One of the reasons I love fiction is that it has the expiration date of a twinkie. Well, that’s not always true, sometimes it has the lifespan of a may fly, but even decently done fiction lasts much longer than the vast majority of straight forwardly written text because the communication of an idea within fiction only works if its done thematically, rather than directly. This immunizes fiction from being tossed about like a rowboat in a hurricane by the hourly crises that worries and concerns humanity.

Earlier I wrote about the modern myth of Frankenstein. The themes found in it have been echoed and amplified by writers since then because they continue to be relevant even today. Even the most self-assured of genetic scientists has to have at least a sneaking suspicion that their human frailties will give less than stellar results. Or that the creation will take on a life of its own. 2001: A Space Odyssey is nothing more than a re-telling of this story in a different setting. All of this from a story written by a 19 year old 150 years ago.

Mary Shelley wrote this myth at the tender young age of 19. Part of what I find fascinating about the story is that Shelley deliberately crafted Frankenstein to be a story that deliberately communicated truth. The original subtitle of the story was “The Modern Prometheus”. Not to point out the obvious but Frankenstein is a cautionary tale of the effects of abusing the power of science. That’s quite a penetrating insight for someone who was only 19 years old, not to mention who was living at a time where science was decidedly less powerful than it is today (although it may be that in the mind of the average person the potential of science was far greater than what it has delivered).

Part of what defines a myth is its endurance. Frankenstein has been re-created, and re-told dozens of times. It was first committed to film in 1910 by Thomas Edison (a film that once was lost, but now is found), in 1931 James Whale filmed a version of Frankenstein that changed key elements of the story, Hammer Horror practically was founded on their production of The Curse of Frankenstein, Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein took aim and paid homage at the classic story, and of course you have various other references to it such as the Munsters, and FrankenBerry.

Creating a story with that kind of shelf life and popularity is what many if not all authors strive for. But why did this story become a myth while so many others have been forgotten? Part of it is just the sheer, raw, God-given talent of Shelley, but part of it has to do with her subject matter and themes. Shelley was living at a time when the perception of what could be accomplished in the area of science was seen as limitless, far more so than today. The world was being re-made in the image of man, the result being eventually the industrial revolution. Many traditions and old ways were being swept aside by advances and while many were the direct beneficiaries of those advances the kind of whole sale change being made brought a lot of uncertainty. Shelley tapped into that uncertainty with Frankenstein.

An interesting side note to all this is Shelley wrote Frankenstein on a visit to Lord Byron’s estate with some friends. One of those friends happened to include John William Polidori who wrote The Vampyre at the same time. This story set off the entire genre of romantic vampire fiction. So a chick writes a horror story about a re-constituted corpse running around killing people including his own creator, and a dude writes story about a sappy vampire. Whodathunkit.

They are:

There
You
If
When
As
Very
Really
Am/Is/Are/Was/Were (“to be” verbs)
So
Because

What’s that? You want to know why they’re overused, and how to correct your writing? Well, click on the link then!

Of particular note is that Stephen King is publishing a book of short fiction, which has always been his best medium.