In the motion picture "Young Frankenstein" (1974), the character played by Gene Wilder insists that his name is pronounced differently than written: He is to be called "Dr. Frankenstien", to clear up any confusion with his father, who apparently was the a real "Dr. Frankenstein".
The pronunciation of "stein" is subject to debate: It is a German word, which means "stone" and as such could very well be pronounced "stien", as the sounds for "i" and "e" are exactly reversed in English and German. As such, the English sound for the letter "e" is the German sound for the letter "i". However, "stien" is not an officially recognized word in either language and only the urban dictionary defines it as "The act of withholding one's own weed while smoking someone else`s". A "stien" is somebody who withholds his own while taking someone else`s. He conceals his true "gnostic" identity, that is as the owner of marijuana, but still manages to hold on to his public identity as a "stoner". Implied here is the notion that weed is common property, to be shared by all pot smokers on an as-needed basis, and not private property. The word "Franken" is not only the surname for the satirist and senator from Minnesota, but also in German "The Franks", the "historically first known (..) group of Germanic tribes that inhabited the land between the Lower and Middle Rhine in the 3rd century AD". So, a "Frank" has nothing to do with a "Wiener", if we process all information accurately. Gene Wilder's new identity as a "Frankenstien", as a re-anglicized "Frankenstein" transforms the "stone of the Franks" into a "stoner of the Franks who withholds his weed". As the Franks in the 3rd century operated on the basis of communal property, the American character in a movie by the Jewish-American genius Mel Brooks would like to operate on the basis of private property. He no longer wishes to continue the family tradition of creating a "Golem", which "in Jewish folklore is an animated anthropomorphic being, magically created entirely from inanimate matter". No, he wants to be his own man with his own holdings that he will not share with the community. In the movie -- spoiler alert! -- he eventually relinquishes this "stien-ish" identity and becomes a true "stone of the Franks", like his father and the many fathers before him, he accepts to become a "Frankenstein". The author of the original Frankenstein book, the British subject Mary Shelley -- neither a man nor Jewish -- apparently "traveled through Europe in 1814, journeying along the River Rhine in Germany with a stop in Gernsheim which is just 17 km (10 mi) away from Frankenstein Castle, where, two centuries before, an alchemist was engaged in experiments." The same could be said about any town on the Rhine river, some alchemist is hiding something, even today. There are that many castles. Speculation has also made the Franks one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel according to the doctrine of "British Israelism", which often included the tenet that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David. Today, the only true fact is that Gene Wilder will always be a wonderful "Frankenstien", the utopia of the self outside of tradition, even if only for a little while. |
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Catalog No: | FLX63 (LN412) |
Title: | Frankenstien |
Sound Artist: | Frank Rothkamm |
Visual Artist: | Holger Rothkamm |
Label: | Flux Records |
Length: | 17:36 (1056s) |
Composed: | 2015-2016 |
Location: | Los Angeles New York |
Instruments: | E. Gabler & Bros. baby grand piano 2 Harps Bass & Snaredrum Handbells Violin Violincello |
Release Date: | 09/01/2016 |
Format: | Digital |
Tags: | Classical |