Title: The Plot is the Thing
Author: Robert Bloch
Date of First Publication: July 1966
Place of First Publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Type: Short Story
Characters: No Character.
Themes: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER
Critical Summary: Robert Bloch’s story follows Peggy, a woman who lives by herself in her apartment. Her apartment has fallen into disarray, she does not have any money, and she enjoys sitting in front of the TV and watching old movies. She does not go to the theater anymore to watch movies, because they do not screen many horror movies, which are her favorite, and she fears the late night walk back home after viewing a scary picture. The television is a tool that she uses to combat her insomnia and one that provides comfort in her solitude. Suddenly, she is taken away to a hospital where she meets Dr. Crane. The doctor operates on her by giving her a lobotomy. After the operation, Peggy believes that she feels much better. Her insomnia disappears and she does not wish to sit and watch movies on the television anymore. But she begins to experience unintended side affects after the operation. Peggy is transported into different historical settings that seem to be “cut” together from different horror stories, almost like she is in a movie. The story ends as she being pulled away by the indigenous peoples on an island, calling out the name of “Kong.” This story made it to the first ballot for the Nebula Award.
The major parallels of this story and Frankenstein lie in the themes. Peggy minds her own business, and tries to cope with her nervous condition by watching movies. She is taken away against her own will and experimented on, much as the Creature was an experiment put together from parts. The lobotomy that is performed upon Peggy is without her consent; both scientific procedures raise ethical questions regarding the lengths to which science can go to improve the human condition. Bloch’s story also follows the general plot trajectory of these Frankenstein stories, where the results of the operation create for the characters a far more dangerous and frightening world than the ones they previously inhabited. The Creature lives in a cruel environment, where he is only able to see himself as the monster that everyone else considers him, and Peggy lives in the monstrous fantastical worlds she loved, except now they are her perilous reality. This makes both characters outsiders. Just as the Creature is rejected by his father and the society he tried to assimilate into, Peggy is alienated by the fact that no one is able to share her ever changing reality with her. There is no optimistic resolution for either of these characters. The reader is led to believe that Peggy’s mind will be destroyed, and that the Creature will destroy himself on a pyre.
Administrative Notes: Nathan San Fillipo, CSUF; Amanda Howard, CSUF (editing)