Hello, everyone. I'm Stephen West. This is Philosophize This.

Patreon.com slash philosophize this, philosophical writing on substack at Philosophize This on there.

I hope you love the show today.

So this episode's about the philosophical themes of the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

And I think out of respect to your time, it's worth it to clear up a few misconceptions real briefly right here at the start that'll help frame this whole thing. First of all, for anyone just getting started with this book, Victor Frankenstein's the name of the scientist that makes the monster in this book. The monster's not named Frankenstein. In fact, the monster in the book doesn't really have a name, which as we'll see, is part of the point that Mary Shelley was going for. Secondly, I think most people, when they think of Frankenstein's monster, they think of this, you know, giant green dude, bolts coming out of his neck. He's got a bowl cut, and he just sort of lumberes around all stiff, moaning at people, like, oh, you know, like he's a zombie or something. Just know, this is a Hollywood thing that came from when they made the Frankenstein movie in the 1930s.

This is nothing like the creature Mary Shelley describes in the book.

In the book, this creature is articulate.

He's fast, murdering people, planting evidence, framing people for murder.

I mean, the thing climbs up into the Alps at one point and surprises Victor Frankenstein just sitting on a glacier because he wants to have a private conversation

with them. Just know that as we talk about this book, this is the actual kind of monster

depicted in the story, Hollywood images aside. The last thing I wanted to clear up here is if you

wanted to feel horrible about how little you've done with your life. Fun fact, Mary Shelley wrote

this book when she was 18, 19 years old. It was published anonymously at first in the year 1818

when she was just 20. A book, by the way, were parts of it were a hundred years ahead of its time

in terms of the philosophy in it being popular to be discussed, a situation that's pretty

unbelievable on its own.

And it only becomes slightly more believable when you consider the fact that she was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft.

Legendary philosopher. We've done an episode on her.

Wrote a vindication of the rights of women, among other things.

But the reason I bring it up is because Mary Wollstonecraft dies just 11 days after Mary Shelley is born. So this is someone that grows up without a mom, but spends her entire youth admiring the work that her mother did. Her father, turns out, was a famous writer as well in William Godwin. And again, as an 18-year-old person on this planet, Mount Tambora erupts in Indonesia when she's 18, and while people are staying indoors a lot because of the after effects of that eruption, to get rid of some boredom.

She has a competition with some friends about who can write the scariest story.

And what she writes is her entry into this is the first draft of Frankenstein, considered by many to not only be the first sci-fi novel that was ever written, but also without question, one of the classic works of philosophical literature that everybody needs to read if they're into that kind of thing. Now, I said this book was published in the year 1818. But an important thing to note is that Mary Shelley made some revisions to the book when she was 34 in the year 1831. And we'll talk towards the end of the episode about those changes and what she was going for.

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