I’m Afraid of Frankenstein’s Mozart

Today was my last first day of school. Scary thought. What’s even more frightful is the fact that I’m assigned to read Mary Shelley’s FRANKSTEIN for the fifth straight year. Really? That book is so dense, it hurts my head. Perhaps, though, such a Victorian Gothic piece reflects perfectly the apprehension I felt this morning–the beginning of my last four months before I have to be a big girl. Who knows what I’ll produce and send into the world. Maybe it will be a creature likened to that of Frankenstein’s, lacking morals.

Then, maybe it will be something more artistic, something more like the works of Mozart… No, that is an aim no sane person can accomplish. In watching AMADEUS (1984) tonight I can truly appreciate the fine line between genius and insanity. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart teetered on that line with the steady stand of a very drunk man. The film won 8 Academy Awards, including Best Music Mix–duh–and Best Actor, F. Murrary Abraham for his role as Antonio Salieri. I found this surprising. Abraham did a good job, but not when his nomination rivaled Tom Hucle‘s Amadeus Mozart, who bust out laugh like an idiot at the most awkward moments, parading around in bright pink, George Washington wigs.

The difference between the celibate (and envious) Salieri and the half-crazied, lusty Mozart is that passion. My lesson today, one I claimed outside the classroom, is that greatness comes from passion. Perhaps it’s ill conceived passion or even immoral passion, but nothing that has the strength to survive 300+ years was born from anything less than passion.