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“Okay, class. You all should have finished your reading of Frankenstein last night- please break into groups of two and discuss your thoughts on it with a partner.”

Okay! Uh.

Aerin looked around. She didn’t really know any of her classmates that well- they seemed perfectly nice, but she never really had the chance to really talk with them; talking while class was going on was rude, and would also disrupt the experience for other students, and she didn’t stick around for afterschool activities, so…

She picked at random, settling on a kind-looking girl with rainbow hair the teacher sometimes caught reading in class, but usually had some cool and insightful things to say about the books they covered in class- the girl seemed to really love reading.

Aerin sits down across from her. “...Hi? Uh- what was your favorite part of the book? I thought the framing device of an arctic exploration was really cool, it really helps to ground the book in a specific time period and inform the science that inspired the book.”

“Alchemy!” Aerin got… really excited when alchemy was mentioned- that was early on in the book, and she had almost forgotten about it. “Alchemy as a field is incredibly interesting. We often talk about it like- magic, or like it's completely unscientific. And the alchemists were wrong, obviously- there's no such thing as a philosopher's stone- but a some of the procedures for chemicals we still use for refining chemicals was created by alchemists- phosphorus was discovered by an alchemist, and we basically use the same method to refine it today. And more-”

Aerin paused. Oh. Right. She was supposed to be talking about the book, not rambling about alchemy’s impacts on modern science. “Uh.”

Think fast, Aerin. You can loop this back around.

“Even back in Mary Shelley’s time, alchemy was seen as outdated and pretty much worthless, right? So, liking alchemy is a really interesting character trait to give a main character like Victor?"

"Oh, actually- you know how Frankenstein was the first science fiction book, right? At the time it was written, the cutting edge science was basically, hold on, lemme show you."

Aerin pulled her phone out of her pocket and went the Encyclopedia Brittanica page, pulling up an article on electrophysiology.

"At the time Frankenstein was written, the hot new science was running electricity through corpses to see what happened, because we had just figured out electricity was in the human body naturally and we wanted to find out what it did."

"Actually, there was this one specific case where they ran electricity through a deceased man, and he appeared to sit up and open his eyes and stuff. That's the sort of thing Mary Shelley was grappling with in the book- at the time, it was maybe looking like something people would straight up be able to do. Just like in modern science fiction about AIs and stuff."

"It really is amazing, isn't it? People are cool. Humans and everything we've managed to accomplish and build together are cool."

"Also, Victor Frankenstein was a b***h a** ******** and a bad scientist. If you create a weird monster you should be prepared to love him, or at least publish your findings in a peer-reviewed paper and provide your method. If it's not a replicable experiment, your data sucks."

Aerin seems very serious about that- then jumps when the teacher glances over at the two of them. "Language!" "Sorry!"

Aerin blushed, a little bit- just a faint dusting of pink on her cheeks from embarrassment. "Right."

"He brought about his own demise by being a shitty scientist and a worse dad. Because- the creature was nice, at first, before he got jaded by everyone hating and trying to kill him, all of the time because he had weird eyes. Just make him wear sunglasses, guys. They were already invented one thousand years ago. Or don't look at them. No excuses."

"It is! And important." Aerin looked like she was about to go on an excited spiel about the value of history in informing the knowlege humanity has today and the pre-existing biases that color what sorts of knowlege humanity seeks, but the mention of the Frankenstein book proper helped wrench her mind back on topic.

"He also could have told… literally anyone about his problems. Including his wife? Like, if you're getting married to someone and a giant monster is going to try and kill them, maybe tell them first? So they can decide whether or not they're willing to risk that."

Aerin quirked her head thoughtfully. "That's a good question? Probably not very, but they weren't actually married yet for almost the whole book- the creature attacked on their wedding night. I'm pretty sure divorces were treated differently to people canceling engagements. I think that's called… marriage annulment? I'm not sure. I'd have to look it up?"

Aurora gathering her things made Aerin glance at the clock. "Oh. Class is almost over."

After a second, she extended an uncertain hand out to Aurora. "Nice to meet you?"

"Glad I could? It was fun." Aerin looked at the clock; it was pretty much time for the class to be over, and today wasn't a lecture day; they could leave, since they were done.

Aerin picked up her backpack and slung it over one shoulder, heading out of the classroom, and calling over her shoulder, "I would stay and chat, but I have to go. Job stuff. See you another time."