Do you consider FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley to be SF?

D

Dave Vicks

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I know the SF Author Brian Aldiss does. I wonder if Shelley read Voltaire's
SF story Micromegas?
 
Interesting about Micromegas!
Sounds like Gulliver's Travels was a possible inspiration.
 
Astro Pen said:
Absolutely No. It is Gothic Horror.
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It was published in 1823 which starting point of the Gothic Fiction. It's listed as a Gothic horror novel but , Its' also considered science fiction.
 
Well I don't care because it bloody well isn't sci-fi no matter how much you lot stick your fingers in your ears and shout in a fit of suspect revisionist thinking. :)
IMO It is rooted in golem myth, not projected science.

(My last word because this will just get circular :rolleyes:)
 
I doubt this debate could get as heated as the one I witnessed about whether Shelley intended the creature to be created from stitching together corpse parts or grown from scratch!
 
KGeo777 said:
I doubt this debate could get as heated as the one I witnessed about whether Shelley intended the creature to be created from stitching together corpse parts or grown from scratch!
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Hm, Im not sure , id want to get into that debate. :unsure:
 
It's clearly SF as we see it now. However it was written before there was anything else that could be said to be SF, so yes, a bit rough around the edges and it takes its influences from other things around it. As the first attempts usually are when there isn't a genre to measure up against.

Anyone saying otherwise doesn't understand what SF is.
 
Venusian Broon said:
It's clearly SF as we see it now. However it was written before there was anything else that could be said to be SF, so yes, a bit rough around the edges and it takes its influences from other things around it. As the first attempts usually are when there isn't a genre to measure up against.

Anyone saying otherwise doesn't understand what SF is.
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What about Johannes Kepler's 1608 science fiction novel Somnium ?
 
Vince W said:
It's perhaps the earliest form of biopunk sf.
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"I am by birth a Genevese; and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic. My ancestors had been for many years counsellors and syndics; and my father had filled several public situations with honour and reputation."
Hardly "punk"!
 
The Iliad has robots.

There's a John W Campbell Jr interview where he talks at length about fantasy and science fiction definitions:


 
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