Title: Frankenstein Unbound
Author: Brian W. Aldiss
Date of First Publication: 1973
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Place of First Publication: London
Bibliographic Reference: isfdb
Type: Novel
Character: Victor Frankenstein; The Creature; Mary Shelley; Lord Byron; Percy Bysshe Shelley; Elizabeth Frankenstein; Justine Moritz; Henry Clerval; Alphonse Frankenstein
Keywords: ANDROID; BYRONIC HERO; FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; POSTHUMAN; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS; RETRO SF
Critical Summary: In Frankenstein Unbound, the protagonist, Joseph Bodenland, describes himself as a “deposed presidential adviser.” He lives in America, in New Houston, in the year 2020. The America Bodenland describes is one which has made revolutionary technological advances; despite such advances, a world war breaks out, leading several countries to use nuclear weapons to target other countries’ colonies on the Moon. These attacks have the unintended effect of causing a disruption in the space-time continuum, which results in what are known as “timeslips,” or periods of time travel experienced by those leaving not only the year 2020, but also departing to other locations, and possibly even parallel worlds.
Though Bodenland’s first timeslip is brief, his second lasts for the remainder of the novel. He is transported to 1816 Geneva, Switzerland. While there, he meets Victor Frankenstein and hears about the upcoming murder trial of Justine Moritz. Having read Mary Shelley’s book, though unable to remember all the details, Bodenland becomes convinced that it is his duty to stop Frankenstein from creating a second monster, and to save innocent Justine from her fate on the gallows. After his attempts to form an alliance with Frankenstein fail, he decides to visit the Villa Diodati to see if he can get in touch with the author herself. There, he is befriended by Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, as well as Mary Wollstonecraft.
These four discuss the possibilities of technological advancements and what they will mean for society. Bodenland talks to Mary alone, revealing his time travel to her and telling her that she will one day be famous for writing her novel, Frankenstein. She is validated and overjoyed by this news about her as-yet unfinished story. Bodenland and Mary experience a close bonding of spirits, and they even make love before he asks her for more details about her story, and he leaves.
Before he can find Frankenstein again, he goes through a series of troubles which leave him starving and beaten in a snowy cave. It is then he encounters Frankenstein’s Creature, who kills and leaves a rabbit for Bodenland to eat.
Bodenland again locates Frankenstein…but Justine Mortiz has already been hanged and Frankenstein has given into the Creature’s request to make him a female companion. Bodenland intends to kill both the Creature and its mate himself, but he falters; instead, he only kills Frankenstein. Feeling regret for hesitating the last time, he obsessively tracks the two monsters to a remote, glacial land and kills them. As he dies, the monster questions Victor’s act, essentially telling him that of the two, Bodenland is actually the monster.
Aldiss’s Frankenstein, though less sympathetic than Shelley’s original, is still cast as the mad scientist figure who loses control. In fact, Bodenland’s confrontation with Victor Frankenstein gives voice to readers who have condemned the scientist for his actions, while making us question whether Bodenland is not also playing God. Bodenland’s interactions with Mary Wollstonecraft and the two poets allow the author to explore the philosophies behind some of Shelley’s themes: technological advancements, progress, and human nature. His interactions with the two “monsters” re-introduce the question of what it means to be human. The framing of the story from a future which has imploded the universe reinforces the themes which question the problematic nature between human progress and human nature. Further, there are many references within the text to other works that carried on the tradition of Shelley’s Frankenstein, which can be seen as a type of creation which, once “unbound,” cannot be bound again.
Administrative Notes: Entry author: Melanie Yogurtian, CSUF. Entry editors: Gareth O’Neal and Molly Robertson, CSUF.