Screams of reason
Subtitle: mad science and modern culture
By: David J. Skal.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 368
Subjects: Horror films -- History and criticism
Description: In Screams of Reason, David J. Skal explores our perennial fascination with demented doctors, crazed clinicians, and technology-obsessed fiends. From nineteenth-century Romantic literature to Dr. Strangelove and Hannibal Lecter, the mad scientist proves himself to be a figure of myriad masks and guises - a far more interesting archetype than the nerd-run-amok of B-movies would indicate.

Screams of Reason is an exploration of the prop-laden laboratories of 1930s Hollywood, the mad-science mystique that colors the cult of the computer, the pseudo-science folklore of UFO abductions, and the demonization of doctors and medicine in the brave new world of HMOs and managed care.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 337-358) and index.