"I saw him sometimes shudder with horror; at others a lively surprise, unmingled with disbelief, was painted on his countenance"

But alas, unlike the Magistrate, my countenance was never painted with anything but frustration and boredom. Gothic novels, like, say, Frankenstein, which I am reading tonight, are all to often like dark chocolate; too rich to be fully enjoyed, and too overwhelming to allow someone to finish it all. It's not that I'm stupid, it's that I don't like flowery, dreary, anticlimatic, look-at-me-I-can-use-nature-imagery-to-establish-mood, redundancy-filled novels about human suffering and the nature of man. Bah.

A pox on Shelley! A pox on Joseph Conrad!

I'm overstating here, but my point is still largely true. It was (very) well written, but it wasn't the kind of book I like; not my cup o' tea, as it were. And to be fair, I've never actually gotten through anything by Conrad -not that I haven't tried, though- so I guess I can't judge his writing style. Come to think of it, his stuff is dense, not Gothic. Eh.

Note the parallel between the "bah" paragraph and the "eh" paragraph. Look at me, I'm Mary Shelley, I can use parallel ideas to create contrast and support my themes!

Just kidding. She's a dead genius so she won't mind if I bash her a bit to boost my ego. I can't imagine what it would be like growing up when she did, in the early 19th century. I guess everyone had a huge vocabulary back then (and, if I believe Shelley, they all spoke the same way with only minor differences, regardless of class, but I'll lay off now), judging from the other stuff I've read from then. I mean, she was 19, maybe 20 when she wrote this.

And having just finished the last chapter, I am quite impressed.

I've got three classes tomorrow, actually I'm only allowed to take three courses this term. I have to get up early to move my car to a legal spot, then I have Calc II, then Quran (no, I signed up for it this summer, long before September; I don't suddenly feel a thousand year old religion is important just because of a few terrorists) and then Freshman Studies, and now that I have my required reading done, I can sleep for a few hours.