What is David A. Kirby reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: David A. Kirby, author of Lab Coats in Hollywood: Science, Scientists, and Cinema.

His entry begins:

I watch a lot of movies and television shows for my research and teaching. So, I tend to read books rather than watch television when I relax after work. This means that I end up reading a fair number of books each month.

I recently read Shooting in the Wild by Chris Palmer to learn more about the process of wildlife filmmaking. The best way to describe the book is that it is both educational and disturbing. For those who love wildlife films like I do, you should be prepared to learn how the sausage is made. Palmer’s tell-all is not afraid to reveal the lengths that some in the wildlife filmmaking trade are willing to go in order to obtain dramatic footage of animals. Some of the more ethically questionable tactics include baiting, staging, and provoking animals and the use of enclosures, trained animals, and special effects. Palmer is sympathetic to the pressure his filmmaking colleagues are under to get the most spectacular shots possible, but he...[read on]

Among the early praise for Lab Coats in Hollywood:

“For that strange corner where science nut meets movie buff, this is a very enlightening book.”
—Booklist

“We all know—or think we know—what science consultants do on Hollywood films: they check accuracy. They would be wrong. David Kirby shows the relation as much more complex, and vastly more interesting than that. Hollywood wants a landscape of verisimilitude, an elaborately produced naturalness, and legitimization of their image of the future. For their part, scientists can alter the public status of their fields and gain a powerful hand in articulating visions of how their own fields might work, from supercomputing to genetic alteration. This is an original study of a field that combines real knowledge of Hollywood films, scientist-consultants and science studies. It is fun to read, taking you to the back and forth between science and film everywhere from 2001 to Contact and Minority Report. I recommend it with enthusiasm.”
—Peter Galison, Pellegrino University Professor in History of Science and Physics, Harvard University, and Producer/Director, Secrecy

“Kirby makes a compelling case that scientists and filmmakers need each other. I know of no other book like it.”
—David Saltzberg, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, and Television Science Consultant

“In the gap between science fact and science fiction stands the motion picture and television science consultant. In this brisk, lively account, David Kirby provides us with a history of these often unheralded scientific ambassadors to Hollywood and the critical role they play in shaping how film and television makers depict science--depictions which in turn shape how science is understood by the public at large.”
—Zack Stentz, writer/producer (Thor, X-Men: First Class, Fringe, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Visit David A. Kirby’s webpage or learn more about Lab Coats in Hollywood at the MIT Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Lab Coats in Hollywood.

Writers Read: David A. Kirby.

--Marshal Zeringue