Mary Shelley’s classic tale of horror and suspense “Frankenstein”, is seemingly a hybrid of science fiction and gothic literature. It has all the typical elements and characteristics of Gothic fiction, i.e dark stormy castles and grotesque monsters, however, it also bases a great deal of its plot upon non-existant, but believable, science. The combination of these two genres is easily accomplished and after thinking about many of the other works of Gothic literature and science fiction I come across, I realized that this combination of these two genres is a common thing in literature.
Shelley may have written one of the earliest examples of a gothic and science fiction hybrid, but the trend still continues today. Films like the recent “Daybreakers” also could be classified as Science fiction with Gothic elements. Originally the idea of vampires was a very gothic idea, “Daybreakers” combines this idea of a blood sucking entity with a futuristic story involving a world run by vampires using humans as producers of blood that they need for sustenance.
Gothic and science fiction used together in the same story makes for some interesting settings and plot lines. The success of these two genres together is obvious because Frankenstein is perhaps one of the most recognizable titles in english literature.
February 4, 2010 at 3:38 pm |
I didn’t realize that mixing gothic and sci-fi was a common thing. That’s pretty cool.
I wanted to see Daybreakers. I’m upset they took it out of theatres so early