Dan Simmons

[Leo40]

Dan Simmons wrote a remarkable book: "Carrion Comfort".
It demonstrates that some writers have great insights.
See for yourself. The quote is from his introduction.

"But it's not monkeys that a trained eye will see when watching children playing among themselves. It's male and female velociraptors.
Mind vampires may be an evolutionary example of arrested neocortal natal development combined with rare frontal-lobe overdevelopment that creates neuron spin axis perpendicular to physical polar magnetic field axis differenting their brains as a form of crude holographic generator rather than a mere wave-front collapsing interferometer, as is the case of the rest of us. The R-complex in mind vampires, in other words, can project sheer force of will to the more passive neocortical, limbic, and R-complexes of other minds, although whether on the electromagnetic spectrum or via some other range of energy is unknown at this time.
The advanced neocortex in the mind vampires we encounter is merely along for the ride. Mind vampires can speak words fluidly and feign altru¬ism and social niceties, but all a mind vampire (as is true with any socio-path) really knows is fight or flight, ascendancy or submission, and hierarchy and control.
And violence. Always violence."

 

[RyanX]

Viewing the book on Amazon, it appears to be a work of fiction, correct?

 

[Gimpy]

Mind vampires may be an evolutionary example of arrested neocortal natal development combined with rare frontal-lobe overdevelopment that creates neuron spin axis perpendicular to physical polar magnetic field axis differenting their brains as a form of crude holographic generator rather than a mere wave-front collapsing interferometer, as is the case of the rest of us. The R-complex in mind vampires, in other words, can project sheer force of will to the more passive neocortical, limbic, and R-complexes of other minds, although whether on the electromagnetic spectrum or via some other range of energy is unknown at this time.

Is this from a characters viewpoint? If its Dan, then he's kind of run off with the word salad there. :D

 

[Tigersoap]

Read this a long time ago.
I don't remember that quote though.
At the time I thought it was entertaining, I don't recall much of the plot but they used humans for their pleasure, to feed and made them do horrible things because they could control them.


Spoiler

If I remember this correctly, at the end of the book, Saul Lasky, one of the main character, the one who survived the death camps during the II war, build layers upon layers of false personality from an holocaust archive so that the mind vampire, who was a SS (eh nazi once always a nazi) could not reach him directly so he could still have some will and oppose him.