Welcome to Monster Part 2: They Can Be Cute Too

I remember seeing Monsters Inc in theaters. I loved it, especially since I was definitely one of those kids who thought there was a monster in their closet or under the bed, which made the movie seem all the more plausible at the time. It also may have helped me get over this particular irrational fear. I mean, as long as Sully or Mike Wazowski was the monster coming to scar me.

Isn't this just the face of an angle?

Occasionally, monsters go through a child friendly retelling. Most of these stories, if I remember correctly, revolved around the cliche "don't judge a book by it's cover" narrative. It's a good story for kids to learn and understand, especially since monsters are often thought of as monsters because of what they look like.

Then again, Sully from Monsters Inc looked like an adorable cross between a teddy bear and furry alligator. He doesn't look that scary in the movie. But I bet if I ran across a real life combination of these two creatures I'd scream my freaking head off and run for the hills.

 Ah Real Monsters was a similar show from the 90s. It featured three young monsters learning how to be scary. It was a more gross version of Monsters Inc (I think they lived in a dumpster). On a day to day basis the monsters in the show were friendly and just trying to pass their classes. It was when they came across a human, that they would scare them. It was a fun, goofy show for young me to watch (and the monster designs were amazing).

Kids do need to learn that they shouldn't judge a person by their appearance alone. One of my favorite stories as a kid was The House that Drac Built. It was supposed to be a spooky house that was filled with ferocious and scary monsters.

I loved this story and made my parents read it to me all the time (along with Mickey Mouse in The Phantom Blot). The first part of the book included a great build up of how scary and angry the monsters trapped in the house were. The second part of the book had the kids showing up. At first it seemed like the kids would be terrified and run away, but when the kids saw that the monsters needed help or love, they instead spent time with them.

I remember a lot of these stories from the late 90s and early 2000s. Though I might have blocked some of them out of my memory. One day while I was meandering through the nostalgic side of YouTube I stumbled across the opening for a show called Seven Little Monsters. I don't recall actually watching this show (I was a little too old for it), but I do remember seeing it occasionally pop up on PBS while my younger sibling was waiting for a different show (or while I was babysitting).

Seven Little Monsters was about a family of monsters growing up in the human world (or at least that's what I remember). Each monster had their own quirk, which made them different from their siblings. It was a cute show and heavily featured several lessons about using the talents you've been given and not to judge people who look different from you.

In this case, monsters weren't supposed to be scary. They were nice and sweet or held day jobs. It was a way to teach kids to accept those who are different from them. Monsters are convenient to use in these stories, since most kids are already scared of monsters.

What better way to help someone conquer their fears than by making that fear seem more relatable?

Monsters will always be a part of our popular culture. They represent the unknown and inhuman parts of our lives. Monsters can be blood sucking forces of evil and they can be the cuddly 9 to 5 business man who just wants to keep his city supplied with power.

Personally I like both kinds of monsters. Much like people, you never know which monsters are good and which are evil. It's their actions that determine that.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week.

Welcome to Monsters Part 1: Evil Predators Under the Bed

So I wanted to get a few things out of the way before really diving into this week's post. First, everything that I am writing is my opinion which is based on my own experiences and (occasional) research. How I interpret something could be entirely different from how someone else does. Second, I am aware that there are people out there who have done a much better analysis than I am about to do on this topic. That's not going to stop me. Third, I enjoy writing and (to a lesser extent) reading horror. This series has been buzzing in my brain for a while and I'm not entirely sure how long it will go for. You've been warned.

An image from my sketch book... 

The monsters of my childhood were simple. They hid in the darkest shadows of my bedroom, waiting for me to peak out from under the safety of my covers and spirit me away. Only my army of stuffed animals kept the evil creatures at bay.

Or at least that was what my childish logic told me.

They are the predators and we are the prey.

Humans have it pretty good right now from an evolutionary stand point. We've somehow managed to populate every continent on Earth and it's only a matter of time before we start looking at colonizing the moon or building underwater dwellings deep on the ocean floor. There isn't anything on our planet that uses us as a primary food source (bacteria don't count). We are the dominate species.

But we weren't always the top dog and I think a part of our instinct subconscious remembers that.

Many of the scariest and most evil of monsters in our classic and popular culture (at least the western  culture which I am most familiar with) are terrifying because they prey on humans or want to cause serious harm. Manticores are known for consuming their victims whole, leaving no shred of evidence behind. Vampires want to suck the life right out of you. Zombies will tear out your throat and start eating you, while you're still alive. 

All pleasant images right?

Here there be monsters!

Explorers used to write on maps "here there be monsters" to indicate unexplored or extremely dangerous areas. It would be far from civilization where a lot of things that were unknown about these places. Those who went there, sometimes didn't come back. 

Creatures such as the kraken, manticore, siren, and harpy supposedly inhabited these area. They were blamed for shipwrecks, strange disappearances, and unexplained deaths. They preyed on humans in the same way that humans preyed on other animals.

Off the edge of the map, we weren't special anymore. 

I think the ones that can talk and easily mimic human speech are the scariest. They trick their victims into thinking they're in distress, but when the hopeless sap gets too close, it's too late. Human is eaten. The creepiest example that I have come across while doing research is from the Philippines's mythology. The tiyanak is sometimes depicted as a vampire like creature that makes the same sounds as a baby in distress to lure its victims to their deaths. 

I feel that is one monster I would easily tricked by.

The Odyssey had a lot of anthropomorphize creatures that tried to lead our heroes astray. The sirens in particular stand out. Their beautiful voices enchanting anyone who gets too close to their island, leading them to a horrible shipwreck. I was never certain if they did this to amuse themselves or if they ate their drowned victims too. Either way, they are hunting humans with hypnotic singing.

They were human once...

I've always thought that the most tragic monsters are the ones who started out as human. They are twisted into the evil creatures that haunt our nightmares instead of just being born to cause us harm. Vampires, werewolves, wendigos, and zombies are all creatures that (depending on source material) started out as perfectly ordinary people. 

And they need to eat us to survive.

There are different degrees to these types of stories. There's sometimes a shred of humanity still in them. But the need to survive nearly always wins. Dracula might have at one point been a human, but by the time he makes his way to London, he is perfectly fine eating an entire ship's crew. 

Zombies probably scare me the most in this category. Zombies were really popular when I was in middle school and I read a couple books and saw a few movies starring them. The heroes in these films were always under threat of being eaten or turned. Inevitably, one of the members of their party would get bitten and a morality crisis ensued. Did the group kill the infected individual before they could become the zombie or did they wait and hope the person didn't actually turn? Could they look into the face of their family/friend and kill them while they were still human? Could they do it after their family/friend became a zombie?

I don't know which is a worse feeling, the idea that I'm about to be eaten by a monster or that I might become the evil monster. Knowing that you're about to die is one thing. Knowing that you might be the cause of your friends and family's death is another. Would you rather die or become the monster?

Of heroes and monsters.

Monsters are typically vanquished by a hero. 

In the western classics, we are taught about how Hercules slayed the hydra (as part of his penitence for murdering his family) and how St. George saved a princess from being eaten by a vengeful dragon (and perpetuating a horrible cliche). The hero is either tasked to kill the evil monster to prove his worth or redeem himself from some horrible sin. It's not a matter of who will win the fight, but how the hero will succeed.

It is the classic good versus evil narrative. 

These types of stories continue exist in our modern culture. Tolkien told us about how a hobbit along with thirteen dwarves traveled to The Lonely Mountain to reclaim a treasure from a dragon (Hobbit). Buffy and her friends (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) protected us from the vampire apocalypse. The Winchester brothers (Supernatural) are still "saving people, hunting things" (you all knew I was going to work this in eventually).

The monsters are the evil that need to be destroyed and the hero is the good we root for. Good always wins the day.

We humans might be food monsters prey upon, but we are also the hope that keeps their evil at bay.

Alright that last line is a little sappy, even for me. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Let's see what kinds of monsters we'll meet next week.

Welcome to Monsters: A Quick Intro

I'm betting everyone reading this blog can name at least five different monsters off the top of their head. These monsters might be cute and cuddly, like Sully from Monster's Inc, or blood sucking creeps, like Dracula. I'm sure there's at least one reader who has all of the classic movie monster's memorized (I'm personally quite fond of the 1941 Wolf Man myself).

Monsters are a staple of our popular culture.

From ghosts to vampires to serial killers, monsters can take many forms. Most of the time, they are seen as creatures to strike terror into the hearts of humans (or just eat the humans). Sometimes the they are misunderstood and just need a hug. Other times they sparkle (though I've heard this trend is slowly dying out - fingers crossed).

Why do we love monsters so much? Monsters aren't real, right?

The Manga "Monster"

Monsters aren't usually seen as human. Mythological creatures such as dragons or manticores are well known for causing humans great harm and being super mysterious. Today we see this example with Godzilla or the Jersey Devil. Often these creatures are seen as evil and require a brave hero to be vanquish. It is easy to see who is good (the human hero) and who is bad (the dragon) in these stories.

Then there are the monsters who used to be human, but aren't anymore. They are the fallen who can no longer empathize with the human experience. Zombies, vampires, and werewolves usually started out as humans, but were turned into their respective creatures against their will. These types of stories usually still have good versus evil narrative, but with a more tragic undertone or questions about what it means to be human.

There are a lot of unknown elements to these monsters. We don't always know how they came to exist (or where "patient zero" is) or why they exist. We just know they want to cause us to suffer. We, the humans, are prey against a large unknown entity.

I think monsters were created to help us rationalize our fears, especially of the unknown. Why else would maps have a "here there be monsters" section of uncharted regions?

Children tend to be the group most affected by monsters. Who doesn't remember asking their parents to check under the bed or in the closet late at night to see if there was something hiding there? There's a lot of media out there featuring monsters that is directed at kids.

I clearly remember growing up with Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Goosebumps, and my personal favorite The House that Drac Built. Each book and TV show had a different take on what made monsters monsters. Aaahh!! Real Monsters treated monsters like goofy kids who were taught to scare humans (I feel I should make a Monsters U joke, but I haven't seen the movie). The House that Drac Built show cased all of the classic movie monsters being helped by children on Halloween. 

Then there was Goosebumps. I used to read the books and watch the show. Honestly I always felt the books were a lot scarier. The TV show was cool, but the special effects were nothing compared to the images my mind would conjure up while reading the stories (or listening to them on cassette). My mom, sister, and I still can't look at garden gnomes without shuddering. 

Eventually I found that I was consuming more and more stories featuring different types of monsters. There were still the stories where the monster was definitely the bad guy. I think the TV show Supernatural has created an entire fandom around the idea.

Then there are the stories that teach us that looks are deceiving when it comes to monsters. Some people or creatures are identified as monsters by the people around them, but in actuality are just unfortunate beings. The real monsters in these stories are those who put them in the terrible situation to be judged by society. The opening lyrics from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame ask us "who is the monster and who is the man?" and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (though I haven't read the book and therefore can't make a good statement on it) raise these questions. I would also argue that the entire message in Disney's Beauty and the Beast also highlights this idea, since by the end of the movie, Gaston is declared the real monster by Belle. 

What makes a monster a monster? Is it physical appearance or the lust to consume human flesh? What about the monsters who look like everyday people? Is there a need for conscious malice for someone or something to be a monster? Can machines be monsters (I'm looking at you HAL from 2001 Space Odyssey).

In the upcoming weeks (as I seem to have nothing better to write about), I want to take a look several different categories of monsters. These categories are entirely of my creation and discretion. Though if it feels like I'm missing something, feel free to let me know. 

• Monsters that are just monsters - these creatures evil, threatening to humans, and there's not much else to them. 
• The misunderstood monster - these are the monsters who aren't evil, society just thinks they are. These monsters usually need a hug and therapy...lots and lots of therapy.
• The good monster - these monsters aren't actually scary. In fact, most of them are nice and even helpful. They might even have their own society that humans know nothing about.
• Tech monsters OF THE FUTURE!!! - yes, the all caps are completely necessary because we all know the age of machines is coming, but will humans survive if we are declared obsolete?
• The monster next door - these monsters look just like everyday people, but looks are completely deceiving. They also might just pop up in real life...

These are just how I generally categorize the monster's I come across in popular media. They can be broken down further (in fact that first bullet point has a ton of nuance to it, that I might not cover everything the first time). There's also a ton of cross over potential for each category. Some stories that start out as a simple good versus evil narrative have taken a sudden left turn towards moral ambiguity when it comes to identifying the monsters (I recommend checking out the anime Shiki on Hulu for a good example of this situation).

I hope you guys enjoy my take on monsters.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.