Lit Talk*

There is one question the novel really, really doesn't want to answer. What does the Creature look like? 

While Mary Shelley describes the Creature, we still never really get a good look at him. Considering the plot of the entire novel rests on his hideousness, he’s remarkably difficult to pin down. In this episode, we are going to be getting into why. Why is a novel that is so focused on beauty, or the lack thereof, so cagey about what this monster looks like, and what Mary Shelley is trying to tell us about appearance, monstrosity, and the bizarre terrain of our own bodies?

We read Frankenstein as a novel about science, which it undoubtedly is, but it's also a novel about nature. The natural world is fundamental to the novel, in many ways, the landscapes serve as an additional character. They impact the plot, trigger emotional insights, and reveal fascinating messages to those who are wise enough to listen.  

This episode we will delve into how Mary Shelley’s romantic peers imagined nature, and how Mary, ever subtle, undermined this view and replaced it with her own unique warning. And while the views may be beautiful, be warned dear listeners, the places we will be visiting this episode are no paradise...

Before there was Mary Shelley, there was her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. She was an early founder of romanticism, a pioneering feminist writer, or as the press called her, "a hyena in petticoats". Her story is wild, wicked, and wonderful and had an enormous influence on the scary stories her daughter would one day write. You've heard of feminine rage, prepare to encounter the feminine strange, as we delve into how Frankenstein is a surprisingly feminist text.

When we say the words scientific revolution, what comes to mind? Perhaps it is the clean white lines of lab coats and test tubes, electric vehicles and virtual reality , the eccentrics and tech bros of silicon valley.  Needless to say, none of these things are to be found in Mary Shelley’s scientific revolution. Hers is grimmer, grimier, full of long shadows and dark hallways. It is grotesque and macabre, sharp scapulas and operating tables and nary a washed hand. It is dangerous, lethal, even. It is this world we will be exploring today...

In 1818, Frankenstein broke ground by creating space for its readers to interrogate the morals of the day’s emerging sciences. Within its safe and wholly hypothetical pages, it was a place where readers could engage with their fears of new technology, anxieties about religion, and the questions of what we owe each other. Frankenstein was forged in the crucible of revolution–scientific revolution, political revolution, and social revolution. It predicted a future of unbridled scientific advancement, one that perhaps far outpaced our emotional maturity and sense of responsibility towards the earth and one another. In this episode, we reintroduce you to the story and the fascinating woman who wrote it.

Over 200 years ago, in an old villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, a group of travelers decided to have a ghost story competition. The poet, the playboy, the doctor, the jealous step-sister, and the 18-year-old girl who would change literature forever. We speak of Mary Shelley, and her unholy creation, Frankenstein.

In the first season of our new podcast Lit Talk*, we will explore her story as you have never heard it before. All episodes available this fall.

Bond & Grace's Lit Talk* is the show for people who love to think, talk, and learn about books. Lit Talk* explores the strange, fascinating, and completely true stories behind your favorite classic novels. 

Each season investigates a work of fiction, its historical influences, the life of its author, and how we can apply its teachings to our modern lives. Scholars, industry experts, and book lovers join us in conversation to get to the heart of what makes these timeless stories so extraordinary, and why they are just as important today as they were when they were written.