Amazon.com
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
Book Description
From the author of Hollywood Gothic and The Monster Show, the definitive book on the men in white coats who haunt our technological dreams and nightmares. From Frankenstein to Jurassic Park, the mad scientist is one of the modern world's most instantly recognizable cultural icons. Now, David Skal explores popular culture's perennial fascination with demented doctors, crazed clinicians, and technologically obsessed fiends. A prototype outsider, shunted off to the sidelines of serious discourse--to B-movies, pulp novels, and comic books--the mad scientist, the author argues, serves as a necessary lightning rod for otherwise unbearable anxieties about the consequences of modern science and technology. Employing a witty, highly readable style, Skal lovingly chronicles the mad scientist's quest for world domination, from nineteenth-century literature to the snap-crackle-scream apotheosis of 1930s Hollywood to the mad-science mystique that colors the cult of the computer, UFO abduction folklore, and the demonization of contemporary medicine.
Customer Reviews:
Skal's Treatise on Mad Scientists a Winner.......2004-08-07
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.
Amusing but sloppy.......2004-05-19
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..
Some Things We Are NOT Meant To Understand!!!.......2002-08-18
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?
A wonderful history of Dr. Frankenstein and his ilk.......2000-06-02
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.
The best overview of mad science's greatest names!.......1999-01-20
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!
Book Description
An easy-to-understand resource that provides straightforward, practical advice on ways to upgrade a music team’s sound and ministry, written for both volunteer and staff worship leaders and musicians who use contemporary Christian music.
Customer Reviews:
Awesome!.......2007-05-16
What a great resource manual for a worship team. I wish I had this book years ago when I started leading a team. Thanks for the helpful book that I have used and passed on to others.
Excellent resource for the self-learned...........2006-03-15
This book has been very beneficial to me. As a self-learner in many areas, it helped strengthen my endeavors. Great for the entire music team.
WOW !.......2005-08-18
The reason I bought this book is because I'm writing a seminar to help local praise leaders and bands to improve their worship skills. I have several books on praise and worship and have attended several seminars but none compares like this one in practical concepts and examples. Where other books talk about Bible worship models and the theology of praise and worship, this book gets knee deep in the details of planning, running and managing a Worship Band. It includes practical concepts like how should guitars/keyboards voice their chords, how to build a music repertoire, modulations, how to get the singers to sing right, how to plan the practice to get the most out of it, etc.
In short, this book is nothing but practical concepts and examples of what it takes (musically) to manage a Praise Band... I LOVE IT
A Must for Worship Leaders and Praise Teams.......2005-08-12
This book has been a tremendous help for me as a new Worship Leader. It has helped me to be better prepared for rehearsals. Great read!
Product Description
Contents includes:
* Why Names for Hymn Tunes?
* Why such a variety of Names?
* Why did composers give their Tunes
the Names they bear?
* Alphabetical Lists of Tunes
* Melodic Index
* Names Not included in Alphabetical
list
* Index of first words or lines of Hymn
Book Description
With a history dating back to 1820, The Missouri Harmony was the most popular of all frontier shape-note tune books. The 185 songs in the collection were favorites used in Protestant churches and singing schools, and many were already deeply rooted in American culture by the time of its first publication. The story of the book is the story of a burgeoning nation, with its origins in a St. Louis school (where it was introduced by singing master Allen Carden) and its spread along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. This updated and expanded version of Allen D. Carden's 1820 volume now contains more than 300 pages of original and traditional music compositions collected by the St. Louis Shape Note Singers. An introductory text explains and illuminates the shape-note tradition and the history of the book.
Book Description
This set of twelve hymn arrangements for unaccompanied violin represents a variety of songs, including Early American hymn tunes, gospel songs and Christmas carols. The arrangements are written in various levels of complexity and technical difficulty. Chord symbols are provided to allow the flexibility of guitar or piano accompaniment.
Book Description
No music to read! Easy for both adults and children to learn. Chorded for guitar or autoharp. Jesus, Christmas, Easter, and church are just some of the themes for these 240 songs.
Book Description
The Missouri Harmony was the most popular of all frontier tunebooks, with a history going back to 1820, when singing master Allen Carden introduced it into his St. Louis school. The 185 selections in The Missouri Harmony, compiled from earlier tunebooks, were old favorites used in churches and singing schools which sometimes convened in taverns. Abraham Lincoln and his sweetheart, Ann Rutledge, are said to have sung from The Missouri Harmony at her father's tavern in New Salem, Illinois.
Shirley Bean points out in her introduction the importance of tunebooks and frontier singing schools in teaching Americans to read music. The Missouri Harmony, continuing the European tradition of shaped notes, contained the largest collection of compositions for congregations and choirs. Carden included thirty-seven fuguing tunes, among them "Lenox" and "Sherburne." The Supplement, added in the seventh edition in 1835, contains twenty-three hymn tunes, four choral numbers, a sacred song, and a duet; Isaac Watts was the author of most of the texts.
This Bison Book edition duplicates the 1846 reprint of the popular ninth edition, which first came out in 1840. Shirley Bean's introduction provides a historical framework that will be welcomed not only by scholars but also by the modern shape-note singing community.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful!.......2004-06-24
This is great! A new book of both newly-published old songs AND new songs in the same style! Anyone who sings from the Sacred Harp needs this book. If you buy only one shape-note book besides the Sacred Harp, this is the one!
There are multiple compositions by some of the "greats" - Billings, Belcher, Shumway, Ingalls, all the others. Jacob French's tunes are outstanding!
Some of the old songs are VERY moving - try Mechias or Crucifixion, for examples. And with 2 exceptions, the modern songs are great also. Albemarle and Ten Thousand Charms are my favorites. We sang these when the book first arrived, and we've sung them every time since!
I thought "Come thou fount" was embarrasingly inept and I don't know why it was included. Also the title tune, "Norumbega" was too scholastic and isn't singable in traditional style. But these are the only 2 clunkers in the book!
Book Description
Do you love to throw parties but hate to spend all your time creating terrific party games? What if you could have one book in your collection that would provide game material for the next several parties in a row—many requiring zero preparation? WHAT DO YOU NEED? Marnie's Scavenger Hunt Handbook helps you pull off a great hunt in less time and with less stress than you might even dare to imagine! How many people will there be? What ages are they? What time limitations do you have? Where will the party be held? This collection of dozens of ready-to-roll hunts will enable you to easily entertain your group, from business to bridal to birthday, from toddlers to retirees, and from a two-minute, table-top ice breaker to a four-hour, city-wide team-building battle of wits. Whatever your party parameters, this book will have a hunt for you!
Customer Reviews:
Waste of time and money.......2007-01-10
I was very disappointed with this book. Considering the fact that there is so much FREE information on the internet about how to create scavenger and treasure hunts I assumed that buying a book would offer some additional and valuable infor ation that could not be found esewhere. I was wrong. Please do not waste your time or money on this book. It was very upsetting for me to see that this is the same info that could be part of a typed-up PTA hand-out at an elementary school. There are no ideas in this book that could not be found on various websites. actually, there ar eno ideas in this book that you could not figure out on your own. This book should NOT have been published.
Marnie's Scavenger Hunt Handbook.......2007-01-03
Book had some good ideas. Was hoping for ideas for older adults--but not much help for that.
Book Description
The acclaimed Million Dollar Consulting gives consultants the tools and advice they need to grow a firm that rakes in at least $1 million per year. Alan Weiss, "the consultant's consultant," shows step-by-step how to raise capital, reel in new clients, set fees, accelerate growth, and more. This updated and expanded edition will appeal to both Weiss's many current fans and a whole new generation of readers looking for the best advice available for anyone who wants to build a million-dollar consulting/speaking career.
Customer Reviews:
The most valuable business book I own!.......2007-08-14
I am very happy that I found and studied this book when I did. After a few years of consulting this book helped make my business more successful, confirmed ideas that took years to develop and gave a clear plan of action and procedures.
If i may borrow from Alan...
"I am constantly amazed at how stupid I was two weeks ago"
A must for powerful successful consultants.......2007-05-14
Alan is just the best when it comes to advice for success. If you are serious about building a powerful consulting firm, you need to read this. If you really want to be a million dollar consultant and are missing just that one little piece, you need to read this. If you want to learn from the best and are willing to work at it, then read this book, it will change you life.
[...]
Helpful advice.......2007-05-07
In the author's own words, he goes to conferences and what-not, hoping to find just 1% of the material that helps him succeed - those hidden gems of knowledge. Is everything he talks about going to be 100% applicable and timely for you? No, but there's certainly enough "gems" in the book to steer you in the right direction. The discussions on delivering value as opposed to time are priceless.
Decent..........2007-04-06
Honestly, I was not terribly impressed with this book. After the first couple chapters, I nearly quit reading it. Part 1 of the book (the first 5 chapters) is written in such abstract terms that it was completely worthless to me. For instance, in a section on goal-setting he quotes the following as one of the best goals he has heard from a consultant, "We will undertake consulting assignments that result in direct contribution to the client's profitability as measured by quarterly results." Does this really tell anybody what the consultant actually offers to/does for a client? Quite frankly, if somebody ever approached me as a prospect and said something so bland and vague to me as an effort toward getting my business, I'd tune them out right from the get-go.
That said, he does give some decent advice for marketing (which is really the most important thing about any business, as we all learn at some point). He gives good information about how to successfully integrate speaking and writing into your business as both marketing tools and profit centers.
I'd say it's probably worth a read, but I'm really surprised by how many people rave about it so strongly.
A good read reguardless.......2007-02-12
There is a ton of information in this. If you want to be a consultant or think you may need one, read it, cover to cover. Might read tween the lines a bit :-). F&P Tech /consulting services
Book Description
This timely how-to-do-it guide helps consultants master the diverse skills needed to market and grow a successful practice. It breaks down each aspect-from setting fees and acquiring personnel to identifying new clients and obtaining capital-into easily understood segments. Then it provides specific examples and procedures to master each step, backed by checklists, guidelines, and eye-opening from the real life. For solo practitiioners and would-be consultants alike, this is the book that will put them on the path to $l million in annual earnings!
Customer Reviews:
Every consultant should own this book!.......2004-01-10
I have used the advice put forth in this book with great success. I now sell my services according to value, no longer by the hour. Also based on the tips in this book I sell projects which get a minimum of 50% of the fee up front. Further, my projects don't get cancelled. Buy this book. It will help you grow your practice.
Steve McCombs
Success: It is Up to You.......2002-02-10
I had had a consulting business for quite a few years and had more work then I could handle, yet was not making as good of an income as I knew I could. Then I read this book. The strategies I learned not only helped me increase my income, but also freed up more time and allowed me to really enjoy what I do once again.
Books:
- Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall
- Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA: A Novel
- Shades of Noir: A Reader (Haymarket)
- Showgirls: Portrait of a Film (A Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook)
- Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon
- Soular Reunion: Journey to the Beloved -- Re-Membering the Love of Self, Soulmates & Twin Souls
- Spaghetti Nightmares: Italian Fantasy-Horrors As Seen Through The Eyes Of Their Protagonists
- Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays
- The Big Book of French Songs: Popular Songs, Movie Hits, Musical Theatre Songs, Folksongs
- The Big Lebowski: The Making of a Coen Brothers Film
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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- The Best Things to Do in New York City: 1001 Ideas
- Peter Greenaway: A Zed & Two Noughts
- Network Participant's Guide: The Right People, in the Right Places, for the Right Reasons, at the Ri
- South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias
- The Minotaur: A Novel
- The Fiberglass Boat Repair Manual
- Intrafirm Trade and Global Transfer Pricing Regulations
- Microeconomics with Electronic Study Guide CD-ROM
- RUDYARD KIPLING SOMETHING OF MYSELF AND OTHER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS
General
| Movies
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema
The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword
Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen
Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema
Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween
