Empire of Conspiracy: The Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America (drama criticism)

Melley, Timothy. Empire of Conspiracy: The Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America. Ithaca, Cornell UP, 2000.

Cited also under Literary Criticism[[1] ] and Background. See "Epilogue" (185-202) for the Cyberpunks and discussion of R. Scott's BLADE RUNNER. More generally, see for THE TRUMAN SHOW (q.v.) and possible contexts for cinematic images of containment and the violation of bodily boundaries. EoC is obviously useful for "paranoia" films such as ENEMY OF THE STATE (q.v.) but also for comparing and contrasting a high-Modernist image of the autonomous, god-like (masculine) Self in the Star-Child at the climax of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (film) with disturbing images of the invaded, cyborg-ized infants in THE MATRIX and the "Q—Who?" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Also relevant for images of invasion by images and sound with Alex in the screening room sequence in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (film), and the more literal(ized) invasions in VIDEODROME (all listed under Drama). [2]

(RDE 18/III/00, 3Jan15)