October means Halloween is coming—you know, the very witching hour of night when churchyards yawn and graves give up their dead and so on. But if you're still picking out your costume—and you're looking for something a little scarier than Sexy Donald Trump—you might need a refresher course, because it's surprising how much we don't know about some of our most iconic monsters. Luckily, Jeopardy! monster Ken Jennings has unchained his debunking abilities and is ready with the spooky scoop.
The Debunker: Was the Monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Built from Corpses?
Yes, yes, we all know by now that "Frankenstein" is actually not the name of the monster in Mary Shelley's landmark 1818 horror novel (or any of the dozens of subsequent adaptations). Victor Frankenstein is the ethically challenged scientists who creates the monster; the creation itself is usually just called something generic like "creature" or "fiend." The confusion pre-dates the Boris Karloff movie by over a century, but it's still a little odd. I guess the monster does consider himself to be Frankenstein's son, in a sense, so you could argue that he would inherit his surname, but Shelley never uses that idea in the book. The title character of the book is meant to be the scientist, full stop.
But that's all entry-level stuff, hardly Debunker-worthy. What might be more surprising is that most of the familiar trappings of the monster's creation come not from Mary Shelley, but from Universal Studios circa 1931. The assistant scavenging body parts from graveyards, the switcheroo with the criminal brain, the castle with the lightning rod, the triumphal "It's alive!"—all nowhere to be found in Shelley's Gothic classic. Be warned if you're writing a book report on Frankenstein! Leave all that stuff out!
In fact, the book is very coy on how exactly Frankenstein creates life at all. Today we probably assume that the monster is a patchwork of stitched-together corpses, but Shelley never says so. Victor F. does confess to skulking around in "charnel-houses" and "the dissecting room," even "dabbling among the unhallowed damps of the grave," but it's not clear if he's collecting parts or just studying the secrets of anatomy up close. (He also "torture(s) the living animal" and visits slaughterhouses, so his experiments aren't limited to humans.) He says he's a fan of the alchemist Paracelsus, so his breakthrough is probably a biochemical/mystical one, not related to electricity at all. (There's one mention of "the spark of being" but it may be metaphorical.) In the book all this vagueness is explained away as Frankenstein's way of making sure no one follows in his footsteps, but come on! Mary Shelley obviously had no idea how to create artificial life.
Quick Quiz: What cast member of Young Frankenstein co-wrote the movie alongside Mel Brooks?
Ken Jennings is the author of six books, most recently his Junior Genius Guides, Because I Said So!, and Maphead. He's also the proud owner of an underwhelming Bag o' Crap. Follow him at ken-jennings.com or on Twitter as @KenJennings.