Talk:2799: Frankenstein Claim Permutations

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Expanding on 1589: Frankenstein, clearly. Trimeta (talk) 03:17, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

The last permutation is a garden path sentence that starts off talking about the TV show Doctor Who. 162.158.62.175 03:21, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

"The [unnamed] Doctor Who [Dr. Who might be a function title like Q and M in the James Bond Franchises] [whom] creates Mary Shelly in Frankenstein's novel". Does this mean Frankenstein is the original creator of the Dr. Who universe? IIVQ (talk) 12:49, 8 July 2023 (UTC)


The title text seems straightforward enough to me, anyways: "No, the doctor (who creates Mary Shelley (in Frankenstein's novel)) doesn't have a name." Not much of a garden path sentence at all. 172.70.34.187 03:43, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

The best part of this comic is that every last one of these claims is wrong. In the original novel, Victor Frankenstein is an obsessive undergrad, notably with no medical degree. 172.71.151.35 03:54, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

You could argue rather that Walton and Saville were the names of the authors. The monster Shelly created was named Victor von Frankenstein. The tragic hero was unnamed. EebstertheGreat (talk) 04:02, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

Pretty sure that Randall saw the image of the misprinted book where the title is Mary Shelly, and the author is Frankenstein. 172.71.151.35 06:54, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

See here: https://twitter.com/MedCrisis/status/1511644464544104452?t=B23sq4iftXXWPdSKYCqOyg&s=19

Svízel přítula (talk) 08:46, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

I doubt that's an actual misprint, probably photoshopped as a joke, which then inspired this comic that explores all the permutations. Barmar (talk) 14:03, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

No, Frankenstein is the name of the novel created by the monster (according to her sleepless readers) Mary Shelley. 172.68.34.38 08:12, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

The second permutation could be read in the "the scientist who abandoned his creation is the real monster" sense. --172.69.62.28 11:19, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

The Doctor joined the Who and married Shelley, the inventor of Monster energy drinks. 108.162.237.102 12:28, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

Very funny (I'd like to read that book myself) but ironic to be so aware of this controversy of detail without ever acknowledging that *Frankenstein is actually a student not a doctor.*

Should the title text explanation be after the table? —Purah126 (talk) 13:38, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

I think the "I would read this book" permutation is because it's a "meta" novel, and Randall loves meta stuff. Barmar (talk) 14:05, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

I swear, ever since I read 1589: Frankenstein I've WANTED it to come up, to say "THIS is my canon", LOL! It's rather inconvenient that the monster is unnamed, and if he were it wouldn't be the more logical TITULAR name. I mean, at Hallowe'en kids tend to dress as the monster - though I've seen at least one thing (I want to guess Young Sheldon, or perhaps Old Sheldon, i.e. Big Bang Theory) where someone dressed as Victor and was like "I SAID I was dressing as Frankenstein!". :) NiceGuy1 (talk) 04:38, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

"Intelligence is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Frankenstein *is* the monster." Fittingly, History and Investigation are Intelligence-based, while Insight is Wisdon-based. --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 08:59, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

The unanswered question is, who is the victor?172.70.85.131 11:27, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

Name of the monster

(cut and pasted from Main page Talk, where it was erroneously added)

It's worth pointing out, that although the Monster didn't have a name in Mary Shelly's original book, a derivative work did give the monster a name.

Specifically, Herman.

Further, it's worth pointing out that although the monster was not a begotten son of Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein was the only parent the monster had, so by tradition, his last name would also be Frankenstein.

So the monster's name is, by reason, "Herman Frankenstein"...

at least until he changes his name, such as getting married and taking his spouse's name. 172.71.142.29 (talk) ...02:44, 9 July 2023 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It's a throwaway comment, and one which most readers seem to overlook, but the Creature IS named, exactly ONCE in the book: his name is Adam. It comes up in a conversation where the Creature says (I'm paraphrasing), "You called me Adam, I'd rather be called Satan now." The names are chosen by Shelley quite deliberately - Adam is mythologically the 'first' man, while 'satan' means 'enemy'. It marks the shift in their relationship to the adversarial one which will result in both their deaths. 172.69.79.147 04:45, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

I believe the phrase goes "I ought to be thy Adam" (my emphasis), and it's in reported speech as conveyed by Victor (as further conveyed by the Captain) so it might even be a matter of Unreliable Narrator(s) being more poetic than accurate, anyway. But the self-claiming in the full phrase is more solidly for that of deciding to take on the name of Satan than for Adam (which is given as a prior option, but maybe one not actually previously adopted). There's no real idea what Victor might have ever dubbed his 'newborn' (if indeed he did have any intent to do so), nor what name the pre-Creature being may have gone by before he became Victor's experiments – which could be considered technically valid, even if his conscious identity was indeed wiped/reset by the death-and-revival(-and-'improvement'?) phase of his existence. 172.71.178.169 09:42, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

"Not worth getting mad about IMO"? What's with the "IMO"? Not saying I don't agree, but it seems wrong to include an opinion here, especially with the "IMO". Trogdor147 (talk) 01:29, 11 July 2023 (UTC)