By Savanna Malloy
staff writer
What occurred on Monday, Feb. 22 in the Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater was not so much a reading in the traditional sense, but more of a multimedia showing, as Laurie Sheck played an auditory multimedia PowerPoint for the crowd.
However, considering Sheck’s genre-melding latest work, “A Monster’s Notes,” her unconventional presenting style shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to her audience.
Sheck described her hybrid work, “A Monster’s Notes,” which is a reimagining of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” as “a fiction of some sort – not a novel, not a poem.”
Before the showing began, Sheck cited W.G. Sebald and David Markson as a few of her novelistic influences, saying that she admires when “writers find freedom in not sticking to any genre.”
As the PowerPoint opened, what looked to be a letter written in elegant script appeared on the screen accompanied by Sheck’s eerily deadpan voice reading, “Curious, I heard a monster’s voice and out of some sharp need I followed.”
What ensues are excerpts from the novel that include letters from Mary Shelley to her sister, Claire, recollections from the Monster and several strings of one sentence musings from each of the characters.
Sheck brilliantly conveys the idea that the Monster is not really a monster at all.
She includes scenes in her presentation where he ponders the teachings of Socrates and Aristotle, uses Google to search the term “perplexity” and ruminates on how the astronauts must have felt looking at earth from space.
She created a character that is both abominable and undeniably enthralling at the same time.
Sheck spoke about the complexity of the character and her relationship with him. “The monster haunted me, but I also liked him a lot, he kept me company,” she said.
There is no doubt that much like Sheck herself, the reading was one of a kind.
Sheck’s poetry collections include, “Captivity,” “Black Series,” “The Willow Grove,” “10 at Night” and “Amaranth.”
She holds fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey State Council for the Arts.