Mad scientist

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Caucasian, male, aging, crooked teeth, messy hair, lab coat, spectacles/goggles, dramatic posing — one popular stereotype of a mad scientist.
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Caucasian, male, aging, crooked teeth, messy hair, lab coat, spectacles/goggles, dramatic posing — one popular stereotype of a mad scientist.

A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, either villainous or benign. Whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, the mad scientist is often working with some utterly fictional technology in order to forward their schemes. Alternatively, they fail to see the evil that will ensue from the hubris of “playing God”. Because of recent profusion of geek culture, modern mad scientist depictions are often satirical and humorous rather than critical. [citation needed] Not all mad scientists are evil or villains. Some are actually protagonists (or at least positive forces), such as Dexter in the animated series Dexter's Laboratory or Washu in Tenchi Muyo.

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[edit] Defining characteristics

Mad scientists are typically characterized by obsessive behavior and the employment of extremely dangerous or unorthodox methods. They are often motivated by revenge, seeking to settle real or imagined slights, typically related to their unorthodox studies.

Their laboratories often hum with Tesla coils, Van de Graaff generators, Jacob's ladders, perpetual motion machines, and other visually impressive electrical oddments, or are decorated with test tubes, bodies of mutant creatures embalmed in glass jars, and complicated distillation apparatus containing strangely-colored liquids with no obvious purpose. Very often there will be chemicals heating over the yellow flame of a Bunsen burner despite the fact that this produces soot and little heat.

Other traits include:

As a fictional archetype, the mad scientist can be seen as representing the fear of the unknown, and the consequences that will result when humanity dares to meddle with “things that are best left unknown”. Similarly, the tendency of the mad scientist to place himself in the role of God may be an extension of the differences between religion and science, often creating fantastic beasts and monsters in their laboratories. In the 1931 film Frankenstein, when the monster is brought to life, its creator cries out: “Now I know what it feels like to be God!”. This statement was considered controversial enough for the line to be censored from the 1931 filmed version of the story.

The mad scientist is the anti-thesis of the heroic scientist and is considerably more popular.

[edit] History

[edit] Precursors

Since ancient times, popular imagination has circulated on archetypal figures who wielded esoteric knowledge. Shamans, witches and witch doctors were held in reverence and fear of their rumored abilities to conjure beasts and create demons. They shared many of the same perceived characteristics such as eccentric behavior, living as hermits, and the ability to create life.

Perhaps the closest figure in Western mythology to the modern mad scientist was Daedalus, creator of the labyrinth, who was then imprisoned within it by King Minos. To escape, he invented two pairs of wings made from feathers and beeswax, one for himself and the other for his son Icarus. While Daedalus himself managed to fly to safety, Icarus flew too close to the sun, which melted the wax of his wings, casting him down into the sea below.

In actual history, Archimedes shares some of the elements of the mad scientist, but was closer to the more benign archetype of the absent-minded professor.

A more whimsical prototype of the mad scientist can be found in Aristophanes' comedy The Clouds. The play depicts Socrates, a contemporary of Aristophanes, as tinkering with odd devices and performing implausible experiments to determine the nature of the clouds and sky, and presents his philosophical method as a means for decieving others and escaping blame, closer to the later descriptions of his opponents, the Sophists, than to those usually ascribed to him. While this is at variance with the depictions by Plato and Xenophon, two of Socrates' students, it is plausible that Aristophanes' parody of Socrates is more accurate than their panegyrics. One of Plato's students, Aristotle, is known to have also been an experimentalist, and may have taken the concept up from his teacher's teacher.

The protoscience of alchemy long had a resemblance to mad science with its lofty goals and bizarre experiments. Certain alchemists were well known for behaving strangely, sometimes a result of handling dangerous substances, such as mercury poisoning in the case of Isaac Newton. The famous alchemist Paracelsus claimed to be able to create a homunculus, an artificial human. Alchemy steadily declined with the advent of modern science during the Enlightenment.

[edit] Birth of science and science fiction

Since the 19th century, fictitious depictions of science have vacillated between notions of science as the salvation of society or its doom. Consequently, depictions of scientists in fiction ranged between the virtuous and the depraved, the sober and the insane. Until the 20th century, optimism about progress was the most common attitude towards science, but latent anxieties about disturbing "the secrets of nature" would surface following the increasing role of science in wartime affairs.

The prototypical fictional mad scientist was Victor Frankenstein, creator of Frankenstein's monster, who made his first appearance in 1818, in the novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. Though Frankenstein is a sympathetic character, the critical element of conducting forbidden experiments that cross "boundaries that ought not to be crossed", heedless of the consequences, is present in Shelley's novel. Frankenstein was trained as both alchemist and modern scientist which makes him the bridge between two eras of an evolving archetype. His monster is essentially the homunculus of a new form of literature, science fiction.

Another archetypal Mad Scientist is Faust, or Dr. Faustus. The Faust legend is a widely recognized and referenced example of selling one's soul to the devil. In almost all cases, Faust is selling his soul for knowledge or supernatural power.

Fritz Lang's 1927 movie Metropolis brought the archetypical mad scientist to the screen in the form of Rotwang, the evil genius whose machines gave life to the dystopian city of the title. Rotwang's laboratory influenced many subsequent movie sets with its electrical arcs, bubbling apparatus, and bizarrely complicated arrays of dials and controls. Portrayed by actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Rotwang himself is the prototypically conflicted mad scientist; though he is master of almost mystical scientific power, he remains slave to his own desires for power and revenge. Rotwang's appearance was also influential -- the character's shock of flyaway hair, wild-eyed demeanor, and his quasi-fascist laboratory garb have all been adopted as shorthand for the mad scientist "look". Even his mechanical right hand has become a mark of twisted scientific power, echoed notably in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.

Nevertheless, the essentially benign and progressive impression of science in the public mind continued unchecked, exemplified by the optimistic "Century of Progress" exhibition in Chicago, 1933, and the "World of Tomorrow" at the New York World's Fair of 1939. However after the first World War, public attitudes began to shift, if only subtly, when chemical warfare and the airplane were the terror weapons of the day. As an example, of all science fiction before 1914 which dealt with the end of the world, two-thirds were about naturalistic endings (such as collision with an asteroid), and the other third was devoted to endings caused by humans (about half were accidental, half purposeful). After 1914, the idea of any human actually killing the remainder of humanity became a more imaginable fantasy (even if it was still impossible), and the ratio switched to two-thirds of all end-of-the-world scenarios being the product of human maliciousness or error. Though still drowned out by feelings of optimism, the seeds of anxiety had been thoroughly sown.

The most common tool of mad scientists in this era was electricity. It was viewed widely as a quasi-mystical force with chaotic and unpredictable properties by an ignorant public.

[edit] After 1945

Mad scientists had their heyday in popular culture in the period after World War II. The sadistic medical experiments of the Nazis and the invention of the atomic bomb gave rise in this period to genuine fears that science and technology had gone out of control. The scientific and technological build up during the Cold War, with its increasing threats of unparalleled destruction, did not lessen the impression. Mad scientists frequently figure in science fiction and motion pictures from the period. The movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, in which Peter Sellers plays the titular Dr. Strangelove, is perhaps the ultimate expression of this fear of the power of science, or the misuse of this power.

In more recent years, the mad scientist as a lone investigator of the forbidden unknown has tended to be replaced by mad corporate executives who plan to profit from defying the laws of nature and humanity regardless of who suffers; these people hire a salaried scientific staff to pursue their twisted dreams. This shift is typified by the revised history of Superman's archenemy, Lex Luthor: originally conceived in the 1930s as a typically solitary mad scientist, a major retcon of the character's origins in the early 1980s made him the head of a megacorporation who also plays a leading role in his R & D department. Bob Page, the master villain in the computer game Deus Ex, is another example. Still, the pose has been used whimsically by popular science writers to attract readers.

The techniques of mad science also changed after Hiroshima. Electricity was replaced by radiation as the new tool to create, enlarge, or deform life (e.g., Godzilla). As audiences became more savvy, quantum mechanics, genetic engineering, and artificial intelligence have taken the spotlight (e.g., Blade Runner).

[edit] Quotations

A recent survey of 1000 horror films distributed in the UK between the 1930s and 1980s reveals that mad scientists or their creations have been the villains of 30 percent of the films; that scientific research has produced 39 percent of the threats; and, by contrast, that scientists have been the heroes of a mere 11. (Christopher Frayling, New Scientist, 24 September 2005)

See also: List of mad scientists, Cranks, Evil genius

[edit] Fields of research

[edit] Untouched fields

Fields largely untapped by mad scientists include:

  • Civil engineering, excepting demolitions.
  • Geology, except where trying to destroy the world, where physics is more involved than true geology.
  • Meteorology, except in the case of creating weather control machines, which would more properly belong in the area of physics
  • Metallurgy, unless trying to make armor and the like, when metals with rather implausible strength may be used; or in the case of robot creation, where a knowledge of metals is fundamentally important; or concerning nuclear physics, for which metallurgy is crucial. A notable real-world example would be Abdul Qadeer Khan, who was educated in the field of Metallurgy and used this background to create centerfuges to enrich uranium.
  • Pure mathematics, though the main protagonist in the film Pi is a mathematician who arguably embodies some aspects of this archetype. Real-life Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, who was a mathematician, also springs to mind.
  • Social sciences, though there are a few "mad psychologists" out there, notably the Scarecrow from the Batman franchise.
  • Archaeology, subjective, unless you consider Beloq, from Raiders of the Lost Ark, as the mad archaeologist archetype who seeks artifacts not only for their monetary value, but also what magical powers they may contain.

[edit] Real-life prototypes

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Albert Einstein, archetypical real life "mad scientist".
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Albert Einstein, archetypical real life "mad scientist".

The scientists of literature and popular imagination have better defined our image of "mad science" than have actual scientists, because that is their function: to reflect back our own prejudices. According to Roslynn Doris Haynes in 1994; "Popular belief and behavior are influenced more by images than by demonstrable facts".

Some real-life scientists, not necessarily madmen, whose personalities (and sometimes, appearances) have contributed to the stereotype:

[edit] Difference between a mad scientist and an evil genius

Though the archetypes often overlap, a mad scientist need not be an evil genius. A mad scientist is simply a scientist who has become so involved within his studies that he has begun to develop eccentricities by normal standards; an evil genius is a genius who uses their gift for explicitly, consciously evil purposes. For example, while a mad scientist would test the bounds of science to create an army of zombies, he would only do it to see if – or prove that – he could. By contrast, an evil genius would construct his army with a purpose, such as taking over the world – in addition to being evil, such characters tend to have large-scale ambition (see Megalomania#In fiction).

[edit] See also

[edit] Related lists

[edit] References analyzing the cultural motif

  • Haynes, Roslynn Doris (1994). From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-4801-6.
  • Christopher Frayling – Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema (Reaktion Books, 2005) ISBN 1-86189-255-1
  • Junge, Torsten; Doerthe Ohlhoff (2004). Wahnsinnig genial: Der Mad Scientist Reader. Aschaffenburg: Alibri. ISBN 3-932710-79-7.
  • Tudor, Andrew (1989). Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-15279-2.
  • Weart, Spencer R. (1988). Nuclear Fear: A History of Images. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

[edit] External links

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