This is a book that comes with formidable advantages – a terrific best selling author, a catchy title and a very thoughtful series of themes – (and there is my one and only concern about this latest Winterson offering) – I think it gets a bit crowded at times and, for some readers, it may be a bit of a roller-coaster ride.
Winterson has picked up on the genesis and text of the original ‘Frankenstein’ to explore parallels between that time, place and intellectual context with contemporary society, science, technology and events. Vintage recently (2019) released a new edition of ‘Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus’ with an afterword by Jeanette Winterson (it’s worth a read). That Promethean notion regarding the capability of humankind to self destruct has been explored here with considerable insight and often humour and much wit – there is a lot of satire and laugh out loud reading here alternating with careful analysis of philosophical and psychological issues.
I find it easy to say that the current industrial and political revolution with globalisation implications for employment and social life, computers and fast running technology changes that include robotics and AI has parallels with the past and merits exploration. So Winterson alternates the romantic, sexual, literary and political lives of the ménage of Mary Shelley, her husband the poet, Byron and others with a contemporary group some even sporting the same names with a twist and living, researching and exploring contemporary and futurist issues.
She ransacks the time of writing of the original for a variety of references that continue to echo today – think jacquard looms, industrialisation, Peterloo, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, Babbage and the Difference Engines 1 and 2. One of the associates in the original scary story contest was Polidori who wrote “The Vampyre” which became the starting point for the enduring vampire format in fantasy fiction and the enjoyable contemporary opera of the same name – another parallel!
Winterson sprinkles on more recent references in the form of Turing’s homosexuality and the birth of programming and what, for me, was a small key reference to IJ (Jack) Good who worked at Bletchley Park. His momentous problem solving on ciphers provided an exemplar of the kind of creative thinking no form of AI of which I am aware is capable.
Two news items I noted in the last few days included a computer system which monitored a patient from ambulance collection onwards checking for signs of sepsis (often missed by doctors) and alerting medical staff to this danger plus a method of supercooling donated organs to -4C that triples the time they can remain viable without ice crystals forming. It is easy to see where Winterson is going with her two themes of AI extending and transplanting life on a non-physical basis and the use of refined sexbots and their marketing. The latter manages to also introduce the theme of transgender. She archly manages to have her fun with the idea of sexbot dolls ..
“Ron sat back. Claire was staring at him. She said, You were sent to me tonight.
You reckon? said Ron.
Claire said, I believe in your vision, Ron. I believe it was real.
Thanks, said Ron.
But you have put your vision in the service of Satan! Not humankind … Satan. Lust is one of the Seven Deadly Sins!
Men will always want women, said Ron quietly.
Claire’s eyes were shining. Have you ever thought of manufacturing a doll for Jesus?
Do you think he wants one? asked Ron.
I am talking about a Christian Companion, said Claire. Yes! It’s coming to me now! For the missionary, for the widower, for the boy tempted by the flesh. A Sister in Christ who could also …
Fuck you? said Ron.
That is a little crude, said Claire. I have an MBA, by the way, in Management. Claire! Wait! I said. I thought you were here to investigate the future of our souls. Now you want to partner up with Ron in the bot business?
I go where the Lord leads me, said Claire, and I believe that my Lord has led me to Ron Lord.
They certainly share a surname, I said.
This can be a wonderful complex read that can make you laugh and think at the same time and that has to be a pretty good thing – and you have to love that title and ponder a little.
BCC Library has 49 copies!
queerreaders 