FAQs: Why We Did It That Way, A User’s Guide

Why the Frankenstein Meme? What is a Meme?

Here is a partial definition from the online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:

Term coined by the biologist Richard Dawkins (1941-    ) in The Selfish Gene (1976), denoting a pattern of information which—analogous to the gene in Biology—tends to propagate itself. [….] A crude example is a chain letter claiming that desirable consequences will follow, or unpleasant ones will be averted, if only the message is copied to others. Sf and fantasy treatments generally amplify this propagational tendency into a compulsion, perhaps irresistible, which is experienced by the meme-infected mind.

We propose that the story of Frankenstein and his Creature are such a meme, infecting and compelling us to pass the story on in ever new iterations. Shelley’s allusions to Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a dark story the teller must tell to others, but that leaves them bereft, “sadder and wiser,” indicate that Shelley herself thought of her work in such terms: Frankenstein is designed as a story told to others that compels and destroys its hearer. Just as Frankenstein was shaped by several literary predecessors, including the Rime, it has, in turn, shaped several successors; the aim of this project is to identify those successors.

See http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/meme

Can you explain how you chose your key terms for the database?

Our list of Terms includes consideration of two broad categories, which we consider Direct and Indirect. Directly influenced works use characters drawn both from Mary Shelley’s work and from her life, such as Lord Byron (that famous model for Victor Frankenstein) and Mary Shelley herself. Indirectly influenced works are harder to categorize, of course, and always threaten to collapse; nevertheless, we seek to find useful themes found in Shelley’s novel that have been explored by writers over the past two centuries since its first publication.

Can you explain how you choose your “Theme” entries? There could have been many more!

We agree: but wanted to keep the themes manageable to keep them useful. Defining “major themes” in Frankenstein is not the same thing as defining all the key elements or themes from Shelley’s work that influence other works in meaningful ways. Our database terms are not an exhaustive list of all “themes” in Frankenstein, but a guide linking works that, in some definable way, use Shelley’s work as a precursor text, a taproot (as John Clute would say). For an example of a long list of powerful “themes” present in Frankenstein, see the “Themes” and “Contexts” sections of Curran Stuart, Editor, Frankenstein: The Pennsylvania Electronic Edition, from the University of Pennsylvania.

See http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Themes/

and http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Contexts/index.html

However, to try to let you in on our thinking, let us lay out the story arc as we broke it down in order to identify some of the most central and useful terms for the database. In defining influential story elements of Frankenstein, the terms must work in relation to one another to try to name discrete elements. In particular, there is a key set of linked terms used to define the basic story arc. The arc begins with the initial creation of what we name the ANDROID body; that event precedes the startling meeting of another mind, the facing of the POSTHUMAN awakening. After the meeting of the startling “other,” the dark ending of Shelley’s novel has produced two different, even contrary, readings: in the first, the all-too-common MAD SCIENTIST loses control of his experiment, creating a FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER which destroys him; the other, more subtle reading explores the BYRONIC HERO and the SYMPATHETIC MONSTER. Reading over these terms is helpful for understanding the logic of the database and its organization. We attempt to follow how authors over time have explored new variations of readings of Shelley’s text.

Got it. What about character? Who’s in, who’s out?

Character, at least, remains relatively straightforward. Victor and the Creature are the major borrowings from Shelley’s novel, but figures like Alphonse Frankenstein, Elizabeth Frankenstein, Henry Clerval, DeLacey, or Justine Moritz occasionally appear. Mary Shelley and Lord Byron are the major figures from Mary Shelley’s Circle, but Percy Shelley, John Polidori, Claire Clairmont, John Trelawney, Mary Wollstonecraft, and William Godwin, also might appear in stories. In the interest of space, we identify the main characters used, and include “Other (life)” and “Other (novel)” tags for those who appear less frequently. The entry “write ups” will include a discussion of who, from Shelley’s life or novel, appears in each particular story.

How were the works chosen for the database? What qualified a work for the database, and what disqualified a work?

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? Holes will remain…or perhaps we will go to far. We are choosing works that seem to have a salient connection to Shelley’s work in our reading of them, and then to map connections so scholars can comment. We are choosing works first that have more cultural value, as noted in awards or in reprintings…but we hope to cast our net widely in order to understand better the matter of “influence” in Shelley’s case, and how it means.

So, what do you call it? Is it Creature, or Monster, or creature, or monster?

We use “Creature”, as a matter of basic politeness to a fellow being in a cruel world. The Creature is called a “wretch” and a “monster” and a “devil” and some other unsavory things. We go with the more sympathetic “Creature” to identify Shelley’s deft way of making us sympathize with him. Readers, generally speaking, don’t like Victor but feel deeply about the Creature. Of course, if we quote someone else, we will use whatever word they use.

What about Science Fiction, science fiction, sf, or SF?

The genre is “science fiction.” If it is used as a term, then it would be “Science Fiction.” We also recognize “sf,” after we have introduced the term, as a correct abbreviation for the genre. “Sci-fi” is not to be mentioned in polite company.

What about other examples of Frankenstein’s influence on popular/contemporary culture in other media besides literature?

We focus on novels, short stories and plays, and occasionally graphic novels…things which are often the inspiration for the movies and other cultural artifacts influenced by Frankenstein. But we avoid trying to catalog all works of all kinds in the interest of keeping the project manageable. For a great study of Frankenstein in contemporary culture from its inception, see Susan Tyler Hitchcock, Frankenstein: A Cultural History (2007).

What earlier works should I explore if I want to see Shelley’s influences in writing Frankenstein?

For an in depth discussion, an excellent source is Chris Baldick, In Frankenstein’s Shadow: Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth-Century Writing (1987). The short answer is to look at the texts and authors Shelley herself alludes to or quotes: Milton’s Paradise Lost, Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the work of her parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and the poetry of Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. Creation stories from the Bible and in Greek mythology are also relevant.

Percy Shelley and Lord Byron are obviously significant parts of the Mary Shelley mythos. Which works of theirs should I explore to expand my understanding of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein?

For Percy Shelley, the poem “Mont Blanc” has long been recognized to be a good companion text because he worked on it around the time Frankenstein was being written. The two works share an approach to the sublime. “Mutability” is alluded to directly and “Ode to the West Wind” images the Romantic poet striving for the ideal. From Lord Byron, the curious reader might seek more on the Byronic hero. His closet drama Manfred is a good introduction; his poem “Darkness” is an end of the world poem tinged with sf that shares points of contact with Frankenstein and The Last Man; and Byron’s “Turkish tales” poems such as “The Giaour” and “The Corsair” offer descriptions of the Byronic Hero that captivated readers in his age. Both authors wrote works on Prometheus, linking those works to Shelley’s subtitle. There is much more, of course…and one can know that Mary Shelley read the works of these two closely, often writing up (for both) the fair copy to send to publishers. But there’s a start for you, and we would now like to go back to studying her influence on others.