There’s a lot of weird going around. As Hunter S. Thompson wrote, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” That’s what Mary Shelley did in 1816, the Year Without A Summer. Check out how a volcano, a frog, and a poet inspired an 18-year-old dreamer to create the first science fiction.
How Mary Shelly Turned Science Into Frankenstein
LIT AF Season 2 Episode 1
Nothing Says Authenticity Like a Letter
LIT AF Season 2 Episode 2
Mary Shelley opens Frankenstein with a series of letters from Captain Walton to his sister, telling of his expedition to the north pole and the stranger he encounters who tells a story… Why frame the book this way? For the same reason a handwritten letter in your mailbox – if that ever happens – strikes you differently than an email or a text. The letter is REAL.
My Family, My Friends, My Teachers
LIT AF Season 2 Episode 3
In this episode our narrator Viktor Frankenstein walks us through the moments in which he left home and began school. People dying of disease at home, being uncomfortable with leaving familiarity and making new friends – it sounds sort of like life after Covid lockdowns. Check out the undercurrent of impending doom that accompanies Viktor’s pursuit of knowledge… will curiosity kill someone’s cat?
Success Makes Victor Sick
LIT AF Season 2 Episode 4
Victor gets all the body parts he needs to build a monster. Sometimes success isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.