Mad scientist
The mad scientist ( Engl. "Mad scientist") is a fictional character , a roll compartment or stereotype of pop culture . He appears in novels , comics , films , television series and computer games .
character
Characteristic indicators of the “good” crazy scientist are quirky and sympathetic characters such as childish naivety and playfulness, especially when dealing with one's own work (cf. Daniel Düsentrieb in Micky Mouse , Dr. Henry Jekyll in Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Dr. Emmett Brown in Back to the Future ), forgetfulness, absent-mindedness, and generally a helpful and courteous nature.
Characteristic indicators of the "bad" mad scientist are a recognizable sadism (such as joy in the suffering of test persons or animals, joy in torturing people at the mercy of his violence), megalomania , boastfulness (cf. for example cyclotrope in the comic series Spirou and Fantasio ) and an obsessive urge to gain control over other people or even world domination (compare for example Dr. Mabuse , Dr. No , the black phantom in Mickey Mouse or the laboratory rat Brain ).
behavior
Behavioral indicators for the good mad scientist include a slightly senile, giggling, but not delusional laugh, absent-minded searching for documents or inventions (rummaging through mountains of paper or junk, e.g. Daniel Düsentrieb or Dr. Emmett L. "Doc" Brown in Back to the future ).
Behavioral indicators for the evil mad scientist are a throaty or thunderous laugh out of joy at one's own (evil) plans or deeds or out of joy at one's own wickedness, a nasty giggling and malicious laugh into oneself (e.g. Professor Sivana in Jerry Ordway's The Power of Shazam! ), Unnecessary cruelty against those who are defenselessly extradited (e.g. prisoners), and harassment with subordinates and accomplices. Another example of an evil scientist is Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz from the cartoon series Phineas and Ferb .
genesis
The “mad scientist” generally deviates significantly from the social norm. This has been a characteristic of the solitary philosopher or the absent-minded scholar since antiquity (for example in descriptions of Diogenes von Sinope ).
The origins of the “crazy” scientist fall in a time of upheaval. Modern science has its cradle in the Renaissance , when the power of religion - the Catholic Church - is critically questioned. The scholars as “substitute priests” cannot invoke divine legitimation of their position and are the targets of distortion and caricature.
Scientists and fools are closely related in the satires of the Renaissance (see Vanitas ). In his satire Praise of Folly , Erasmus von Rotterdam takes the scholars of his time to court and accuses them of being unworldly, incompetent and solitary. Michel Foucault locates the emergence of a “wise madness” of scientists at this time, as opposed to the “maddening madness” of the uneducated ( madness and society ).
The dottore as a ridiculous and pompous scholar has been part of the figure repertoire of the Commedia dell'arte since the 16th century . A famous literary account of the mad scientists is found in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver , which depicts eccentric scientists incessantly making absurd inventions in the third trip to Laputa and the Academy of Lagado (a caricature by the Royal Society ).
The development of the “mad scientist” from the archetype of the magician and sorcerer can hardly be denied. In science fiction and comic worlds he is usually drawn without magical powers, but his abilities for crazy inventions and gimmicks border on magic . This often finds its correspondence in the perception of the natural sciences, compare Arthur C. Clarke's “ third law ”, according to which “every sufficiently advanced science can no longer be distinguished from magic”.
A good example of the affinity for magic is the prototype of the mad scientist in the fist cloth . The historical model Johann Georg Faust was a magician, in Goethe's drama Faust I he becomes a well-studied scholar, but the echoes of esoteric practices are obvious ( pentagram ). The Faustian desire to defy conventions in order to strive for higher goals is still a frequently used set piece to characterize the scientist who harbors fantasies of omnipotence and strives for world domination (e.g. Ernst Stavro Blofeld from James Bond , Lex Luthor from Superman, and as a parody of the Brain from Pinky and the Brain ).
In the 1993 stop-motion puppet film Nightmare Before Christmas by inventor and producer Tim Burton , the wheelchair scientist Doctor Finklestein appears, who can open the top of his skull and reveal his brain.
Development since 1945
After the Second World War , a considerable increase in the type of figure can be observed. The cruel human experiments in National Socialist concentration camps , for example by Josef Mengele , as well as the ideologization of science (creation of a “ German physics ”) aroused skepticism and distrust. The atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki added to this unease.
The nuclear arms race during the Cold War , which was pursued according to the MAD ( Mutual Assured Destruction ) strategy , became a symbol of the potential danger emanating from science under the name “Balance of Terror”. In the eyes of many, the arms race between the world powers USA and USSR, despite the achievement of so-called “ overkill capacities”, illustrated the unreasonableness of scientific research.
Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strange or: How I Learned to Love the Bomb with Peter Sellers in the title role reflects the fear of the destructive power of science. Edward Teller , the "father of the hydrogen bomb ", is said to have served as one of the models for the figure (see also below).
With the end of the Cold War in the 1980s and its definitive end in 1990, the threat posed by science faded into the background. The mad scientist gave way to other types of villain. In the age of globalization and medialization , the power-hungry manager who disguises his dark machinations with a facade of sophistication and respectability has taken the place of the mad scientist.
The secret agent James Bond , who in the 1960s was still scientist villains like Dr. No and Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in the 1990s had almost exclusively opponents such as the media mogul Elliott Carver or the industrialist Elektra King. Another example of the trend from mad scientist to malicious economic man would be Superman's eternal nemesis Lex Luthor: In the 1980s he was transformed by an archetypal mad scientist into the corrupt head of an internationally operating mammoth corporation who questioned his influence and financial resources for all sorts of questions Trade uses.
Role models in the real world
- The Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman embodies in his media aversion and his quirky habits the type of crazy scientist who is capable of extraordinary scientific achievements.
- The physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) delivered with its unconventional appearance , the standard visual presentation of a mad scientist with crumpled-wrinkled face, disheveled white hair and usually somewhat sloppy clothes.
- Also because of his somewhat unconventional appearance, but above all because of his relentless, massive advocacy of nuclear weapons , the physicist and hydrogen bomb inventor Edward Teller became a prototype in the USA, who was also the godfather for the character of Kubrick's Dr. Said to have been strange.
See also
literature
- Roslynn Doris Haynes: From Faust to Strangelove. Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1994, ISBN 0-8018-4801-6 .
- Christopher Frayling : Mad, Bad and Dangerous? The Scientist and the Cinema . Reaction Books, 2005, ISBN 1-86189-255-1 .
- Torsten Junge, Doerthe Ohlhoff: incredibly brilliant. The Mad Scientist Reader. Alibri , Aschaffenburg 2004, ISBN 3-932710-79-7 .
- Andrew Tudor: Monsters and Mad Scientists. A Cultural History of the Horror Movie . Blackwell, Oxford 1989, ISBN 0-631-15279-2 .
- Andrew Tudor: Seeing the worst side of science. in: Nature Vol. 340, Aug. 24, 1989, pp. 589-592