Title: Never Before Have I Been a Tease
Author: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Date of First Publication: 1999
Place of First Publication: God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (collection)
Type: Short Story
Characters: Mary Shelley
Themes: MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; RACE/POLITICS
Critical Summary: Vonnegut provides hints about the dead person he interviews in this work, giving clues about her life, loves, and work in order to tease the reader about who he might be speaking of. It ends up being one Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and he proceeds to interview her, asking her about her opinion on some events that took place in the world, which she refuses to answer. Then when he broaches the subject of people’s confusion between the monster and Frankenstein, she gives a very interesting answer.
The story is short, very short, only a few pages, but Vonnegut makes it work. The guessing game he plays with the readers is interesting to say the least, and if one knows their Romantic era writers, then the answer is rather obvious. Otherwise it is a decent lesson on who Mary Shelley was. Race and Politics are present within the work as he asks Shelley’s opinion on the events of World War Two, even though she chooses not to answer, preferring to speak of her friends and family instead. The subject of Mad Scientists and Monsters comes up as well in that he and Shelley discuss the relationship between Dr. Frankenstein and his monster for a bit.
Administrative Notes: Alexander Rubio, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner, CSUF (editing)