Profs & Pints San Francisco: Our Frankenstein, Ourselves

Profs and Pints San Francisco presents: “Our Frankenstein, Ourselves,” a deep dive into the wild and Romantic history of Frankenstein and its diverse cultural progeny, with Michael Chemers, director of the Center for Monster Studies and professor and chair of the Department of Performance, Play, and Design at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

More than 200 years since his story was first told, the name Frankenstein still sends a thrill of excitement up our collective spines. In 1818, the debut publication of the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by the then-unknown 19-year-old author Mary Shelley became the definitive origin of modern science-fiction. Frankenstein remains one of the most important novels of the past two centuries, and with the recent release of Guillermo del Toro’s new film reinterpretation of it, interest in it is at a high.

Come to San Francisco’s Bartlett Hall for a fascinating look at the origins, impact, and evolving retellings of Frankenstein with Michael Chemers, a scholar of monsters who previously has given excellent talks in the Bay Area on vampire literature and Jewish golem folklore.

Professor Chemers will discuss what led Mary Shelley, already tormented by cruel demons at the age of 19, to weave her monumental tale of a brilliant young medical student, Victor Frankenstein, who seeks to conquer death by constructing a living, intelligent creature out of dead matter. He’ll discuss the basic elements of the story, in which Frankenstein, disgusted by the result of his experiment, abandons his creature to a life of deprivation and loneliness until it becomes a true monster, willing to murder to get from its creator what it desires most: a companion and mate.

You’ll learn about the significance of the book’s subtitle, “The Modern Prometheus,” and what explains the enormous impact that Frankenstein has had not just on horror culture but on the development of scientific ethics over the past two hundred years. Professor Chemers will examine the effect of the Romantic Age on the story and discuss why some scholars argue that we’re still in that period.

The talk will be a perfect way to spend part of a long December night. (Tickets available only online. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Doors open at 5:30 and the talk begins at 6:30. Parking available nearby at the Mason O'Farrell garage.)

Image: An illustration from a 1922 edition of Frankenstein published by Cornhill Publishing Company.

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