While the movie was generally pretty lame, it has at its core
the idea that people (hordes of 'em) get "infected" by reading
the books by a certain fiction writer. They go "mad", and chaos
and anarchy run rampant. The authorities refer to it as an
"epidemic". And it not simply that the reader goes mad as some
vague effect of pointing his eyes at the page, but that the
ideas (memes) presented in the books take hold in the reader's
mind.
-- John Porter jporter@btg.com