1. Hollis1
Dana Hollis
Dr. R. Clohessy
Eng 235 - 900
February 27, 2016
“Young Science Fiction” by D.S. Hollis
On a silver sky day in old Philadelphia with dark clouds hovering over shadowless land,
Benjamin Franklin gazed upward at his kite tossing in the ether and wondered what would
happen. – D.S. Hollis
Although this event popularized in colonial lore may be charming to think of, it may be
mere fiction, since it appears this event probably never happened.1 Nevertheless, fiction or not,
the event is grounded in plausible science and is not too far-fetched from reasonable action. The
kite-flying legend could be described as a scientific fiction. A few decades later there would be
another experiment with electricity, in an apartment in Ingolstadt, and that one was certainly
fiction, a fiction of science.
The nature of electricity was beginning to be assessed in the mid-18th century and
Franklin did at least use a lightning rod on his house.2 Investigations regarding electricity were
real. The legend of Franklin’s day out with the kite electrified society and charged curiosity as to
the possible manifestations of this spark from Zeus. Mary Shelly seemed curious, and this led to
a profound impetus towards the development of a new genre of literature. Shelly’s novel
1 Doren, Carl Van. Benjamin Franklin. New York: Viking,1938.
2 Doren, Carl Van. Benjamin Franklin. New York: Viking,1938.

2. Hollis2
Frankenstein, as a product of its time, had horrific imagery and gothic auras, but it also had
elements of this new genre, the genre of Science Fiction.
With the end of British domination in America, and the end of Napoleon at Waterloo, the
world was able to settle down somewhat from the turmoil of wars and turn their attention to
more enlightening and progressive pursuits. No time was wasted in creating an intrigue for
technological discovery. On a cold, dreary night in a villa by Lake Geneva, Mary Shelly, her
future husband, and friends, read ghost stories and had discussions regarding the possibilities of
electricity, and it was decided that everyone write a horror tale.3 From this night and a dream
Shelly had a few days later, the concept for Frankenstein emerged. She ended up titling the
work, “Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus”. The term ‘Modern Prometheus’ was actually
coined by Immanuel Kant in reference to Benjamin Franklin and his experiments with
electricity.4 The Frankenstein novel does have gothic and romantic horror elements, due to its
time in which it was conceived and written, but remember that in the story, it is the effects of
scientific machinations and scientific phenomenon that create the Monster and his ugliness,
which in turn creates the horror. The Frankenstein novel is both gothic horror and science
fiction; it has the qualities of both because it is a work that established a transition from old
world, romantic naivety, towards science and industry (which back then always had a dubious
aura to it, due to more religious influences on society) and a more sophisticated awareness of the
capabilities of science and technology, along with increased willingness to explore and discern
its nature. The passing of the baton, if you will, from agrarian, romantic nature, to industrial,
clinical science.
3 Radford, Tim. "Frankenstein's Hour of Creation Identified by Astronomers." The Guardian. Guardian News and
Media, 2011.Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
4 Heilbron,J.L. "Benjamin Franklin in Europe: Electrician,Academician,Politician." TheRoyal Society. The Royal
Society Journal of the History of Science, 22 Sept. 2007.Web. 24 Feb. 2016.

3. Hollis3
Even though we in modern times now know that the exotic notions of our gothic
predecessors may have been naïve in regarding the capacity of electricity to revitalize a
conglomerate corpse into life again, we should consider that at that time, to the scientifically
studious of those days, it would temptingly seem plausible. This can be seen in a quotation from
Marilyn Butler’s “Frankenstein and Radical Science”,5 where the idea is presented that
electricity, or ‘something analogous’ to it, could do duty to the soul, “For subtle matter is still
matter, and if this fine stuff can possess vital properties, surely they may reside in a fabric which
differs only in being a little coarser”. (Butler 306) Science Fiction is indeed exotic, but its
keystone ingredient is plausibility. Not so much a plausibility of all times, but for that time
period in which the work is written in. The novel Frankenstein is not mere gothic fantasy; it has
a taste of science fiction because it caters to a plausibility for its time.
Other literary genres, which are not so speculative, may often be attune mostly to their
own time and space, but science fiction, which is speculative and therefore more temporally
versatile, can transmute itself in time and space, and incorporate itself into other thought
patterns, if conveyed within a reasonable framework conducive to the time period. It can reveal
ideas and expressions that describe existence with a more cosmic lexicon. It has been suggested
that Mary Shelly may not have necessarily intended to create a new genre of literature in science
fiction,6 but simply because she did infuse the concepts of science into the story, such as Victor’s
enrollment in chemistry and natural philosophies, and later his use of electrical (which at the
time was extremely futuristic) machinery to actually create a new and whole life from a unique
method, using patchwork material medically reconstructed, and then also because she was able
5 Butler, Marilyn “Frankenstein and Radical Science”,om Shelly,Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.302-313.Print.
6 "Science Fiction - Alien Encounters | Literature and Performance." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia
Britannica.Web.23 Feb. 2016.

4. Hollis4
to convey all this in a simple enough way, without exotic machinations, in a way that was vague
and suggestive rather than literal and esoteric, the story of Frankenstein was established as a
science fiction work, analogous to the science of its time. Though attempts in antiquity
sometimes had notions that were similar to the ones in modern science fiction, they lacked
scientific and technological plausibility, which is a key distinguishing element between science
fiction and horror or fantasy. Cyrano de Bergerac, a notable figure from the first half of the 17th
Century, as an author wrote a couple ‘science fiction’ tales, but these tales had bizarre elements
from a mixture of science and romance, such implausible things as rockets powered by
firecrackers, and talking earrings.7 Clear examples of fantasy rather than proper science fiction.
By developing her protagonist as a ‘scientist’, a term not coined until 1834, and giving him
proclivities synchronized with actual innovations of the time, Shelly gave his efforts a tenable air
and established an electrifying channel for an emerging genre of literature, which generated
thrilling vibrations of astonishment and trepidation. Early in the novel it shows Victor
Frankenstein as enthralled in alchemy, and other more fantastic and superstitious practices, and
he does not forget these things, but then he gravitates to employing newer techniques of science
to discover the laws of natural processes, and this justifies him to be considered a “modern
scientist”.8 This profound change of mind by Victor allowed the novel to venture into plausible
7 "Science Fiction - Alien Encounters | Literature and Performance." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia
Britannica.Web.23 Feb. 2016.
8 Bartlett, Andrew Anthropoetics 13, no. 1 (Spring / Summer 2007) Frankenstein and Scientific Revelation
Frankenstein and the Problem of Modern Science(Part 2 of 3) English Department Kwantlen University College
Surrey, British Columbia,Canada - The Journal of Generative Anthropology Volume XIII,number 1
(Spring/Summer 2007)

5. Hollis5
imaginative territory no previous literary work had done before, and this warrants Frankenstein
to be considered a pioneering work of fiction.9
Shelly based her story on scientific innovations emerging in the period, and therefore stayed true
to a nature of plausibility for the science of her time. She had been inspired by the work of
Italian scientist Luigi Galvani who had discovered that dead frog’s legs twitched when touched
by sufficient electricity.10 The young Frankenstein brings his creature to life by infusing
enormous amounts of electricity into its body. In the novel, Shelly does not describe this
procedure in any distinct detail. Instead she relates it in a vague, mysterious way, and calls it a
‘secret’, and in this way maintains the story as a palatable, and therefore more plausible,
expression of science fiction for the society of that time. The anchor on the ‘suspension of
disbelief’ is made lighter. Citizens of the early 1800’s were not yet fully ready to accept science
and technology as a strong influence in their lives. Such notions could not suddenly befall them.
They were intrigued by new science, but as in concordance with the philosopher Schopenhauer’s
comment on what students under the age of Fifteen should avoid in study, “…..instruction in
subjects which may possibly be in serious error, such as philosophy, religion, or any other branch
of knowledge where it is necessary to take larger views”,11 so to might patrons of the early
1800’s do the same. Consequently, the novel avoids the label of Fantasy, and adopts the label of
Science Fiction, by gently nudging its audience to inquisitions of ‘what-if?’, within a bracket of
sanity.
9
Frankenstein and the Origins ofScience Fiction, From Anticipations:Essays on EarlyScience Fiction and its Precursors, ed.
David Seed(Syracuse: Syracuse Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 46-57
10 Wilde,SilkeDe. "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Work of Science Fiction." Futuristablog. 2012. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
11 Schopenhauer, Arthur. "Studies in Pessimism." Adelaide.edu. Adelaide.edu, 25 Aug. 2015.Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
chapter 6

6. Hollis6
Indeed, Frankenstein should be considered an example of science fiction, albeit a
fledgling one, and like virtually all good science fiction stories (or any story for that matter) it is
more than just an expose of technology, it is also a treatise on aspects of the human condition.
Especially those of good and evil. Even though the novel entertains us with intriguing forays
into the possibilities of electricity, it also reminds us of a moral base that we must maintain in
regards to our curiosities. This deeper involvement in storytelling, rather than mere expositions
of splendiferous and whimsical attractions, is the hallmark that allows speculative and
mechanistic fiction of a plausible nature to be legitimate and don the moniker of ‘modern science
fiction’. One of the main qualities of science fiction is its capacity to inform us of the potential
dangers of advanced technology. The novel Frankenstein does this in dramatic fashion.
There is symbolism and imagery in the story that flavors it to be scientifically fictitious,
as when the lightning plays on the summit of Mt. Blanc, and when Victor sees a “stream of fire”
issue from an old oak tree after a “dazzling light”, which reduced the tree to a raped, charred
stump. These create popping and crackling electric visions that bestow a logo of science on
Shelly’s seminal chronicle. And in the laboratory of the boy genius turned mad scientist, a
yellow and watery eye opens up and changes the face of literature forever.
Frankenstein, is evident as science fiction, since today even more, we wonder about
artificial sentience, a wonder spawned largely from the wunderkind author Shelly’s pen, and we
wonder, do androids dream of electric sheep? In losing paradise Frankenstein’s monster sought
solace, and in sleep he dreamt of electric sheep.

7. Hollis7
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Works Cited
Bartlett,Andrew Anthropoetics13,no. 1 (Spring/Summer2007) Frankenstein andScientific
RevelationFrankensteinandthe Problemof ModernScience (Part2of 3) EnglishDepartmentKwantlen
UniversityCollege Surrey,BritishColumbia,Canada - The Journal of Generative Anthropology Volume
XIII,number1 (Spring/Summer2007)
Butler,Marilyn“FrankensteinandRadical Science”,omShelly,Mary. Frankenstein. Ed.J.Paul
Hunter. NewYork: W.W. Norton& Company,1996. 302-313. Print.
Doren,Carl Van. Benjamin Franklin.New York:Viking,1938.
Frankensteinandthe Originsof Science Fiction,From Anticipations:Essayson Early Science
Fiction and its Precursors,ed.DavidSeed(Syracuse:Syracuse Univ.Press,1995), pp.46-57
Heilbron,J.L."BenjaminFranklininEurope:Electrician,Academician,Politician." TheRoyal
Society.The Royal SocietyJournal of the Historyof Science,22 Sept.2007. Web.24 Feb.2016.
Radford,Tim."Frankenstein'sHourof CreationIdentifiedbyAstronomers." TheGuardian.
GuardianNewsandMedia,2011. Web.20 Feb.2016.
Schopenhauer,Arthur."StudiesinPessimism." Adelaide.edu.Adelaide.edu,25Aug.2015. Web.
28 Feb.2016. chapter6
"Science Fiction - AlienEncounters|Literature andPerformance." Encyclopedia Britannica
Online.EncyclopediaBritannica.Web.23 Feb.2016
Wilde,Silke De."MaryShelley'sFrankensteinWorkof Science Fiction." Futuristablog.2012.
Web.25 Feb.2016