Customer Reviews

Screams of Reason: Mad Science and Modern Culture

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After publishing books on horror films in American culture, the career of filmmaker Tod Browning, and the history of Dracula from Bram Stoker onward, David J. Skal has chosen to explore the role of the mad scientist in literature and film during the last two centuries. His book, "Screams of Reason: Mad Science in Modern Culture," begins with Mary Shelley's conception of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, touches on Drs. Jekyll and Moreau, and finally moves on to the twentieth century and its attendant griefs - including, but not limited to, the threat of nuclear war and the career of writer Robin Cook. Skal's main thesis - and it's a good one - is that the public's fear and distrust of scientists and technological innovation has been reflected primarily in the arena of popular entertainment. Skal writes well about the uneasy relationship most people have with science (ie, fearful and antagonistic on the one hand, but unable to live without cars, phones, and computers on the other). The best part of this book is the first half, which mostly deals with Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. From the life of Mary Shelley to the theatrical and film adaptations of her famous novel, the first half of "Screams of Reason" is fascinating and compelling reading. The second half is also interesting, but is sometimes so fragmented and tangential that Skal's main points are lost. Also, he seems unable throughout the second half to draw very many definite conclusions, allowing quotes and examples to simply stand on their own. "Screams of Reason" is most valuable as a sourcebook on Dr. Frankenstein and his ilk, and as a very enjoyable book about popular culture. A wealth of deep insights into the role of the mad scientist in films of the twentieth century will have to be provided by the reader, however.

This is a light, unfocused book. It's supposed to be about mad scientist movies, but the author is all over the place. He starts off by re-telling chunks of his other book, The Monster Show. Then he writes about Mary Shelley and horror literature. He's off to a bad start, repeating himself and having trouble sticking to movies.

By chapter four, he gets to World War II and the post-war period, when mad scientists had become a significant part of popular entertainment. He tries to write about how the public reacts to the Manhattan Project and scientists like Einstein, but his analysis seems to be part of a different book. Is he writing about Mary Shelley, horror movies, science, or what?

Chapter five is all about alien visitations and flying saucers. Chapter six is about mad medical doctors like Mengele, doctor Frankenstein, Robin Cook's book 'Coma' (and the film), Dead Ringers, and AIDS. Chapter seven has something to do with flesh and cyborgs --- I think. It's not clear what that chapter was supposed to be about. The author wraps it all up with a list of famous mad scientists. The list is filler, but I enjoyed reading the "mad ambition/achievement" for each one.

This is good bathroom reading. The subject matter is fun because it's about popular culture and mad scientists, two topics that are never dull. But it's poorly-edited, with the feel of an enthusiastic rough first draft. My guess is that after the success of The Monster Show, Skal sent the idea for this book to his publisher, they loved the proposal, and he hammered it out quickly for fun. That's no crime, but I was really disappointed with it..

Mad scientists have been a stape of US and world horror cinema since the very beginning; at no time has the stereotype left us abd today it's stronger than ever. David Skal, the esteemed historian of B movies, has tried to trace this slippery trail from Lon Chaney all the way to the present. As he points out, Hannibal Lecter is today's version of this old, satisfying trope, and Lecter's experiments with moths and menstrual blood can be seen as modern-day versions of the bizarre dreams of Dr. Frankenstein.

Standing slightly outside of society, although given cultural equity in the name of university educations, the mad doctors and scientists who people our movies are always judging us, until the time comes when they get judged themselves (see Franju's EYES WITHOUT A FACE).

What's all this heckling from other reviewers about Skal's scattershot approach? Cut him some slack, he's trying to entertain and educate us at the same time, that calls for a bit of digression here and there.

True, Herr Doktor Skal?

Just from its title alone I was delighted to discover
this book. Mad science, scientists and 19th-20th
century Scientism is a remarkably important and overlooked
aspect of our culture and its progress.
And Professor Skal gets closer to providing
a history and understanding of this cultural
iconography than anyone has ever been able to do.
Much credit is due him!
However, as fascinating and stimulating and just plain right
as most of his thesis proves to be, equal parts suffer from
that most dread of all contemporary ills - ACADEMIC HUBRIS!
(And yes, I know he is not an academician. But a rose by
any other name...)

The last three chapters and the conclusion suffered from too much
specious overreaching; an attempt to somehow hyper-link his
way through the tangle of ideas/imagery/opinions that he was brave enough to try and decipher in the first place.
Obfuscation
rather than clarification was usually the result of all those

cross-references. Perhaps a separate volume would have been
more appropriate, giving the Professor a chance to stretch out
his line of reasoning.

Do not get me wrong! A VITAL ADDITION to any cinema/science-fiction/horror or popular culture student or just plain fan's library. As in his excellent Monster Show, the chapter on B Movies is worth owning this book for -- terrific insight!

Excellent quality hardcover, readable font, nice paper, some well
chosen pictures along the way.

(BUT, definitely overdue for a less expensive softcover edition!)

One last criticism, though:

The chapter on Alien Chic seques from a UFO sighting the
author recalls from his college years. I found it depressingly
typical - and illustrative of this otherwise wonderful book's
flaws - that his personal experience did not inspire a better understanding of such an important subject.
It always saddens me to find an excellent mind such as Mr. Skal's more or less shuttering itself off from reality in favor of "academic objectivity", or the pristine pursuit of
a cultural theory. The fact that his repression of
the facts associated with UFOs needs to find justification from Maven-dom, as well as movie release dates,
actually only serves to reveal his own monomania, and
therfore the book's primary thesis.

Just what the doktor ordered?

I picked this book up at a used book store and loved it. I've always had a fascination with the archetype of the 'Mad Scientist' and the earliest versions were actually the Medieval Alchemists. In our modern culture, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is probably the first and then you'd have Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll" or Jules Verne's "Captain Nemo". After that I've always loved the 1950s for their whcaked out Atomic- Mutated-Monsters-&-Invading-Space-Men archetypes.

From Dr. Cyclops to Dr. Moreau, author David Skal discusses the relevance and art of introducing the weird physics and mutations of these half-cocked brainiacs who usually end up causing more harm than helping.

I got into the Mad Scientist persona some years ago when I began to explore Radionics, Psionics and take vitamin supplements. No I don't have a white lab coat (but I may remedy that soon! lol) however the idea of unleashing some sort of havoc upon the world has excited me to the point of wanting to create the ultimate Frankenstein monsters.

The scariest part is that art imitates life (or is it vice-versa?) and where a lot of people used to fear the devastation of a nuclear holocaust, now it it's the mad scientists who create the ultimate germs which kill everything. There have been some good films done in the past 20 years covering this aspect of Mad Science and Mr. Skall discusses them as well.

If you'r a fan of the Mad Scientist archetype, then this book is a fun and entertaining read (also quite easy as well) and you'll enjoy the last section where he lists the many Mad Scientists and the movies they appear in. For that alone, the price of the book is worthwhile!

I rate it five out of five stars for its completeness and worthiness to add to your collection of material about the Mad Scientist. Plus if you're a fan of the 50's weird Sci-Fi films, this will help flesh out some you may have missed. Recommended.

A mad scientist's dream book! There are more lunatics, would-be world conquerers, brilliant but misguided vivisectionists, and downright frightening personalities than in the last *three* Danielle Steel novels! (Not that I read them, of course...) Any mad scientist worth his salt needs to pick up this book...even the maddest of us could use the examples within of Doctors Frankenstein, Jekyll and Moreau as epitomes to strive for...and the extensive overview of movies gives me plenty of ideas of cinema to inflict upon my latest test subject. With this book, I WILL RULE THE WORLD! BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!