So many of the ideas, and the tropes,

even the philosophy behind science fiction come

from this one great work.

So let us start where we must, and talk Frankenstein.

The very first sentence of the preface

to Frankenstein reads thus,

"The event on which this fiction is founded,

"has been supposed, by Dr. Darwin, and some of

"the physiological writers of Germany,

"as not of impossible occurrence.

"I shall not be supposed as according the remotest degree

"of serious faith to such an imagination,

"yet, in assuming it as the basis of a work of fancy,

"I have not considered myself as merely weaving

"a series of supernatural terrors."

And it is on that statement that all

of science fiction is founded.

Shelley is saying that the events in this book

could be real, not that they are real

or even that they are remotely likely,

but they could exist in the universe we know.

Eventually, we will escape the bounds of

this statement with science fiction,

but it's this idea, the idea that our sci-fi

tales exist within our rational world,

within the bounds of what science tells us is possible,

that makes science fiction different fundamentally different

from fantasy or myth.

And that thought is incredibly important

at the birth of the genre.

This is what separates it out as its own distinct

literary branch and allows it to have rules

and conventions unlike those already existing genres

of the fantastic, of horror or folklore or myth.

It's also initially part of what gets us to buy in.

Science fiction uses the possible as a lens for our world.

It may be the remote and the unlikely,

but what better way to look at human nature than

to set it against the extreme cases of what

it might someday encounter and see what rolls out.

This is so important to Shelley that it's

the very first thing that's presented to the reader.

Without this idea of the fantastic possible,

I don't think we have science fiction.

But that is far from the only standard Frankenstein

created for sci-fi.

Today, we are going to explore all

the other ways that Frankenstein established tropes,

styles, and techniques that we almost take

for granted in sci-fi today.

Now, before I tread any further, I should say one thing,

if you only know this story from the movies,

you don't actually know this story at all.

The films have little to do with the book,

and while it is actually a really worthwhile exercise

to think about why this story has been interpreted

and reimagined the way it has throughout the 20th century.

everything I talk about today will be

regarding the original work.

So let's start at the beginning, with a young man,

obsessed by alchemy and yet fascinated by

the power of science.

A young man determined to overcome death for

the fame it might bring him.

A young man blind to the consequences of

what he is trying to do.

Let's talk about Victor Frankenstein.

Victor is the blueprint for the frustrated scientist trope.

All of those other scientists you read about in comics,

see in movies, or find in the pages of later

science fiction, those who would have been so great

for the world if the world had only acknowledged

their genius, they are all basically

riffs on Victor Frankenstein.

In fact, this has become so common

and so ingrained into pop culture that a lot

of these characters pop up without their authors

even really thinking about the legacy

of Victor Frankenstein that they come from.

Victor is also our model of scientific hubris.

He believes that he can best death itself by creating

life out of the parts of the dead,

and thinking his own intellect to be so superior,

he doesn't even once consider the ramifications

of what he's doing until it's too late.

He is the model for all of those characters punished

for defying the laws of nature,

for the scientist so obsessed with pursuing their ideas

that they don't even consider what those ideas

might ultimately mean for humanity.

But he's also a coward.

At the first sight of his own creation,

he flees because it's physically deformed,

because it's too ugly to look at

just the way he made it.

Which brings us to the monster itself.

An innocent, filled with gentle kindness and

a love for the world, who is rejected at every turn

for his physical appearance,

eventually growing callus and cold.

How many times in science fiction have we seen

this monster with the heart of gold?

I present to you that trope's origins,

and like many things in Frankenstein Shelley explores

this trope far more thoroughly than

many who would eventually borrow it.

The monster, outwardly ugly, finds itself continuously

rejected by an inwardly ugly humanity,

rejected at birth by Victor,

attacked in the first village he visited,

turned away by the cottagers he cared for

and thus, at last the monster turns on humanity itself.

This theme of rejection despite offering

the best intentions and offering something truly of worth,

has become not only a theme of science fiction

literature but of the geek culture that

has grown up around it.

But part of the reason that we see nobility in

the monster is that we see it self educate,

reading the greatest books of the past.

Mary Shelley saw her work as part of

an ongoing tradition of Western literature.

Paradise Lost, Dante, The Sorrows of Young Werther,

these are all directly referenced in the work.

They serve as a foundation, as key insights into

the character of the Monster,

and they are things that the writer expects

the reader to at least have a passing familiarity with.

That's something that would became part of the genre, too.

Works like Hyperion are firmly grounded in that tradition,

borrowing structure from Canterbury Tales and The Decameron,

even taking it's name from a Keats poem.

Even pieces as odd as Dhalgren rely on the mythological

and literary tradition of the west.

There is an expectation in science fiction that

the reader is well read.

But there's an on-going debate as to whether sci-fi

itself is part of the classic tradition or something new,

and as great works of science fiction pour in

from all over the globe, bringing in new traditions,

that question becomes even more complex.

But I should also mention how this tale is told,

through letters, relating a story told

to a young man named Robert by the strange

and wild scientist he finds out upon the ice.

Frankenstein is actually a story within

a story within a book.

The whole work is actually an epistolary novel,

although that's easy to forget.

And this allows us a juxtaposition.

Simply by having the young Robert's story set side

by side with Victor's, as a reader,

we are forced to consider the eager young explorer's ideals

and, far more importantly, his motivations.

We are forced to contrast them with Victor's

just by using this framing device,

Mary Shelley forces us as readers to think about some

of the ideas she wants us to consider.

And, while we rarely see this particular framing device

again, it's important because it kicks off

a long tradition of science fiction using framing devices,

especially for the purpose of making us question

just how reliable the central narrator really is.

And finally we have the title,

or rather the alternate title, The Modern Prometheus.

On the surface level, the allusion here seems clear,

Victor breathes life into inanimate flesh

and he brings knowledge at great cost,

which would certainly qualify him as The Modern Prometheus

but the novel makes a point of the fact that he never

actually shares that knowledge, no one ever finds out

how he made his reanimated man.

So the Prometheus label doesn't entirely fit him.

But if not Victor, then who is this

alternate title referring to?

It refers to the scientific method.

It's this approach to the world that offers us so much,

that brings mankind so much, but at what cost?

In the end, what will be the price of such marvels?

We are asked this time and time again in science fiction,

it's one of sci-fi's most enduring themes.

From the Martian Chronicles, to Pump 6, Terminator,

to the Matrix we see it again and again and again.

And I think It's important to note,

the alternate title isn't The New Icarus.

Prometheus's story isn't a flew too close to the sun,

brought about your own destruction cautionary tale.

In Prometheus's story, he does suffer for his actions

but his sacrifice benefits us all.

The greatest good comes through that sacrifice.

These books, these works of art that examine

the farthest edge of where our science might lead us

can be cautionary tales while simultaneously celebrating

science, daring us to push ahead as far and as fast

as we can while, at the same time, urging us

to be wiser than their protagonists.

So now that we're on firm ground with Frankenstein's place

in the history of science fiction, join us next week

as we begin to talk about all the other works

that Shelley references throughout this great piece,

and as we discuss how those works help us

to better understand her own.