美文欣赏Mary Shelly and Her Monster.docVIP

Mary Shelly and Her Monster It is difficult to look into the most well known work of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, her novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, for some biographical significance of her life since she wrote it before her life really began, at the tender age of eighteen. Still, I find the work itself is significant for several reasons. First, it is the only survivor of four ghost stories Marys esteemed circle of friends attempted to write during the Summer of 1816 while staying together in Geneva. The group included her more talented and well known husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, the Lord Byron and his physician John Polidori. Oddly, Mary was by far the least talented of the group, the rest of whom were already well known in the literary world. Secondly, her story, which is often thought of as part of the Gothic tradition, is really the first ever science fiction novel. Not only did a remarkable girl of eighteen give us a new literary genre, that would eventually become the vehicle of literary giants like Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradberry, she also gave the world of liberal thinkers a means of publicly examining controversial matters in a non-threatening way. Some may recall that Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, quit producing the traditional TV dramas that made him a success and earned him several Emmy awards, entering instead the world of science fiction because he wanted to deal with important social issues without be censored by his producers. It is also common knowledge that Star Trek gave us our first interracial television kiss back in the 1960s. For all the sci-fi morality plays that have likewise stretched our imaginations, forced us to look at issues we might otherwise shun, and broken stereotypes, we owe a bit of thanks to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Finally, the story of Frankenstein has endured and entertained readers for nearly two-hundred years, unrivaled at the pinnacl