Why zombies, robots, clowns freak us out

[alice wellintown]

Been here done this:


"The Monster in the Machine" tracks the ways in which human beings
were defined in contrast to supernatural and demonic creatures during
the time of the Scientific Revolution. Zakiya Hanafi recreates scenes
of Italian life and culture from the late sixteenth to the early
eighteenth centuries to track how monsters were conceptualised at this
particular locale and historical juncture - a period when the sacred
was being supplanted by a secular, decidedly nonmagical way of looking
at the world. Explaining that the word 'monster' is derived from the
Latin for 'omen' or 'warning', Hanafi begins with an exploration of
the monster's early identity as a portent or messenger from God. While
monsters have always been considered 'whatever we are not', they were
gradually thought of more as mechanical devices when new discoveries
in science and medicine began to reveal the mechanical nature of the
human body itself. In analysing the historical literature of
monstrosity, magic, and museum collections, Hanafi uses contemporary
theory and philosophy of technology to illuminate the timeless
significance of the monster theme. She elaborates the association
within medical literature between women and the monstrous and sheds
new light on the work of Vico - particularly his notion of the conatus
- by analysing it in relation to Vico's own personal health. By
explicating obscure and fascinating texts from such disciplines as
medicine and poetics, she invites the reader to the piazzas and
pulpits of seventeenth-century Naples, where poets, courtiers, and
Jesuit preachers used grotesque figures of speech to captivate their
audiences with their monstrous wit. Drawing from a variety of texts
from medicine, moral philosophy, and poetics, Hanafi's guided tour
through this baroque museum of ideas will interest readers in
comparative literature, Italian literature, history of ideas, history
of science, art history, poetics, women's studies, and philosophy.

On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 1:29 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
> amen brother
>
> On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 8:34 PM,  <bandwraith at aol.com> wrote:
>> Right. Plus the shock of self-recognition.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com>
>> To: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
>> Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Sent: Thu, Jul 12, 2012 8:00 pm
>> Subject: Re: Why zombies, robots, clowns freak us out
>>
>>
>> Because they're zombies, robots, and clowns.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 11:00 PM, Dave Monroe
>> <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/11/health/uncanny-valley-robots/index.html
>>>
>>> Uncanny valley
>>>
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
>>