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"In Dining with Madmen: Fat, Food, and the Environment in 1980s Horror, author Thomas Fahy explores America's preoccupation with body weight, processed foods, and pollution through the lens of horror. Conspicuous consumption may have communicated success in the eighties, but only if it did not become visible on the body. American society had come to view fatness as a horrifying transformation--it exposed the potential harm of junk food, gave life to the promises of workout and diet culture, and represented the country's worst consumer impulses, inviting questions about the personal and environmental consequences of excess. While changing into a vampire or a zombie often represented widespread fears about addiction and overeating, it also played into concerns about pollution. Ozone depletion, acid rain, and toxic waste already demonstrated the irrevocable harm being done to the planet. The horror genre--from A Nightmare on Elm Street to American Psycho--responded by presenting this damage as an urgent problem, and, through the sudden violence of killers, vampires, and zombies, it depicted the consequences of inaction as terrifying. Whether through Hannibal Lecter's cannibalism, a vampire's thirst for blood in The Queen of the Damned and The Lost Boys, or an overwhelming number of zombies in George Romero's Day of the Dead, 1980s horror uses out-of-control hunger to capture deep-seated concerns about the physical and material consequences of unchecked consumption. Its presentation of American appetites resonated powerfully for audiences preoccupied with body size, food choices, and pollution." -- Provided by publisher Dining with madmen -- Disturbing appetites: fat, fitness, and fine dining -- Thinner -- Geek love -- The silence of the lambs -- American psycho -- A sharp, sweet tooth: junk food, addiction, and vampires -- The lost boys -- Near dark -- Once bitten -- My best friend is a vampire -- A return to Salem's lot -- Fright Night and Fright Night part 2 -- The queen of the damned -- The hunger -- Eat your heart out: zombies, overpopulation, and the environment -- Night of the Living Dead -- Dawn of the Dead -- Day of the Dead -- The return of the Living Dead and the Return of the Living Dead part II -- Toxic Zombies -- Surf II -- Redneck Zombies -- Book of the Dead -- Motel Hell -- 'Enough is never enough': junk food, dieting, and environmental harm in The Stuff -- The Stuff
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