Give 19-year-old Mary Shelley credit for dreaming up a world-altering idea and single-handedly concocting the genre of science fiction. Frankenstein was regarded as Gothic sensationalism when first published - a lurid tale of a scientist driven mad by his obsession to animate the dead. It has earned the status of "literary classic" because the questions it asks remain unanswered, and the issues it raises continue to create intellectual and cultural divides. How does Victor Frankenstein respond to the terrible crimes that he sets in motion? By lying in bed for months at a time, plagued with delirium. Toward the end, when his rescuer is describing the nobility of his passenger's spirit, you feel like yelling, "Are you nuts? He's a spoiled aristocrat wuss-boy who couldn't be bothered to clean up his own mess!" Shelley's book continues to ask tough questions, two centuries after its creation. Who controls life and death? What constitutes human life? Should there be limits placed on scientific research? Literary scholar Lance Rhoades explores this complex story at the Lacey Timberland Library.

WHAT POSSESSED MARY SHELLEY?, 5:30 p.m., Lacey Timberland Library, 500 College St. SE. Lacey, 360.491.3840 or www.TRL.org.