A Tale of the Passions”- I was heartbroken. It’s a stark contrast to Robert E. Howard’s dry brutality or H.P. Lovecraft’s cruel cosmic indifference, both of which I was reading before I jumped to Shelley’s work. Knowing almost nothing about genres or literary terminology save for what I’ve heard or read on the internet (the most reliable source ever in the history of mankind), I feared I wouldn’t know how to properly appreciate what I was reading, but on the contrary, while I’m not sure I fully grasp each story’s concepts until a second or third reading, I still do experience a great deal of emotions once I get into the stories, and it makes me feel almost as if I was a little kid, again. Both in the best and worst possible way. The way Shelley just throws her characters into the most overwhelming emotions makes me think it’s herself who was giving in to some pretty strong feelings with an intensity I didn’t think words alone could convey (silly old me). When I read about her life that assumption was pretty much confirmed.
I’m a little glad I’m just getting into reading on my own terms and not by someone else’s suggestion, because I feel the second someone starts telling you things like “you should read more”, “but don’t read this, this is bad” or “instead read this, this is good”, “I hate this author”, etc., no matter how stubborn you are, your taste is forever tainted with that person’s opinion, even if only a little bit. I instead take lone trips to the bookstore and just pick up whatever sparks my interest, or I ask people I know have similar a taste to my own in other forms of entertainment, such as film or table-top rpg’s.
There will probably be art. Reading makes me want to draw. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising.
