WOMEN IN SCIENCE FICTION: MARY SHELLEY CREATED THE GENRE TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
Two hundred years ago, Mary Shelley sat down to write a ghost story and created science fiction. That’s how long we’ve had science fiction. Women write science fiction. Women have always written science fiction. But often, they have been ignored, or sidelined, or simply slid under the radar. The genesis of Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus, to give its full title, is a tale as oft-told as Shelley’s actual story of scientist Victor and his monstrous creation. Victor Frankenstein breaks the last taboo by daring to play god and create life, harnessing electricity to reanimate an eight-foot monster made from the stitched-together parts of stolen corpses. However, in the horror fraternity of Dracula, the Wolf Man and the Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster is completely science fiction, created by science, not the supernatural. And Mary Shelley’s novel is far more nuanced than the cartoonish image we have of the bolt-necked, greenish monster walking around in pursu