Sublime, Frankenstein, and Chinese Evil Spirit

In Frankenstein discussion, we learnt two typical modes in the Romantic Era. One is "Picturesque", a lovely and pastoral style; the other is "Sublime", a grand and passionate style characterized by the combination of beauty and terror. I'm especially fascinated with the sublime mode. I first learnt the term "Sublime" in a music history class in which we compared Verdi's and Wagner's operas. And I enjoyed a lot being in the storm of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.

In Frankenstein discussion, I found more in "Sublime". I realized that the sublime mode is not just about grand stories/pictures of beauty, terror and thick colors. It is more about the big emotions that are expressed in the stories/pictures and the big emotions the stories/pictures evoke in us.

When we talked about "Sublime" in class, the image of Xiaowei, a fox spirit from a Chinese movie named Painted Skin, appeared in my mind. In the movie, Xiaowei's face always looks pale and blank. She is looking at somewhere, but she seems to see nothing. She is there. We can see her. But she is absent from where she is. And her voice sounds like it comes from nowhere. Her look and voice don't have any thickness in colors, but the terror she brings is overwhelming. So I think this is also sublime. You can see the look I described in the following pictures of Xiaowei.

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You can find more information about the movie on wikipedia.

Here is link a song named "Painted Heart" from Painted Skin. In the video you can see the clips from the movie. I like how the beauty of the music works with terror and darkness in the movie.

And you can see another clip here. In this clip, Peirong, the kind-hearted wife of the man Xiaowei loves, comes into Xiaowei's room to tell her something. Then, Xiaowei takes off her human skin all of a sudden. Paiting her skin, she tells Peirong calmly, "Go and tell everyone who I am. However, anyone who knows my secret is doomed to death." Just as Xiaowei's evil nature takes off the human skin and destroys Xiaowei's beautiful human image, in Fankenstein, the creature's first horrible appearance shatters Frankenstein's dream of creating the perfect human being.