Why zombies, robots, clowns freak us out

[David Morris]

God.  Does anyone read this crap.?

On Friday, July 13, 2012, alice wellintown wrote:

> 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<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
> > amen brother
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 8:34 PM,  <bandwraith at aol.com <javascript:;>>
> wrote:
> >> Right. Plus the shock of self-recognition.
> >>
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com <javascript:;>>
> >> To: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com <javascript:;>>
> >> Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org <javascript:;>>
> >> 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 <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >>> http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/11/health/uncanny-valley-robots/index.html
> >>>
> >>> Uncanny valley
> >>>
> >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
> >>
>
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