SHELLEY UNBOUND: FRANKENSTEIN’S TRUE CREATOR AND WHAT IT MEANS

As most of you know, I rarely review books here, especially books of literary criticism, and especially one in which I was asked to contribute the Foreword, but this time I have to. The book in question is my friend of many years, and co-author Dr Scott D. de Hart's Shelley Unbound: Discovering Frankenstein's True Creator.  Rarely is a book of literary criticism essential reading, but this one is for the simple reason that reading the novel as a "ghost story" by Mary Shelley - the standard line - completely misses the point of the book. The problem here is reviewing a book without giving away all its arguments and secrets.

Shelley Unbound Cover

Dr. de Hart peels back many layers of meaning in Shelley's novel by a careful and meticulous comparison of the themes of Shelley's life and poetry, his normal modus operandi - writing anonymously and even then employing an amanuensis to record his words, usually his wife Mary - his driving ambition to create a revolution of culture in Europe, based around the principles and doctrines of the Illuminati, his obsession both with science and alchemy (with its obscure texts)... one could go on, but I think the reader gets the point: the arguments are marshaled here, neatly summarized and artfully presented.

This is not the beauty of this book however. The beauty of the book is that it is not dry academic literary criticism; it's a biographical study, literary criticism, and even an exploration of esoteric and alchemical themes that inform a major work of English literature, a work that, when the Mary Shelley mythology is stripped away from it, and its true author restored and his motivations known, reveals itself to be a prophetic work about man's coming of age in an era of science, and with the ever-present moral choices and dilemmas it presents. It is, in a word, a transhumanist prophecy long before the phenomenon even had a name, and it is a prophecy in depth. Politics, society, religion, morality are plumbed, and Dr. de Hart ably demonstrates the links between all these themes in Shelley's multi-layered contrapuntal poetry, and the themes of the novel.

Simply put, it is inconceivable that Mary Shelley could have authored such a complex work. Here, similarly, the book shines, for it is not an attack on Mary Shelley either, but an examination of why she would have been a party to what amounts to a grand literary hoax, one that has survived in academia since the book's subsequent re-printing with her listed as the authoress, a fact not readily appreciated until one remembers that when the book first appeared, it was simply published anonymously - Shelley's favorite M.O. - and that many literary critics of the time thought it to be by Percy Shelley himself.

Enjoy this one folks - it's well worth it, and it will contribute to a new appreciation of what is now happening all around us, as science seeks to intervene in the processes of life itself.

 

 

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Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

7 Comments

  1. henry on July 14, 2013 at 9:27 pm

    Speaking of what’s happening around us, here is a new development for consideration.

    “In Japan as well, another blow has been dealt against the cabal. Last week Japan’s Health and Welfare Ministry announced it was no longer going to administer HPV vaccines after they were found to be ineffective at preventing cervical cancer. What the Japanese news reports failed to mention is that investigators found evidence the vaccine was being used to sterilize women and that criminal charges were being prepared against Japan Medical Association and pharmaceutical company executives. This trail will lead to the World Health Organization and from there to the population reduction efforts of the eugenicist families like the Rockefellers and Bushes. Translation: they will be facing provable criminal charges of mass murder. ”

    “Does the New HPV Vaccine Cause Infertility? The Japanese Government Backs Out”
    http://www.techyville.com/2013/07/news/does-the-new-hpv-vaccine-cause-infertility-the-japanese-government-backs-out/

    “China says GlaxoSmithKline executives confess to bribery and tax crimes”
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/china-says-glaxosmithkline-executives-confess-to-bribery-and-tax-crimes-20130712-2pty3.html



  2. Frankie Calcutta on July 14, 2013 at 7:51 pm

    I thought the chapter on Shelley in Transhumanism was fascinating. I look forward to reading Dr. de Hart’s book. If college now is anything like it was when I was a student, I imagine this will get quite a few grouchy feminist’s burlap underwear in a bunch. I can almost hear the clamor now. I remember back in college when one of my more crotchety professors once stated that if you removed all of women’s contributions to western civilization, the course of history, science and art wouldn’t be changed in the least. What a hell storm he kicked up. There was even talk of a lesbian lynch mob (which later became the name of my band until I changed it to the Goyim Liberation Front).

    I imagine if Shelley Unbound gets enough controversial buzz it might catapult it into the NY Time Book Review. But then again, we know how much the NY Times hates the truth and any glimpse into their masters’ real agenda.

    Some will claim this is the equivalent of what Dr. de hart is doing to Mary Shelley:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llH6_bdglns

    One of the creepiest scenes in any movie. Thankfully Abbott and Costello were able to finally destroy the monster:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZQwVWTB2hI



    • rich overholt on July 22, 2013 at 12:00 pm

      ” All ( not just some*) unhappiness in the world is due to the wise-acreing of women.”~Gurdjieff. * My parenthetical contribution. Hah



  3. DownunderET on July 14, 2013 at 4:42 pm

    I’m on my third reading of “Transhumanism”, the first two goes at it fell well short of understanding.

    This time I’m reading it slowly that’s all I can say, but I must admit it is getting clearer. Saying that I will read Dr. de Hart’ book down the road, and I’m thinking like Transhumanism, it’s going to be A BUMPY RIDE.



  4. marcos toledo on July 14, 2013 at 11:45 am

    I have read Frankenstein in the last century I am looking forward to Dr. de Hart analysis of the book and it’s author. The bicentenary of it’s publication will soon be upon us . It will be interesting to see how Percy Shelly’s ideas have held up all these centuries and how prescient he was and shine light on the transhumanist agenda we now face.



  5. Robert Barricklow on July 14, 2013 at 8:45 am

    I’ve placed this on my reading list.
    There were several calibre authors
    who had a foot in different worlds
    where power dwelled/plotted.
    With imagination,
    a story could go places,
    ahead of the power curve.

    (Shades of Roger Bacon, in my mind’s eye.)



    • Robert Barricklow on July 14, 2013 at 10:16 am

      Interesting article came up at
      http://blacklistednews.com/

      “Decapitated worms can regenerate their brains, and the memories inside.”



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