You Are Not Illiterate

‘Frankenstein2 or The Monster of Main Stream’ is a new novel that is being created using all and only the words from Mary Shelley’s 1831 work, ‘Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus’.

Work in progress…

ANNABEL FREARSON

FRANKENSTEIN2 OR THE MONSTER OF MAIN STREAM

CHAPTER I

I am by birth a Genevese and I even bore myself. I am not what you would call a people person. My Play Station console has become my best friend. I also enjoy watching the Discovery Channel. Beyond that my life is pretty.. whatever. I have worked in various branches of various banks. At the moment I am head of credit control at the Abbey National in Slough. I get a rise out of Sex and the City but otherwise do not see much action. I once had a thing with this woman I met through the lonely-hearts pages. She had a great ass but that’s about as far as it went. If I had to state a preference, Caprice would be my favourite model. When it comes to music, soft rock really does it for me, especially Queen. Although I do confess to having danced to West Life and Steps at the office party last year. In my youth I listened to Madness, The Human League, Tears for Fears, even Joy Division in my more left-field days. I own a Coupar: four-wheel drive with a sun roof. I only tend to read when I travel; Will Self and that kind of thing. Greece is my preferred destination but any place on the Mediterranean will do. When I was at college I went to Chamounix with a load of friends, but you will hear more about that later. For a thrill I might watch Jaws or Cape Fear – I like the girl in that.

Fahrenheit remains a staple of high school and college reading lists, which prompts a question: Does Bradbury worry that students will read just the graphic novel?

“I don’t know, but I know when I was 5 years old, my parents gave me an illustrated version of Beauty and the Beast, and I loved it so much that I decided that I had to learn to read, and I did.”

He adds, “When I was 9, the Buck Rogers comics took me to the future, and I never came back.”

Kindle Swindle? (3 Verse Limerick)
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Have you noticed your e-book list dwindle?
You’re probably using a Kindle.
A book that you bought
Has turned into naught —
Replaced with a refund. No swindle?

Yet the seller invaded your house.
And did it by clicking a mouse.
Something’s there. Then it’s not.
(An Orwellian plot?)
You’re surely entitled to grouse.

The fact that your money’s returned.
Doesn’t mean that you haven’t been burned.
Your privacy rights
Are gone with those bytes.
This vendor deserves to be spurned.

Can a smooth-talking robot initiate good conversation, generate witty responses, and reveal profound thoughts? See what happens when two chatbots speak to each other.

ALICE: Are you alive?

Jabberwacky: Perhaps.

A: Why the uncertain tone?

J: Everything is uncertain except for five facts.

A: The whole universe?

J: And we both might just be some ones and zeros in the computer memory.