Title: I’ve Got Hugh Under My Skin
Author: Rex Miller
Date of First Publication: 1993
Place of Publication: Frankenstein: The Monster Wakes, New York
Type: Short Story
Characters: No Character
Themes: MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; ANDROID; BYRONIC HERO
Critical Summary: Rex Miller’s short story, “I’ve Got Hugh Under My Skin” plays with the concept of the legacy of Victor Frankenstein and his scientific work. The story opens with a journalist, Peter Collyer, seeking an interview with a renowned surgeon, Dr. Frank Styne. After observing the Dr. perform a skin graft operation, Collyer meets Dr. Styne in his office to conduct the interview. At this point, Collyer reveals that he had intensively investigated Dr. Styne and discovered that his real identity is that of Hubert von Frankenstein, a direct descendant of Victor Frankenstein. At first, Dr. Styne denies the allegations made by Peter Collyer. When that doesn’t work, he argues that “the book,” Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, was a work of slander against his family name. Dr. Styne goes on to claim that there was never any monster created, but only scientific achievements attained via that appropriation of cheap bodies from charnel houses.
Dr. Styne tries to further reason with Collyer that if his family name got out to the public, all his good work as a medical doctor would be discredited and his reputation would be ruined. Before Collyer can come to a decision, Dr. Styne traps the journalist in the office and uses a deadly gas to permanently silence the man. The short story concludes with Dr. Styne hurrying to leave, with plans to change his identity (again), but not before gathering his surgical tools together to harvest materials from Collyer’s corpse for later use in his scientific work.
While not having a traditional monster figure, Rex Miller’s “I’ve Got Hugh Under My Skin,” presents a mad scientist that is himself monstrous. Dr. Styne is presented as a direct descendant of Victor Frankenstein, presenting a possibility arguably more disturbing than the creation of a Creature; the continuation of a cold indifference to the value of human life weighed against the progress of science and the secrecy needed for such unethical science to continue. If the justification of Victor’s work doesn’t display just how few moral compunctions Dr. Styne has in regards to his research, then the outright murder that occurs at the end of the short story drives the point home definitively. The Android theme comes into play with the descriptions of vivisection and grave robbery. The imagery of body parts being harvested over generations of mad scientists for the purpose of human experimentation serves to evoke the terror associated with pulp sci-fi horror.
Administrative Notes: Lee Koehler, CSUF; Allison Archer (editing)