4/17 notes – Frankenstein at 200

Disorienting structure – not really chronological – we have a now, and a then, but not the intervening events
No transitional moment
Stream-of-consciousness, first person narrator
- We don’t seem to be the audience – the narrator seems to be his own audience
- Almost feels poetic in its lack of adherence to chronological narrative – or not. Interiority.
- Why does the author choose this narrative structure?
  - Feels more realistic, more human – which makes sense, we assume he’s the last human
  - We are disoriented because our narrator is disoriented
  - Apocalypse tends to be describes as very sudden – narrators try to adjust – perhaps breakdown of narrative self – lack of cohesion
- Is there significance to the chapter titles?
  - Flotsam – he is sort human flotsam
    - Describes other people as Crakers
    - Attaching memories to humanity – jumping from memory to memory – fragments of memory
    - Crakers go through flotsam to collect material
      - Snowman gives nonsensical explanations for what they find
      - Old meanings don’t matter anymore – everything he’s ever is irrelevant garbage
      - He’s alone, looking to keep himself busy – entertainment, almost at their expense
      - They want to know what’s dangerous
    - Definition 2b: “miscellaneous or unimportant material; a notebook filled with flotsamand jetsam”
  - Feathers
    - they’re making up their own fantasies about him – treating him like a mythical creature
    - their stories make him different but also sympathetic
    - he is free to make up random b.s. about the world – they’re taking the flotsam of his explanation and trying to spin it into a narrative about the world – sense-making
    - is he being sarcastic to protect what’s left of his humanity?
  - Are the Crakers human?
    - No?
    - Genetically modified humans, probably
    - Depends on how we define human
      - Does following religion make them human? The stories that they make up sort of seem like the beginning of a religion
      - Biologically can they breed with humans?
      - Depends on whether we consider humans special as a life form and if so why?
    - They were imagined by humans first
    - Are the pigoons human? If they’re more than 50% human organs, are they human?
    - Crakers have language that Snowman can understand and pigoons do not
  - First memory of duck boots
    - Shows Jimmy’s moral discomfort with harming animals that aren’t even real – insight into his relationship to animals – feels sympathy for things that don’t exist
    - Gives story credibility – relatable moment – developing mind doesn’t quite distinguish between real and not real – a very human experience
    - Humans are supposed to care for others even when they can’t feel – it makes us human to imagine that they can feel – much like he relates to pigoons because he imagines that they don’t understand what’s going on either – much like the Crakers project their understanding of the world onto Snowman
    - Immediate connection to the animals being burned – first understanding of death is a mass death
    - Anything with eyes looks back at him – eyes are processing that he is there as well? Winnicott – mirror theory – we can project our image onto it because it has eyes
  - What’s the significance of the name Snowman?
    - Abominable – shouldn’t exist – thought up – doesn’t have a place in the current world
    - “I’m melting!” – mortality – they eventually die – some relationship to climate change
    - more b.s. because he can and it doesn’t matter