Editing Genius The Transgression/Introduction (section)

===Books:===

Doc Savage, originally created by legendary pulp writer Lester Dent, provides a positive example of what a high-Obligation genius might look like. Gifted physically and mentally, the "Man of Bronze" turns his talents to solving crime and keeping the world safe. This untarnished image of the hero-researcher can serve as inspiration for an honorable Paragon, or can be used to cast a pall on the excesses of would-be guardians.

VALIS. Just about anything by Philip K. Dick deserves mention, from the existential ponderings of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? to the broken regret of A Scanner Darkly, but whole-hog techno-Gnostic insanity calls for VALIS, in which an artificial satellite network orbiting the star Sirius uses pink laser beams to trigger mystical revelations. How much of VALIS is simple fiction and how much of it is Dick's own beliefs given a thin gloss of narrative is never entirely clear.

H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau. Like Dick, several of Wells' works are relevant to mad science, but this tale of bent science focuses on one man's attempt, not only to raise animals to human-like intelligence, but to give them the laws that truly separate man from the beasts, and the tragedy that results.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus. It's alive! Dr. Frankenstein is one of the earliest and most contemptible of the mad scientists in fiction, and his arrogance, hypocrisy, and foolishness make people like him perfect villains for those Inspired who still remember their Obligation to humanity.

Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, comprising Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World, is a grand journey through the history of science and technology that goes back to the murky origins of the scientist (mad or otherwise) as he separates from the alchemists and mystics. The Cycle can provide inspiration for geniuses whose philosophies favor the very ancient or the very strange.