I chose my One Text: Frankenstein course because as much as I look back on the choices I have made while at VMI, this class still sticks out as one of my top two courses I have ever taken. This class not only engaged me throughout with guided discussions and interesting assignments but was also one of the reasons that I chose to switch to the English Major from History. During the course, we read three versions of Frankenstein: The Oxford Annotated Edition, Frankenstein for Engineers and Science, and a 2018 adaptation called Frankenstein in Baghdad. The close look and the feeling that I was finally enjoying something that I was reading for a course was such a help to someone who typically hated every second of reading in high school and along with the readings came discussions that were started with a single question from the professor and the class took over and discussed their viewpoints from the reading for the rest of the class. I had never seen this style of teaching before and it has stuck with me since that class that I learn the best in that type of environment.
One question that I still have from the course goes along with one of the papers that were assigned in class that I discussed how Frankenstein was portrayed in popular culture. I would still like to expand on this topic since there are times that I am watching a movie or a series and will see their depiction of Frankenstein and just think about how far it has come from Mary Shelley’s original work.