I passed up Screams Of Reason by David J. Skal several times at my local library before I finally picked it up and started flipping through it. I then slapped my forehead and immediately checked the dang book out. Silly me, I had forgotten that I’d already devoured his 2001 book The Monster Show: A Cultural History Of Horror a couple years ago. So of course, I have been totally immersed in Screams Of Reason for the last few weeks (along with the three or four other books I’m reading at the same time (I’m a nerdy nerd)).

Skal examines not only mad scientists but aliens and radiation-mutated monsters as well and shows them for what they are: manifestations of cultural anxieties. Sounds like fun, eh? Surprisingly, yes. The author has that rare ability to make cultural studies thought-provoking as well as entertaining. Literary figures such as Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Dr. Moreau, and Dr. Jekyll are given thorough attention and even Dorian Grey gets a quick cameo. Plus, he discusses (though not at length) one of the greatest mad doctors of all time: Doctor Gogol, of the 1935 horror classic Mad Love (AKA The Hands Of Orlac).

The 1998 book hardly feels dated at all with the exception being the praising of “The X-Files”, which is probably only amusing to me. It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since that show meant something to sci-fi folks and was still delivering the creepy goods. I’ve never had much interest in aliens or Roswell conspiracy theories but the section entitled ‘Alien Chic’ didn’t throw me off. The chapter looks at Whitley Streiber’s Communion and other abduction stories which many people accept wholeheartedly as non-fiction. Though skeptical himself, Skal isn’t trying to debunk these accounts outright but wants to know what these types of stories say about our culture and psychology.

Unfortunately, I am near the end of Screams Of Reason and I want it to go on forever. I just got to the chapter ‘The Doctor Will Eat You Now’ where our fears of doctors combined with our nearly disastrous health care system have created a bevy of psycho physicians including Hannibal Lecter and nearly every villain in every Robin Cook novel. Damn it, there’s so much good stuff in this book. Of course, Skal forces me to confront my biggest fear: the end of the world brought about by nuclear war or some other mad science creation. Oppenheimer’s a douche!