“He who fights
with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And when you
gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” (Aphorism 146,
Friederich Nietzsche)
Since
the dawn of civilization, and humanities crave for entertainment, we have
created and imagined things that go far from what can be real in our realm in
terms of beauty, as well as what we fear. Monsters are those elements we select
in order to describe our inner-most fears and materialize and describe them in
vivid detail for others to understand. We dedicate entire genres to these
imaginary beings that live rent-free in our psyche, festering the thoughts and
intruding in our dreams. But what are monsters? What constitutes as a monster?
Why are there set characteristics to being a monster? Can they be real? How do
we decide when something is a monster? What mediums do we commonly see these
monsters?
The
etymology of the word monsters comes from the Latin word monere, which
means “to warn”. Later translated to monstrum and eventually becoming
the Middle English word. Monsters as a concept have an extended history that
seems to have no certain origin because our perception of a monster comes from
our innate fear of the unknown, and tracing back the origin of fear is
impossible. The term itself is slowly starting to lose meaning and becoming a
regular adjective to describe disgust and terror, still orbiting around fear as
a tether yet having a different connotation.
The
earliest understandings of monsters could be identified as the myths told way
back, like the minotaur, a half-human-half-bull hybrid, or the gryphon, a
creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. These
entities molded by the mixture of different animals as a way to instill fear of
how unnatural they can be. Another example would be mermaids and merfolk,
creatures born in the oceans and lakes with fish tails and human torsos. It is
easy to identify why they were, and still are, considered monsters due to how
they counter the laws of nature in a grotesque way, as if they insulted God and
were punished for it.
And
those are the western interpretations of monsters because Asia has had dragons
for millennia and ghostly entities dating back to 772 C.E. Japan, or the
Chinese Dijiang found in classic text and literature as a six-legged creature
with wings and no face. Although most of the general mythology of the East is
not assumed to be monstrous due to some type of benevolence, westerners have
adopted the idea that any creature from mythology can and will be considered a
monster. The western society prides itself with having a plethora of monsters
when there are other cultures with more vivid and imaginative monsters to their
name, like the Pahuanui from the Polynesians, the Thai woman whose organs are
falling named Krasue, or the Korean goblins called the Dokkaebi, to name a few.
Monsters have no shortage in any culture or region around the world; they are
like a curse we constantly bring up regardless of how frightening they may be.
The
aesthetics, or lack thereof, a monster is a tough subject since there is no
concrete way to describe how a monster is or acts. However, we can extrapolate
from basic human fears and instincts we have evolutionarily developed as a way
to avoid them. Such examples are fangs or large teeth, dark features to
camouflage, small enough to not be able to see and big to not be able to
confront, combinations that defy nature, malformations that do not conform to
our aesthetic view, and so on. The shorten the list: anything that is weird and
can potentially attack us.
Although
myths are a type of story they did not feature monsters as the crutch of the
story itself, in contrast with modern mediums such as books, movies, TV series,
folktales. Genres such as horror, terror, thrillers, psychological horror,
fantasy, and science fiction describing and showing the abnormalities our
imaginations can conjure. An endless supply of fear to further fuel our
imagination and sense of adrenaline. We have lacked any sensation of adrenaline
and therefore must create our own to satiate it, getting our blood flowing and
our hearts pounding; sometimes with excitement.
Books
create a new type of awareness that is difficult to replicate. It is the only
medium that does not utilize our vision in order for us to understand and
visualize foreign concepts with mere words. And monsters have become an image
we both fear and crave, reading as every word describe in vivid detail how or
what the entity looks and acts. Although it sounds complex, words have more
power once they are arranged in a way to show a scarily realistic depiction.
The
genre-defining monster that, to this day, has been referenced as the most
monstrous creature to be written about is obviously Frankenstein’s monster. A
creature built from several human body parts and the moral corruptness of a
young Italian man breeds a confused entity that only wants the creator to take
responsibility for his actions against God and giving it life in the first
place. It is often obscured by other writings of fiction, but it is undeniable
who revolutionized the genre: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, better known as Mary
Shelley. She basically created the first believable monster with fears and emotions
of its own.
After
her came another genre-bending juggernaut: Howard Phillips Lovecraft. His work
is literally a genre on its own, Cosmic Horror, where he presents entities that
far surpass our understanding and vision, creating creatures and gods that
instill fear in our psyche by the mere sight of them. His most known creature
and often quoted as the most read is Cthulhu, a dormant being with a fleshy
squid head and an anthropomorphic body that when awoke will make any human go
insane by just seeing it. Lovecraft has created an entire mythos surrounding a
chaotic pantheon of unimaginable monsters birthed from his twisted and corrupt
mind.
Enough with the western hemisphere
though, the eastern has an interesting view on what monsters are as well. For
example, Ito Junji, a horror manga artist widely known for his complex and
fear-inducing art style. Stories such as Tomie, Uzumaki, Sensory, and much more
as he contorts and dehumanizes the concept of being human and warping our
perception of monsters in a different way. A man coiling himself into a spiral
because it would be the ultimate expression of a spiral (to become one), a man
riddled with holes causing any normal person trypophobia, a boy with nails for
teeth, and the head of a woman used as the shell for a snail, to name a few.
Although his works don’t always feature monsters per say, he finds new ways to
envision monsters when need be.
Another vision of eastern monsters
would be the aptly named manga, Monster, by Naoki Urasawa. The manga delves on
a topic that will discuss later: sociopathy as a version of human monsters. It
shows how a man would go far enough to murder anyone in his way to erase his
tortured past. It is not the typical representation of what monsters look like
but there is the underlying nature to hurt and scare humans. Johan has no
empathy towards those that he harms and yet at the end yearns for the main
character to end him as retribution for his actions. He does not regret his
actions yet still feels the need to be punished for them.
“Beware;
for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” (Frankenstein, pag. 149, chap 20.
Frankenstein’s creation)
Movies are the next influential way
to envision what monsters can be. It is the modern version of what words could
not accomplish, making descriptions come to life (albeit with special effects
and cosmetics). This medium has birthed a plethora of new and inventive
monsters that often curse our dreams, monsters so unique that the only way to
understand them is by the visual mediums, either animated or with special
effects.
To name every monster movie would be
a laborious ordeal, but there are quite a few that deserve to be named, such as
the Japanese monster, Gojira (Godzilla), the Transylvanian legend of Vlad the
Impaler (the inspiration for Nosferatu and Dracula), and the adorable Gremlins
that will murder if fed past mid-night. There is a phenomenon when it comes to
movie monster that immortalizes them for their iconic roles, as well as their
methods of scaring the audience, making them so-called “cult icons” or “cult
classics”.
Figures like Jason Voorhees, Freddy
Krueger, Michael Myers, entities with devilish powers and yet still considered
the best monsters out there. Chucky, Annabel, and Saw, puppets and dolls with
the express intent of torturing the existence of humans with their monstrous
faces. Even clowns can be monsters if pushed hard enough, like the movie
“Killer Klowns from Outer Space” and in the same path adding a phobia to them.
And how could we forget the creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible man,
or the Werewolf. Movies have no limit to describe and create monsters as long
as they scare the audience enough to make them come back for more, using our
phobias in their favor.
However,
not everything can be condensed into a two-hour film, hence why the creation of
Television series, where we often explore more than what the big screen can
show is. This medium gives way to a new wave of monsters while still
incorporating the other mediums by expounding on their individual attributes.
The serialization of movies, books, and new monsters can further expand how
some monsters are viewed as well as give nuance to others.
As
well as movies, it is impossible to name every single TV series to date but
naming the most popular monster series can give an insight into what monsters
are to TV viewers. Show such as Scooby Doo and Courage the Cowardly Dog Show,
although intended for younger audiences, shows how monsters are humans in
disguise while other monsters are completely misunderstood, inserting morals at
the end of each episode. There are also adaptations of famous book and movie
monsters such as Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, Dracula, and the werewolf, completely
minimizing the meaning of the word monster as a whole for the entertainment of
the children.
One
must go a bit more in-depth when it comes to Scooby-Doo because monsters are
not really monsters but humans in disguise. Every single mystery they encounter
is often a person causing commotion the either tourists or townspeople for the
sole purpose of gaining something from their absence. It is sort of poetic to
think that the true monsters are humans that have too much drive to go through
with their ambitions and terrorize other individuals for their selfish desires.
There
are, however, non-animated monsters in TV series such as the villains from the
Japan-inspired Power Rangers (Super Sentai) and their various adaptations, Stranger
things having an extradimensional monster haunting the children and the town, and
the series inspired by R.L. Stine’s book series, Goosebumps. Before the 2000s
rolled in there were several TV shows that featured monsters as their
protagonist like ALF, The Munsters Today, and The Addams Family. The 1900s were
a great era for monsters and their commercialization as loveable creatures with
some semblance of humanity in them.
The
oddest part about monsters is when we roleplay as them. Dungeons and Dragons, a
live action roleplaying game that features several monsters in the fantasy
genre, is one of many boardgames that sprouted at the late stages of the 1970s.
News outlets demonized it and religious zealots abhorred it, gaining popularity
at a quicker pace than most other mediums. The odd part is that we humanize
monsters as a way to reflect our emotions, rather than to give into horrific
desire and do as the stereotypes command. They are, in essence, a mirror image
of us while still appearing gross on the outside. You can play as orcs,
dragons, goblins, demons, or shapeshifting creatures and still have the human
aspect we provide.
Fantasy is an interesting genre that
harbors monsters both good and evil. It is due to the name, fantasy, that
anything is possible and monsters have no limits and rules to abide by, as
longs as it is coherent to the story line that it follows. Lord of the Rings is
another fantasy novel and movie franchise that features a select group of
monsters, like dragons, gryphons, trolls, and wraiths, to name a few. Fantasy
is where you can incorporate any monster into a story and not feel off-putting
or out of character, because that is the beautiful aspect of it
"The
scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls." (Edgar Allan
Poe)
Some
monsters spawn from nowhere in particular such as the zombies. These are dead
entities that are later revived by supernatural means, often craving for human
brains or to turn living humans into the undead. There are tons of depictions
of what zombies are and their mannerism ranging from slow-walking and lethargic
to active and manic, ravaging everyone and everything in their path.
Frankenstein’s creation technically falls under this category but the essence
of the creature and the medium from which it came makes it more iconic than to
just be another zombie ready to consume human flesh.
How
can we talk about monsters and mention Japan, but not gesture to its most
valuable spiritual entities: the Yokai. Yokai are often ghostly appearances
with distinct physical features such as an umbrella with a leg, a winged man
with a red face and a long nose, or giant trolls with horns and protruding
teeth. Nowadays, they have become a cultural phenomenon being utilized for
commercial purposes, stylized for the consumption of children, and materialized
to better the aesthetic of some cities in Japan. Yokai used to be scary
creatures, drawn to instill fear on those who saw them, yet now some bring joy
and fortune, or mild pranks in the human world.
In
the same vein, there are two other still different categories for monsters in
the realm of myths: urban legends and Cultural myths. Although similar, there
are noticeable differences in both. For instance, urban legends mostly take
place in small towns or cities and are typically based on sightings from a
single individual or a group making a story blow up out of fear. Some Urban
legends include the moth man, Slender man, Loch Ness monster, and the Jersey
Devil, among others. Cultural myth concern more to specific regions with
traditional legacies and a rich culture that revolves around that place. Such
myths include the Chupacabra, the Wendigo, Yowie, the aforementioned Yokai, and
often times alien sightings.
This
then leads to the topic of cryptozoology. It is the pseudo-science that studies
imaginary creatures (cryptids). Most of the cultural monsters are included in
this branch of monsters and scary creatures. Platypus used to be considered
cryptic creatures due to how unnatural their body structure defies the laws of
nature: tail of a beaver, bill and legs of a duck, possess mammary glands, and
can lay eggs. Creatures such as the jackalope, Thunderbird, Yeti, Mongolian
death worm, and others are hunted for the sole purpose of proving a point of
their existence, and that monsters do existence in the eyes of the “lunatics”
or believers.
Cryptozoology
is often confused or misunderstood to be the same as the SCP Foundation (Special
Containment Procedure). This is a collection of fictional stories and data on
world-ending and non-threatening monsters in this literary universe. These
“anomalies”, as they are referred to, are categorized in Safe, Euclid, Keter,
Thaumiel, Explained, Neutralized, Unknown/Esoteric, and Apollyon. They are also
color coded to identify their utility and danger levels: white (beneficial for
the foundation), Blue (might be beneficial but poorly understood), Green (not
useful, but harmless, Yellow (harmful but easy to contain), Orange
(unpredictable and difficult to recontain), Red (highly unpredictable with
destructive capabilities), and Black (capacity to destroy the world and is top
priority). This foundations encompasses at least over 6,600 entities, and more
are constantly published.
“I am malicious
because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?”
(Frankenstein, pag. 129, chap. 17. Frankenstein’s creation)
With
all the scare and fear for monsters, is there an occasion where these entities
of horror would in fact not be terrifying? There could be a misconception of
what are monsters, and greatly so as of the current understanding of characters
and their nuance and personalities. Monsters in contemporary literature,
digital media, or hear-say stories have made larger leaps into a different
realm of conceptualization; they have become staples and characters within the
genre as nothing like what they used to be. A creature such as the big foot,
big and hairy, is now devolved into a huggable and loveable bear that wants a
family to share with (Harry and the Hendersons(1987)). Make no larger leaps,
there is a movie entirely centered on fictional monsters and their workings on
scaring humans but later understanding that laughter is a greater source of
energy (Monsters Inc.( 2001)). Maybe it’s our innate instinct to recoil against
what we do not understand, and once we do we forget to go back and verify the
validity of the source, confirm if it was dangerous yet we still live with our
plain judgement.
There
so much talk about being scared, horror, and the terrifying nature of monsters,
but what is fear? Fear stems from our animalistic instincts to protect
ourselves. It is a mechanism of defense that saves us from predators or natural
disasters. Since the dawn of consciousness, humans have taken this instinct and
applied intelligence to either destroy it or evade it at all cost. We have also
personified it and deified it. Fear is a natural response that we have both
taken advantage of and repelled in disgust. It is in small occasions that we embrace
fear and welcome it. Here is where the origin to survival comes in as we do
everything to evade that which scares us or possess potential danger to our
life in any meaningful capacity.
There
is a realm hardly explored in a serious manner, partially because it is nearly
impossible to accurately understand this concept, and much more complex to
portray it. It is the realm of anti-social disorders. Not all monsters are
physical beings of pure hatred and malice, some hide their disturbed nature
inside, barely showing it to others. Anti-social disorders such as psychopathy
and sociopathy have an extensive list of stories, movies, and documentaries
where they try to show the intricate nature of humanities worst side, as if
applying what Niccolò Machiavelli has theorized: humans are born evil, it is
not a product of circumstances, but our true nature as living beings. It is, at
times, our mind the most monstrous concept to ever exists to us, the complex
inner workings of how our psyche deceives us and plays tricks on us, be it
unconscious or consciously, the psychology of man is a maddening and fickle
concept to grasp, hence why we have created monsters out of it. Hannibal Lector
(fiction) versus Jeffry Dahmer (real case); both cannibals in their own right,
and both human killers with no regard for life.
(I
would like to clarify that although psychological disorders may seem monstrous
in essence it does not mean that they are not human and cannot feel or express
desire. This is merely a perception of what tends to be described as a monster
to humans that look like humans. Regardless of the severity of the illness, be
it anti-social or paranoic in nature, no disorder should be treated with
disrespect or misunderstood with the intent of characterizing them as evil,
bad, or monster-like. Mental health is an important subject that needs to be
clarified every time it is brought up in a conversation. Reality should be
imperatively separated from fiction once the aspect of mental disorders is in
question.)
Of course
there are creatures that can be considered “real” monsters. These are creature
that fall under the broad terms monsters create, such as large, hairy, visible
fangs, of unknown origin, invisible to our sight, and a myriad of other
characteristics. Some monsters could be the bear, big cats, the shark, or wolves,
partially because they are carnivores. These are the closest to being true
monsters because of how tangible they are and how undeniably horrifying they
can be when encountered. It may be our mind forcing us to fear the unknown, even
after already learning survival techniques that can guaranty our safety yet we
still fear them when they are not present in the moment.
Who
am I to forget the aspect that focuses on the belief in monster as the antithesis
to goodness, the evil that plagues the heart of religion. Monsters are the crux
of evil and hatred, going in full opposition to what is perceived as good. The
Devil, Satan, Lucifer, an entity viewed as a horned beast, large fangs, a
pointy tail, and goat legs. There is also the depiction from Revelations 13:
1-4 where the beast is “The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw
a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten
crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw
resembled a leopard but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of
a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.
3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal
wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the
beast. 4 People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the
beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, ‘Who is like the beast? Who
can wage war against it?’”
Here
is where monsters have a definitive standing as evil and scary, used in a way
to convey what malevolence is. Monsters in religion are the antagonist, like a
means to an end, clearly with the intent of thwarting benevolence with no grand
or meaningful endings, other than to rule the world and create corruption. But
that is just Christianity. There are other religions that incorporate monsters
and pseudo-monsters (they have the characteristics but not the personality).
Hinduism shows gods in a different light westerners would deem monster-like,
such as Durga, a warrior goddess with multiple arms, Hanuman with the tail and
face of a monkey, and Vishnu being a blue entity. Catholicism has iconography
that for the most part are disturbing, such as many-eyed wheels that represents
an angel. Religion does not use monsters by their personalities rather than for
their physical aspects which conveys a better understanding than describing
them as how they act. In actuality, monsters still blend the line because the
evil is described as monstrous, while the good is shown still monstrous but
well-intentioned. Even Dante, who made his depiction of Satan on his own accord,
created a monster by giving it three heads to chew on the three biggest
traitors (Brutus and Cassius, two that betrayed Julius Caesar, and Judas
Iscariot who betrayed Jesus), three sets of wings, and a gigantic, demonic body
held in place by ice from his midriff down.
And
this is still without mentioning the sci-fi genre and how aliens have taken
over most media in a storm. Movies such as the aptly named “Alien” and its
counterpart “Predator” depicting extraterrestrial beings with monster-like
features avidly trying to destroy human society. Aliens have been antagonists
since they were mentioned back in the Roswell Incident of 1947, or the near
disaster that “The War of The Worlds” by H.G. Wells caused when read on
national radio in 1938 without prior announcement; this event alone sent many
into a frenzy due to how horrifying the prospect of an alien invasion as
possible and real. Aliens are the most used due to the amount of imagination it
requires to create a monster out of something that we have no certainty it can
exist in the outer reaches of our solar system. Although alien monsters take
inspiration from animals, some are so outlandish that we need to question the
creator and their mind.
In
conclusion, it can be simple to call everything we fear a monster but that is
not how it works because being a monster requires parameters to constitute as
one: fear, repulsiveness, disdain, apathy, unnaturalness, abomination, horror
personified. It is in this journey that I discovered that monsters do not have
a definitive morality. The nuance created by modernity has shattered any
contemporary understanding of morality in fictional and real-life as well.
Monsters are created as a scapegoat for our inner fear of the representation
these entities entail, granting us a visual of what we don’t like or feel
aversion towards to. We materialize and conceptualize what we don’t understand,
or we do understand but feel revolt through exposition. We are monsters, and
nothing is a monster, as paradoxically as it may sound.
"It is true
we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall
be more attached to one another. (Frankenstein, pag. 130, Chap. 17,
Frankentstein’s creation)