November 27, 2024
This post is part of my 30in30 challenge, where I write 30 minutes every day for 30 working days. Due to my limited time for this challenge, the content will be only very lightly researched and edited. The idea is to just write. Find my voice, and find the courage to publish. To follow my curiosity wherever it may take me.
One of my favorite quotes is by William Godwin, the English philosopher, novelist, journalist, and the father of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.
He that loves reading has everything within his reach. - William Godwin
Recently, I have been in the mood for a Gothic horror, and Frankenstein was literally within my arm's reach. Many of the nights lately were dreary nights of November, so that's really quite fitting.
It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. - Victor Frankenstein
I noticed something interesting while reading the introduction to the 1831 Frankenstein. Mary Shelley says as she describes where the idea for the story came from:
Night waned upon this talk, and even the witching hour had gone by, before we retired to rest. When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think. My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie.
Could Mary be describing hypnagogia, where she was neither awake nor fully asleep? Could Frankenstein be another fruit of the Twilight Zone?
It sounds like it to me!
I'm more and more tempted to experiment with invoking hypnagogia! Watch this space 😎.