Mason Hertrich Blog

By F. Mason Hertrich

The reason why I choose the class, is because I am very interested in many different forms of storytelling. I wish to one day become a filmmaker, and as I have been told if someone is to become a master of something, they must first become a student.

My favorite fairytale is The Hunchback of Notre Dame, (1831) by Victor Hugo. Both the book and its many adaptations they all incorporate a similar tale told in many French stories. Which is the monstrous, or gruesome looking person usually a man, living a tragic life of hatred among other people who hate him because of how he looks. Other examples of this include Victor Hugo's other novel "The Man Who Laughs", where the main character is maimed in childhood leaving his face in a endless smile. Quasimodo is not only a Hunchback, but half blinded, and deaf. So he wonders around the bell-tower and occasionally used as a pawn in the affairs of others. It is I belief quite a powerful story. The premise where he is a scared brute wondering through life surrounded by hatred, was the inspiration Lon Chaney sr. had. Chaney would go on to portray Quasimodo in a 1923 adaptation of the book. It was very important to him because of how him compared it to his up bringing. Where his parents were deaf and he was always met with great antagonism as a result. So he went so far to get the movie made he even wiling to found his own company to make it. Admittedly me and Chaney have different reasons for liking it. I mostly think of the story as a compelling as well as sad drama, about a man who's only crime was living, and living in a world that hated him.

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