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Must-Read Fantasy Novels - Frankenstein · Mythmakers

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  Welcome to MythMakers. MythMakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy
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  creators brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. My name is Julia Golding.
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  I'm an author but also director of the Centre. I wanted today to begin a series
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  on the essential fantasy reads. Who are our myth makers that have passed down the ideas
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  that have gone into the way we write fantasy and science fiction? I had the very good
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  fortune of studying for a doctorate in Oxford quite a few years ago now and the period I studied
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  was that of the romantic era which is thought of as the year 1790 to 1830. Now thinking about that
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  period right in the heart of it there is one of the most important novels ever written which has
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  spawned so much science fiction and fantasy that followed it. I wonder if you can guess what I'm
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  talking about. I'm talking about Frankenstein. It was written by Mary Shelley and published
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  in 1818 but she actually started writing it a few years earlier so that meant when she first
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  came up with the idea in about 1816 she was only 18 and this is a work that has changed the way
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  not only we think about stories involving creatures and monsters and mad scientists all those
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  kind of familiar tropes but it has become one of those stories that crosses over into society
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  and shapes the way we think about particularly things like scientific innovation.
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  Now the origin story of Frankenstein is almost as interesting as the book. This was the famous
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  stormy night in the Villa Diodati where Mary Shelley who was at that time Mary Godwin
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  was there with her future husband Percy Shelley. They had a loapt and run away from England
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  leaving behind Percy Shelley's first family and along with them was Mary Shelley's half sister
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  Claire Claremont also in the Villa was of course Byron and then Dr. Polodori who was a sort of
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  companion to Byron a doctor anyway this group got together and they had a literary competition
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  where they were all to go away and write something in the you know in the nature of a ghost story
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  that kind of thing. I think that the the two more famous men Byron and Shelley both kind of
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  struck out on this they didn't particularly follow through with that but the two others who took up
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  the writing challenge Mary Godwin and Dr. Polodori both went on to produce novels which were
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  published. Polodori is the vampire which is an interesting idea in its own right and that
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  leads on to things like Dracula but Mary Shelley's Mary Godwin's was to be Frankenstein.
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  Now why is it important? Well I'm sure you're aware of its placing culture just because you've
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  heard of such things as Frankenstein's food and you've seen the Boris Karloff films of the man
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  with the bolts in his neck being woken up by electricity all those kind of things but this
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  series about encouraging people to go back to the origins of this story the where it starts as a
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  fantasy novel. So the first thing I wanted to sort of point you towards it has is how interesting
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  it is structurally as a novel it starts off as a letter written from a seafarer called Walton
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  and then it takes the form of like an onion so the outer skin is Walton's narrative.
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  Within that he is being told the story by Victor Frankenstein that is the scientist not the creature
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  and within Victor Frankenstein's narrative is embedded the creature's narrative and then it sort
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  of comes back out again you get Victor Frankenstein telling his story and then it goes back to the
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  reflections of Walton at the end of at the end when there's a sort of denouement in the icy
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  fields of the North Pole. So that structure of the sort of coming into a point and outer point
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  you may have come across this in the modern novel cloud atlas that also became a film which has
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  multiple narratives that sort of work into a central point and work out. You may when you've
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  read that thought oh how original but actually at the same time as Mary Shelley was writing
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  there was an experimental novel quite similar to this and called the manuscript found at Saragossa.
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  It's written originally in French by a Polish man are you following me here? His name is
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  Count Jan Patotsky the sort of courtly language to get a wider readership was French at that time
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  so that's why a Polish man is writing in French and that one is a has insane numbers of levels
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  it is it is out cloud atlasing the David Mitchell book so playing with the form is definitely
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  available as an example in Mary Shelley's era but she does it very simply it's a very clean
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  three level and back out again and one of the effects of this these shifts of perspective is
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  rather than a modern fantasy novel which keeps moving point of view without much relation to each
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  other it's just okay right now we go over to you know this warrior over in this battlefield
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  the way this is structured is that you keep changing your view on what the story might be about
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  it's a bit like hearing arguments in a trial first the defense and then the prosecution and you
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  have to weigh up who you think is right and of course the central battle is between Victor Frankenstein
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  and the creature just as sidebar here I'm very carefully calling the creature neither Frankenstein
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  nor the monster because the monster is what other people call the creature the creature himself
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  who hasn't even been given a name by his creator he he's calling on the fact that he has been created
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  by Victor Frankenstein and he actually points out to Frankenstein that he has a responsibility like
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  God to Adam there's a famous line about am I not your Adam so that that whole structure really
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  works for the book because you've got the rational seafarer Walton who's like the sort of anchor
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  then you've got Victor Frankenstein pleading his case about the terrible things that happened
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  to him once he created this creature then you've got the creature confessing or telling his story
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  how he came to sentience really and why he acted as he did and your feelings change as you
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  read more because he goes from the sort of abused innocence to going on a bit of a rampage in a way
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  but there's the very interesting question there is nature versus nurture so is his evil
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  from the way he's been neglected or is there something in you know something gone wrong
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  a choice that he is making the book leans towards the nurture argument on the whole
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  another reason why it's worth a read for the the non-obvious reasons of it's a jolly good tale
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  is that the story also examines the question of the rights of the creature this was an era where
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  the rights of man that book by Thomas Payne that was very influential on the French Revolution
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  the American Revolution and radical thought and Mary Walston crafts answer of the rights of women
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  which is obviously one of the origins of feminism Mary Shelley is chiming in with something which has
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  a residence now with the rights of such things as artificial intelligence or other creatures
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  because the creature is arguing that he has the right to be looked after a nurtured and recognized
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  as a for his dignity he has the right to procreate that's one of his his real sort of the point where
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  he really flips out is when Victor Frankenstein tries to placate him says oh yes yes I'll I'll make
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  you a female and then gets cold feet and he tears up the almost completed lady creature
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  and that of course is a form of murdering the creature's future he can't go off and start his
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  own race because Victor Frankenstein is afraid of what he can become you know our sympathies as we're
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  reading are divided on that but it does feel a bit like the debate going on in AI as
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  is AI the biggest threat to us and the late Stephen Hawking said it was you know one of the big
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  challenges we were going to face in the 21st century and of course it occupies a lot of science
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  fiction now that question or is there a debate have about at what point do these artificial systems
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  these androids get rights of their own so here we're talking of things like do androids stream
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  of electric sheep the the book that inspired a blade runner or even data in the Jean Picard
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  Star Trek all these debates are about are defining what at what point there is a right a human
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  right is the wrong word isn't it we're looking for a right to be respected something akin to
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  human rights and obviously that is a huge area for people to write about now so if you're thinking
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  how did this start where did people begin to ask his questions Frankenstein is a one for place to go
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  to see how it was handled in its early days there's another interesting sidebar here I've mentioned
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  Mary Wallstonecraft in passing about the rights of women but the connection between Mary
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  Shelley's rights of the creature book is even closer than you might think because
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  Mary Wallstonecraft was the mother of Mary Godwin Mary Shelley and this was through her union
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  with William Godwin who was a radical thinker of the time and we're going to come back to him
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  in a minute because both influences of both father and mother can be seen in Mary Shelley's work
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  but moving on from the question about the rights which I think is a very fruitful area
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  in and of itself there's also the the way that Mary Godwin Mary Shelley treats the whole question
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  of science and scientific progress we are used to science fiction picking up these ideas and perhaps
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  even paving the way for scientists to think the unthinkable you know the Isaac Asimov's good old
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  Star Trek other Arab Star Wars two places where people imagine a science that doesn't yet exist
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  and then the scientists come along and fulfill it what was happening here is exactly the same
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  and Mary Shelley had become interested in galvanism galvanism is named after a Italian scientist
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  called Galvani who was experimenting with electricity this is the early days of electricity you've got
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  figures such as Michael Faraday in the Royal Institution who is just at this point in fact a
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  couple of years later inventing the electric motor and explaining much more about electricity
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  in his lecture series that follow on in the 1830s but at the point at which Mary Shelley
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  is writing electricity was very poorly understood they'd begun to build rudimentary batteries
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  but they had no idea if it was like a liquid or they hadn't really got the idea of a force yet
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  so it was a mysterious this a mysterious thing electricity they knew it was important but they
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  didn't quite yet grasp how important but one of the people paving the way that led to the great
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  electrical scientists of the 19th century in Michael Faraday and Maxwell in his equations
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  happens later on one of the really key things that happened is that he applies the electric
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  current to the the bodies of dead frogs you following me and he makes some twitch and there is
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  evidence that the nervous system carried on reacting to electricity after death so this of course
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  got the idea that maybe electricity in a sense is the life force that they're the same thing
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  it was it's the animating principle I mean they aren't completely wrong because obviously our
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  body you know of synapses and all that kind of thing there is a there is a link here
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  they weren't on a completely wrong path but it doesn't stop the novelist running with the
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  beginnings of an idea and actually saying okay maybe you can revive people of electricity
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  thankfully we often do that now in hospitals with defibrillators I mean they're right aren't they
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  but she also thought well maybe it can instill life it can kind of bring a soul or whatever
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  you think of the animating principle of a person into the body of the creature
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  hence all those filmic moments that you see of the creature being wired up to
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  a machine a lightning striking and up he gets so she's playing with scientific ideas and pushing
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  them to a really fascinating extreme but where her sort of fame comes is it's cleared the
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  experiments gone too far so the very thing that Frankenstein creates comes back to rip his part
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  his world apart so that is why we have phrases such as Frankenstein food the idea is that
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  these are in some ways unnatural creations which might come round to bite us in the future or
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  destroy us in the worst case scenario so she she got there first and she gave us a very
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  clear way of thinking about the dangers of scientific progress as well as its excitement
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  she also looks back though because Victor Frankenstein has an unorthodox education he delves
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  into the world of the occult the world of alchemists so she's also playing with the science of
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  the past which again you often find in fantasy the idea of the philosopher's stone as that sound
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  familiar and things like that so she's also showing how past scientific ideas which are now
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  thought of as defunct can still be wonderful material for a literary creation and then the other
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  sort of contemporary issue that she touches on in this is the whole idea of dissection there was a
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  great difficulty getting hold of bodies to be dissected for medical procedures and this
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  whole led to the grizzly time of the body snatches the Burke and hairs. Victor Frankenstein becomes
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  a kind of body snatcher because in order to make to order to make the creature he
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  sows together a number of bodies which is kind of assembled in his laboratory so it was regarded as
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  taboo breaking in some ways transgressive so she's she's cluing herself in on the worries that
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  people had about that their bodies might be snatched which is why in some graveyards you have to make
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  great show of locking them putting heavy stones down and locking the mausoleum all those things
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  were in part fear that someone would come and dig up a body and use it for experimentation.
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  In the end this sort of societal deal was that they used the body of criminals who were executed and
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  if they weren't enough of them they used poor people so yeah I mean it wasn't a brilliant solution
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  but that is how they solved that one. And the final why you should read about Frankenstein
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  I think is the story theme that she's picked up which is very powerful of two titanic
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  wills that are locked together in this fight to the death. She isn't the only person in the era
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  using this kind of image a contemporary to her wrote a really fascinating book which I'd kind of
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  also put on your reading list if you get a chance which is James Hogg Confessions of a justified
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  sinner which was published in 1824 and in that one you've got somebody who has a doppelganger but
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  it is also in a way it feels a bit like a book about mental illness as well it's very interesting
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  it's shadow figure fighting for which one is going to prevail out of in that story so it's a
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  fascinating book but going back to her parents Mary Shelley had a much more close to home example
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  that she may have found some inspiration in and that is William Godwin who is best known for his
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  political theories such as political justice he was regarded as kind of he's kind of way out on
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  the left the kind of Bernie Sanders but more left of the time a real radical thinker unconventional
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  lifestyles but he wrote a novel called Caleb Williams which is a kind of class struggle book
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  because Caleb Williams is the servant who discovers the secret of his master Falkland
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  and that could destroy this man's reputation which leads to this bitter battle which they're fighting
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  trying to destroy each other and so they're locked together trying to you know to claw each other
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  so that story of an obsession it ends very differently to Frankenstein but the intensity of that
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  battle of a central pair one of whom is subservient to the other the kind of servant master
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  relationship does have echoes in Frankenstein anyway Mary Shelley's version of it is
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  even more powerful because the master creates the very thing that tries to destroy him
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  and you can see how this has fed through to future books probably the most famous one of those
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  is Dr Jacqueline Mr Hyde with the split personality that feels like the love child of confessions
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  of a justified sinner and Frankenstein that book a fantastic that's another must read which perhaps
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  we should talk about in another podcast so what's the takeaway what's the summary why read Frankenstein
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  well if you're a fantasy fan and want to be a fantasy writer I think it definitely needs to be on
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  your list it's not that long the language is that of the 19th century so you might need to tune
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  yourself into it but it is a fantastic story you can also one sort of more faithful rendering of it
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  is the stage play which they did at the national theatre which originally starred Benedict Cumberbatch
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  and Johnny Lee Miller what was interesting in that is by switching roles in the play so one one
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  night one of them would be playing Victor Frankenstein and the monster and then they've switched
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  it shows the closeness of the two the struggle between the two how they are reflections of each
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  other they make each other in in a way and that's actually if you if you don't fancy reading the novel
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  or you find it difficult do look up a recording of that they are it is it was filmed and does get
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  reborn cast it was broadcast during lockdown so you may have spotted it then anyway do
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  pick up on that story because what you're getting is an amazing novel written by a girl who is in
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  1819 who influenced the way society sees science both as a warning and how it can be used in literature
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  and she changed the world as a result she made the modern myth which is the myth of the modern
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  primitius which is her subtitle for that story the idea the person who who strove too far
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  if you have any ideas for a must read fantasy novel which should be part of this series do let us
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  know we always end with where in all the worlds is the best place for something and thinking about
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  this one I suppose the obvious question is where in all the world is the best place to be a scientist
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  that's quite a tricky one because I suppose we'll be looking in science fiction if we did that
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  but on the whole I think maybe my choice would be Wakanda I'd choose to go into the lab there
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  because obviously they're way ahead in the black panther of all other societies and you get your own
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  lab all to yourself and you can create fantastic flying machines and ones that you can fly from
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  the ground yeah no I think that's where I would choose to be a scientist I'd go to Wakanda and ask
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  for a job in that laboratory thank you very much for listening and I hope you have enjoyed this
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  little visit to Frankenstein look forward to sharing some more ideas with you next time
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