Hey, Frankenstein! We need to talk.

“Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity and ruin.”

Mary Shelley wrote that in her classic science fiction work Frankenstein, which was first published 200 years ago this year. We still find the book relevant to our daily lives—as well as our dark fantasies and very real futures. How is that possible?

Jason Delborne, associate professor of Science, Policy and Society at NC State, will lead a conversation about Shelley’s enduring novel in this spring’s first Read Smart book discussion at the Cameron Village Regional Library on Wednesday, March 14 at 7 p.m.

“Shelley’s Frankenstein is a story that taps into our excitement and anxiety about the power of science and technology to blur our understandings of nature, culture, and human nature,” Delborne says. “The novel is more personal than many remember, and our discussion will include attention to the ways in which this myth lives on in our culture, as well as how changes in society and technology create new registers for this ‘monstrous’ tale to be shared and interpreted.”

The NCSU Libraries and the Cameron Village Regional Library team up to foster community conversations about great books with NC State’s most engaged scholars in the Read Smart series.

All Read Smart discussions are free and open to the public and are held at the Cameron Village Regional Library, 1930 Clark Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27605. Authors are not in attendance. The series is sponsored by the Friends of the Library of NC State.

Later this spring, on April 11, David Zonderman of the Department of History will talk about Heather Ann Thompson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy.”

The spring 2018 Read Smart series schedule is:

“Frankenstein by Mary Shelley”
Wednesday, March 14, 7-8 p.m. at the Cameron Village Regional Library (1930 Clark Avenue Raleigh)
We celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s classic work of science fiction, with this discussion led by Jason Delborne, associate professor of Science, Policy and Society, at NC State.

“Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson”
Wednesday, April 11, 7-8 p.m. at the Cameron Village Regional Library (1930 Clark Avenue Raleigh)
David Zonderman of NC State’s Department of History will lead a discussion of this Pulitzer Prize-winning work that deals with racial conflict, mass incarceration, police brutality and dissembling politicians. Thompson will be the featured speaker during History Weekend at NC State, April 14.