While visiting the British Library I saw a lot of amazing works. Seeing books and pages centuries old really gave a perspective of how humanity has changed over the years. One of the things we saw that interested me the most was the three volume collection of the first edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I have always respected Shelley’s work, even though I have yet to read her famous book. Instead I know her as the inventor of the Sci-Fi genre, something I rarely heard her getting credit for.
I have always loved sci-fi when it’s written well, but unfortunately it has been historically a male-centered genre in modern pop culture. From Flash Gordon to Star Wars to the hundreds of other sci-fi books and movies, while these pieces of media are enjoyable they often are written, produced, and marketed to men. Just about anything that includes excessive action and violence is usually assumed to be a masculine medium, which often goes hand in hand with sexist tropes.
It is for this reason that Mary Shelley’s work fascinates me. She wrote Frankenstein when she was only 19, a year younger than me. Her butterfly effect on culture has influenced writers from every corner of the world. It was quite amazing to see the first edition of this legendary story. It only makes sense for it to be displayed next to the works of Da Vinci, the Beatles, and the Magna Carta.