Title: The Dead End

Author: David Case

Date of First Publication: 1969

Place of Publication: The Cell: Three Tales of Horror (Hill and Wang Publishing)

Type: Short Story

Characters: No Character

Themes: MAD SCIENTISTS/MONSTER; BYRONIC HERO; ANDROID

Critical Summary: Arthur Brookes works in a museum and is called to see the curator, Clyde Smyth. Asked to look over a few case files describing a creature seen in South America, Brookes reads about the involvement of Hubert Hodson, a scientist studying human mutation and human genes. Brookes and Smyth travel to Ushuaia, finding the man who saw the creature and hoping to speak with Hodson in person. Following the creature, they discover that the origins of its creation lie with Hodson. Hodson created his creature to study him, not to claim fame. He wanted to create something no one else had but does it in a way even worse than Victor Frankenstein. While Frankenstein harvested parts from dead bodies, Hodson has uses living people and mutates their bodies. Hodson believes what he has done is a good thing and believes it could be the start of a whole new generation of immortal beings. The creature is a man but now in its most basic form.

This story is rooted in Frankenstein, taking its experiments to a whole new level of mad science. The Mad Scientist makes a monster. The Byronic Hero disdains common humanity. The body is transformed in ways strange and frightening.

Administrative Notes: Christina Petersen, CSUF; Alexandra Roman CSUF (editing)