(SFF Bingo): Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

I put this one on the list not only because it's a foundational work of speculative fiction (and according to this list, the GOAT), nor because it would provide useful context for all its derivative works (link, in this context, is spoilery for a different book), or because it's in the public domain so no library waitlist, although those are all good incentives. What pushed me over the line was some Redditors'/Goodreaders' classification of it as "Dark Academia," a bingo square I think I would have a pretty difficult time filling in the wild. (I don't like deconstruction/subversion, and I prefer standalones!)

So, do I agree that it fits for that? Yeah! Specifically, chapters three and four, where Frankenstein narrates his university days in Ingolstadt, has the aesthetic of "forbidden knowledge," "secretive research," and so forth.

None but those who have experienced them can conceive of the enticements of science. In other studies you go as far as others have gone before you, and there is nothing more to know; but in a scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder.
 

Frankenstein is only 19 when he has the insight that leads to creating artificial life, and 21 when the monster is awakened! I had not osmosed that part, but then, Mary Shelley was only 18 when she wrote the first draft.
 

There are several layers of frame stories. The prologue/epilogue consist of letters from Robert Walton, who's trying to discover the North Pole, home to his sister, Margaret. (I had no idea this would be a crossover with polar exploration nonsense fandom and was amused by this!)

I commenced by inuring my body to hardship. I accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to the North Sea; I voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep; I often worked harder than the common sailors during the day and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics, the theory of medicine, and those branches of physical science from which a naval adventurer might derive the greatest practical advantage.

Roald Amundsen approves of the "suffering to build some character" strategy.

While his ship is stuck in ice, Walton meets Victor Frankenstein, who's riding a dogsled, and Frankenstein narrates his story in flashback. It turns out that after creating the monster, Victor was horrified and ran away; they didn't meet again for two years, and at that point the monster narrates what he's been up to in the intervening time (six of the twenty-four chapters), most of which was "spying on a French family living in exile in a forest in Germany," so their story gets its own flashback.

For me, the strongest parts of the book were the way in which Frankenstein and the monster take turns playing different roles as God, Lucifer, and Adam (the monster has read "Paradise Lost" and quotes Milton). Sometimes the monster accuses Victor of being a bad creator, not looking upon him with love or giving him a companion, but at other times they both express the perils of reaching for knowledge. When the monster shows up speaking with florid thees and thous, I was like, he's been out of the picture for two years, how did he learn to speak English or French or whatever language? But his flashback does answer these questions--the monster's "childhood" is a series of discoveries, and the search for knowledge and technology is a fundamental SF theme that takes on a new light here.

I quickly collected some branches, but they were wet and would not burn. I was pained at this and sat still watching the operation of the fire. The wet wood which I had placed near the heat dried and itself became inflamed. I reflected on this, and by touching the various branches, I discovered the cause and busied myself in collecting a great quantity of wood, that I might dry it and have a plentiful supply of fire.

Whether a fully-formed "adult" would be able to figure out things like food and drink ex nihilo, without any caretaker or frame of reference, is questionable, but even when it's contrived, the details like "which were the first words he learned and how" were a unique perspective. I enjoy the SF aspects and people trying to choose their own fate more so than the horror, unremitting tragedy, parts.

Unfortunately, there are also a lot of ??? aspects.

-Frankenstein spends the first couple chapters describing his family and happy childhood. Fine. Then a couple chapters later, there's a blatantly painful "as you know, Bob," with a letter from his adoptive sister, Elizabeth, (hold that thought) "reminding" him about the family's maid, Justine. "You probaby don't remember her so I'll summarize it...of course, you liked her a lot." What??? You could have just filled that in in chapter two. (He's not the only one; Walton, in his letters to Margaret, does something similar but a little less egregious with the "as you know, my ambition has always been to be an explorer.")

-Speaking of; Elizabeth was adopted as a young child when her Italian foster parents were having difficulty supporting her. Okay, fine. But she always calls Victor her "cousin" and his parents her "aunt and uncle." And also, their mom has basically had them engaged since childhood?? They even lampshade it a couple times when Elizabeth and Victor's father are like "you seem out of sorts, are you in love with someone else and too honorable to admit it? Or are your feelings for Elizabeth strictly platonic?" Uhhhh.

-The monster follows Frankenstein across Europe, on ships from the continent to England and Scotland, and talks at one point about sailing to South America if he gets the opportunity. How is he hiding? Stowing away on ships? The guy's eight feet tall, people will talk. (Towards the end, when they're codependent "nobody is allowed to hurt you but me" frenemies, people do start noticing him more.)

-When Frankenstein's youngest brother dies, he returns home and catches a glimpse of the monster out in the Alps. From then on, he becomes absolutely convinced that the monster is guilty, even when there's circumstantial evidence pointing to someone else. As it happens, he's right, but his assurance that early feels unjustified. Like, from his (and the reader's) perspective, at that point there's nothing that would explain how the monster wound up in Victor's hometown or around Victor's brother. What are the odds?

-I don't know when exactly the "instead of killing the guy I don't like, I'm gonna kill all his loved ones and make him feel guilty, that'll screw him over even worse" trope originated (I've seen criticism for it being used anachronistically), but surely after the creature has already shown his modus operandi on multiple occasions, Victor would at least use a little genre savvy? No?

-At the end, Frankenstein is telling Walton "don't be me, don't be so obsessed with discovery and glory that you traverse where man was not meant to go." Then the crew is like "if the ice breaks up we demand to go back, we're not sticking it out here any longer." Frankenstein, from his sickbed, goes off on a rant about "you're such cowards, you only like adventure when it's fun and easy." Are we supposed to infer that he's deliberately doing a reverse psychology thing, trying to get Walton to turn back? Or is he just super fickle? (The digressions that boil down to "I wanted revenge. Then a day later, the sun came out and it was a nice day and I felt fine. Then the next day, I decided for the first time I wanted revenge," make me suspect the latter.)

-The monster's demand (after he's already killed Frankenstein's brother and framed Justine for it) is "build me a female companion and we'll go live alone together." This ties into the Genesis themes--Adam had Eve, and in Milton's version, Satan has a bunch of demon friends. At first Frankenstein thinks this isn't unreasonable, but then gets cold feet when he thinks about the prospect of them having kids and letting loose an entire species of monsters. Which, we don't know what would have happened, but it's a fair speculation.

The monster basically taught himself to speak and read, so I guess he's imagining "oh, if I have another creature, she won't be lonely, I'll teach her everything she needs to know about the world, and we'll be happy together." But the idea that she might have desires or hopes that differ from his doesn't seem to have occurred to him. This is how he feels looking at Justine: "the murder I have committed because I am for ever robbed of all that she could give me, she shall atone. The crime had its source in her; be hers the punishment."

I'm not sure what Shelley's intent was, it's probably an "everyone sucks here" situation, but "I'm entitled to a woman's body, if women reject me and think I'm ugly, I'm just gonna kill a bunch of people and it's the women's fault" is yikes territory two centuries later.

Bingo: Like I said, very likely using for Dark Academia. Could also count for Dreams, Prologues/Epilogues (the Walton letters aren't included as part of a "chapter"), past Readalong, probably Multi POV.