The words "mad scientist" inevitably summon up the picture of a deranged, obsessive individual with a lab coat and bad hair, working on some grandiose project that probably means trouble for humanity at large. Behind this cartoonish figure, however, lurks a complex series of ideas, emotions, stereotypes, and archetypes. In Screams of Reason: Mad Science and Modern Culture, David J. Skal investigates the whole issue of "our multilevel cultural waltz with the maniac in the lab coat" over the last two centuries. The first few chapters focus on the origins of the mad-science mentality in the early 19th century. The age of Darwin and the Industrial Revolution saw the birth of many of the stock figures and themes of horror and science fiction: Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, Dr. Moreau; creation of new life forms, contravention of natural law, science out of control. Then, in the early 20th century, the new medium of film helped make all of these into staples of popular culture. Succeeding chapters deal with types and trends in the mad-science phenomenon, touching on a variety of subjects, such as the classic horror movies of the 1930s, nuclear-age mutation and invasion fantasies, medical horror, the union of man and machine, apocalyptic entertainment, and "Alien Chic."
Movies certainly play a significant role in the whole mad-science phenomenon; Screams, however, is much more than a catalog of the classic horror and sci-fi entries. Skal's insightful, eloquent history gets at the psychological and social roots of our uneasy relationship with science and technology, and our attempts to master the fear of them.
Screams includes abundant notes, many black-and-white illustrations, and an appendix listing dozens of mad scientists from popular culture. Highly recommended. --M.V. Burke
From Kirkus Reviews
A remarkably detailed survey of a much-neglected cultural icon by a leading historian of horror films (Dark Carnival, 1995, etc.). As Skal points out, the mad scientist has been a central figure in science fiction from its beginnings: Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, and Dr. Moreau are among those whose names any reader of the genre would recognize instantly. And yet, the true blossoming of this ambiguous stereotype has not taken place in the pages of literary science fiction but rather in film, comics, and other less ``respectable'' media. After taking a brief look at the deeper implications of the iconnotably, a public awareness that the gifts of science are often of dubious value to the ordinary citizenSkal lifts off for a wide-ranging examination of some resonances between sci-fi and daily life, centered on a history of the monster movie. Drawing parallels between the Heaven's Gate cult and the Frankenstein monster, Skal examines the origins of Mary Shelley's famous novel, moving deftly between the circumstances of its composition and the Romantic social theories of which it was one expression. As a counterpoint, the illustrations show the faces of various Hollywood screen embodiments of the Frankenstein monster. This dialogue between the cerebral and the sensual, the literary and the popular, gives Skal's book an unusual breadth of reference. In a similar vein, the book segues between the career of Nikola Tesla, a real-life prototype of the mad scientist, and early sci-fi movies by the likes of Melies and Edison (who produced the first film version of Frankenstein!). Skal's familiarity with his subject is second to none, and his interest in significant intellectual and cultural issues, as well as the usual ephemera of film histories, is an added treat. Should appeal to serious students of modern culture, along with sci-fi movie fans. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
Mr. Skal is a devotee of horror movies. He appears to have seen every such film ever made, barring those that have not survived--and he has read about them. He divides the genre into the type descended from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the type descended from Bram Stoker's Dracula, without much consideration of the disparate origins of those novels--fear of incomprehensible forces in the first, fear of the malignant dead in the second. Those fears have a long history in myth and folktale. That they now center on the mad scientist is little more than adaptation to current conditions. Although some of Mr. Skal's observations are interesting, they do not require a backlog of old movie plots to make an impression. -- The Atlantic Monthly, Phoebe-Lou Adams
Skal's latest venture into the dark side of the movies deals with the perennial villains of imaginative melodramas--mad scientists--and provides an amusing and chilling odyssey....The most famous (or at least, bemused) scientists of literature and cinema--Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jack Griffin (the Invisible Man) and Dr. Moreau--are given the royal treatment. -- American Cinematographer, George Turner, December 1998
About the Author
David J. Skal is a leading historian of horror and monsters in film and popular culture. He is a frequent talk-show guest and has appeared on Charlie Rose, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, and Fresh Air. He lives in West Hollywood, California.
From The Washington Post
[A] pioneering book that uncovers the deep roots of many common fears of our age.
