Halloween Short #5 - Jasper

For the final spooky short, I returned to Victoriana shenanigans for the classic best befitting Dr. Jasper Lee: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Somehow I never had actually read it before this, and I cannot put into words how awestruck I am by Shelley’s wonderful craft--it is immensely readable and profoundly human, and if you have likewise missed reading it or only know the story from the myriad imperfect film adaptations, I recommend picking it up whole-heartedly.

Also, I must thank both Wudgeous and Remnantation once more, from the bottom of my heart. Their assistance reading through and editing these mini-narratives, and Rem’s willingness to lend her phenomenal artistic talents to the effort, are a large part of what pushed me through this self-assigned project. For their ready kindness and generosity, as well as their aid, I am grateful beyond measure. 

I have enjoyed writing these shorts, and I hope they’ve offered enjoyment to some of you in turn. Content warning for this last: some violence

Nowhere on earth have I found where a single life is of less matter than here, among the vertiginous heights of the mountains. It is not that life becomes inherently less dear when held up against such magnificence, but rather that its substance is firmly assigned proper weight: the fly is not of a greater insignificance than is Man, nor are the fleet swallows that dip and trill across the open meadows of markedly greater permanence than the poppy bloom that shrivels within mere days of opening. The wind-blasted oak trees outlast the seasons; the impassive faces of granite that rise from the earth shall still stand when the oldest of trees fall; and when all below is gone and dust, the sky shall remain, as unmoved by our paroxysms and ultimate destruction as is a child which comes across a beetle’s emptied carapace, devoid of life, and which may now be ground to powder underfoot with a satisfying crunch as she passes.