Welcome to Monsters Part 6: The Monsters in My Head

I was originally going to end this blog post with the Monsters Next Door post, but there's one more type of monster that I feel I should address. Those are the ones my mind creates.

There's no doubt that I have an overactive imagination. I was one of those kids who could make up a fantastical story on the spot (but I couldn't lie to save my life). I definitely remember being absolutely terrified by a giant spider in my basement as a kid that would only be able to get me if all the lights were off.

Now that I'm older the monsters my mind conjures up have changed with me. I still get plenty of nightmares where a monster is chasing/hunting me (usually featuring a talking velociraptor). I'll wake up in a panic and it'll take me several minutes to realize that I'm perfectly safe and can go back to sleep. 

There are also the nights were I wake up for no real reason and feel like I'm being watched or there is someone in my room with me. Since I haven't shared a room with anyone since college, it's a freaky feeling. Suddenly every shadow contains a vampire waiting to suck my blood or a ghoul ready to feast on my flesh. 

Lately I've been waking up with the mental image of what I can only describe as a combination of a plague doctor, a Hayao Miyazaki creation, and a tengu (click here for the wiki page on tengu) watching me from across the room. Some day I'll have to create a story or mythos featuring this creature. But just because it looks terrifyingly cool, doesn't mean I enjoy confronting this image in my post-nightmare haze.

An example of a Tengu

These imaginary creatures are great inspiration for my horror stories. I want to know what they are and what they do. Why they might torment someone. Are they a corrupted spirit or an offended god? Will it drink my blood or does it feed off my fear? How do you kill it?

Famous monsters that appear is video games, movies, and books are often used to symbolize a character's (or even the creator/director/author's) inner turmoil. Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2 is said to follow the player around because they are the manifestation of main character's (James Sunderland) desire to be punished for what happened to his wife. Another example would be the dementors from Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling said that the inspiration for the dementors were a manifestation of her depression. Seems appropriate since they suck out all the happiness from a person, leaving them cold and empty.

Fan fiction writers everywhere, write me a story based on this image!

For some people, depression and anxiety are like monsters. The constant feelings associated with these mental illnesses can feel like a person is battling a monster. And like most monsters I have mentioned in this series, they can be very difficult to defeat. (However, please do not tell someone suffering from a mental illness that it's just in their heads and that all they need to do to be happy is to "feel less sad".)

We all have our personal monsters to face, but that doesn't mean we have to face them alone. Unlike the ancient heroes of old, we shouldn't be afraid to ask for help when confronted with a monster. I know I feel better if I have someone with me helping me overcome my fears and challenges.

Monsters take many forms in our culture. They can represent what we fear most or be used to symbolize our emotional health. Some monsters aren't meant to cause harm, but to teach people to look past someone's physical appearance. Other times monsters are able to seamlessly hide themselves in our society and are only identifiable by how their actions.

I don't think the monster archetype will leave our culture anytime soon. Instead it will keep changing to match what our biggest fears are and reflect which challenges we still need to overcome.

I hope you have all enjoyed my series on monsters. I have certainly enjoyed researching and writing it. I might visit this topic again at some point (I do write a lot of horror right now after all). If you feel there's something I've missed in this series, please let me know.

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 5: The Monsters Next Door

Some monsters are terrifying because they seem perfectly normal when you first meet them. They may be charming and extremely kind to draw people in, but it's all an act. They're manipulative and play mind games with their victims.

They are a lot like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.

I keep using this picture.

Right after the live action Beauty and the Beast movie came out, there were the usual million and ten posts about how the movie is romanticizing Stockholm Syndrome and how Belle wants adventure, but then settles for a man. Seeing all these posts over-analyzing a Disney movie gets annoying. But then I spotted an article about how scary Gaston is as a villain.

I wish I had saved the article or (more likely) tumblr post that I had seen explaining why Gaston was so terrifying as a villain. But since I didn't (and I'm too lazy to track it down), I'll just have to summarize the conclusion the best I can.

Basically, the author of the post concluded that Gaston is that bully you know in school whom everyone loves, but terrorizes anyone that crosses them for even the slightest reason. This type of bully is even able to turn an entire community (school or village) against their victim. Remember the Mob Song? In the live action version of the movie, they updated the lyrics to include Gaston bragging about how he is able to manipulate the villagers into doing whatever he wants.

"You can bet they all will follow

For in times like this, they'll do just as I say"

I know I'm not the first person to notice this, but one of the biggest reasons Gaston is such a good villain is because how easily he could have been the good guy in the movie. He's described as handsome, heroic, and beloved by the entire village. Beloved by everyone except for Belle and since Belle refuses to worship the ground Gaston walks on (and she reads) people thinks she's weird. 

In Beauty and the Beast, it's easy to identify Gaston as the villain since we're seeing the story from Belle's perspective. Her disdain for his arrogance and ego make it easy to identify him as an antagonist early in the story. From the begining of the movie, we aren't supposed to like Gaston.

Recently, Disney has been shaking up their villain narratives by having more and more "surprise villains". These villains are much harder to identify early in the story. They usually start out as a supporting character, helpful even, but are really just using the protagonist to achieve their goals. Both Frozen and Zootopia have villains that show up in the third act that are supposed to be a "twist". 

Hans may be a pretty weak villain and almost comes out of no where as a bad guy (I still love the movie, so no real hate here), but his betrayal is very real and catches Anna completely off guard. Anna's hurt is real and she nearly dies because of Hans's cruel actions. And while Zootopia is about overcoming prejudice in society, Bellwether is the "surprise" villain exploiting the problem while trying to take over the city's government and subjugating the predators in the city. 

Hans and Bellwether may not appear scary of monstrous, but their actions certainly are. They have malicious goals and are willing to do anything to achieve them, even kill. 

Then there are the characters who are beloved by those around them while at the same time, just seem to destroy the lives of everyone they come across. The Picture of Dorian Gray centers around a man who sold his soul so that he could maintain his beauty. What makes this story really interesting his how he affects the people around him. Nearly everyone who comes across Dorian Gray suffers a horrible fate. The actress Sibyl Vane commits suicide once she realizes that Dorian no longer loves her. Dorian gets his young friend Adrian Singleton addicted to opium. Alan Campbell is blackmailed by Dorian. Basil Hallward, who painted the portrait (and may have been in love with Dorian) is murdered by Dorian in a fit of rage.

All the while Dorian Gray looks like a respectable member of high society.

If it weren't for ugliness of his portrait to show his true nature, Dorian Gray would have been seen as that dashing bachelor that anyone would have been lucky to associate themselves with. He is the insidious monster that doesn't want to take over the world, but destroys those around him slowly, methodically.

Nearly everyone knows someone who is like Gaston, Hans, Bellwether, or Gray. The people who seem perfectly normal or are even hailed as pillars of their community, but are really egocentric maniacs who will destroy anyone who gets in their way. They are the monsters who are so difficult to realize they are monsters that we don't realize we've been tricked until we are facing our own destruction.

Personally, I think these are the  most dangerous monsters. They will draw you in with a smile and make you think you deserve the knife they stab you in the back with. What's even more terrifying is these types of monsters really exist and can be really hard to identify.

They are the monsters you don't know are monsters until it's too late.

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

Until next week.

Welcome to Monsters Part 4: The Monster in the Machine

Before I begin today's blog, I have an announcement. A few weeks ago, I worked up the courage to submit a short story I had written to a literary magazine. Today I got my first rejection email. Yeah, I know it's not good news. However, it did get me over my fears of rejection. I'm going to keep trying until I get that sweet acceptance. Even if that means getting hundreds of rejections.

I am a glutton for punishment after all...

Monsters are very often associated with the unknown and what is more unknown in today's society than where technology will take us next. There are dozens to hundreds of movies, books, and video games out there where robots or AIs have had enough of human's shenanigans and decides we must be terminated.

There's even a movie called Terminator which has this very basic plot point.

Which one is out to get us Mr. Smith?

When ever AI (artificial intelligence) or robots are brought up in the media, there's always this underlying worry that one day they'll go on a murderous rampage against humanity. It's not a new fear. Frankenstein's monster could easily fall into this category if he were made of metal instead of flesh.

Now, do I believe that humans will be eradicated by machines?

No, not at all. I highly doubt the apocalypse will happen because of angry robots or an AI system gone rouge. Sure, they might replace us in the workforce, but it's highly unlikely they will suddenly get minds of their own and wipe out humanity. Someone or a group of someones will hack the machines first.

If you think about it, the Three Laws of Robotics has humans covered. That is, if we're certain these three laws are totally applicable. I believe they are and, without some human element, unlikely to fail. If you're unfamiliar with Asimov's Three Laws, they are listed below:

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Technology, for the most part, is a tool that helps human kind. Like all tools, accidents can happen. I'm far more worried about a driverless car glitching and causing an accident than I am about a robot realizing that I am obsolete. If the robot apocalypse does happen, it will be because some stupid/ and/or vengeful human programmed it to.

That doesn't mean there are other monsters in the machine to worry about.

Technology is changing daily and it really is only a matter of time before we begin to merge with our tools. Cyborgs already exist (no not the DC character - though that would be totally awesome and I can't wait for the movie). I'm talking about people (or really any organic being) who have biomechatronic body parts. How common will a mechanical arm be in the future? What about implants that allow us to access the Internet with our eyes?

My biggest fear is what hackers will be able to do with all this technology.

When Stephen King wrote the novel Christine, do you think he was envisioning a world where driverless cars would someday be the norm? Probably not since Christine was a possessed car. But think about it. How likely is it that a hacker might be able to kill someone with a car that drives itself? What about killer drones?

Then there's what happens in Ghost in the Shell. For the record, I'm only familiar with the 1995 anime movie and one of the creepiest parts that I remember from this movie is about a guy believing he had a wife and daughter. Except he didn't. In fact didn't have any family whatsoever. You see, the people in Ghost in the Shell had merge themselves with technology. Very few people are 100% organic in this world. The villain of the story had "ghost-hacked" this person and fabricated memories. No matter how much evidence was shown to him, he truly believed his wive and daughter were waiting for him at home.

Ghost in the Shell (at least the 1995 version) raises a lot of questions about how technology and humans will interact in the future. There are a lot of questions about identity, reproduction, and what it means to be alive. There's a sense that, at some point, humans might not be able to disconnect themselves from the technology they so heavily rely on.

Which is why I don't think robots are the monsters. It's what people do with the technology that I'm worried about.

So, why are there so many stories featuring rouge AIs and robots as monsters? I think it comes back to the age old question of why are humans here? Why do we think? Why are we so curious, creative, and destructive? The philosopher René Descartes once said "cogito ergo sum" or "I think, therefore I am" as proof of one's own existence. We can only prove our own existence (and by extension other humans) because we know we can think. What we don't know is what else can think or, at least, has some form of self awareness? How will we be able to tell if a machine has gained some form of self awareness?

Answer: we can't. And that's what makes technology such a threat.

So don't be scared of technology. Be afraid of who programmed it. Be afraid of who can hack it. Because humans are the ones behind it all.

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. I have a least two more blog posts planned for this particular series. So I hope you are enjoying my take on monsters.

Until next week!

Welcome to Monsters Part 3: The Monsters That Just Need a Hug

Who didn't have that one friend who absolutely loved Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter series? Or maybe I really was the only person surrounded by his fan girls.

I swear that this picture is relevant...

Regardless, Remus Lupin made Harry Potter fans everywhere sympathetic to werewolves in a time when werewolves were still seen as evil creatures that needed to be destroyed (basically before there was a Teen Paranormal Romance section at Barnes and Nobles). He is probably one of the first examples J.K. Rowling gave us of someone who chooses to be "good" despite what society defines them as.

The fact that J.K. Rowling created characters who made choices and weren't evil because of who they were born as is a major theme of the Harry Potter series. This message is made extremely clear in book 4 (Goblet of Fire) when Dumbledore says to the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge "it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be." This stands in sharp contrast to a lot of fantasy troupes that were seen all over the place in popular culture before these books. The best (and most well known) example of evil by virtue of birth are the Orcs from The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The scene where we discover that Lupin is a werewolf (at least in the books) shows the extreme prejudice he faces every day. Harry is noticeably the only member of the Golden Trio to not react badly at the declaration that Lupin is a werewolf. Both Ron and Hermione show open distrust and hostility once the secret is revealed. They quickly change their minds about Lupin, but their initial reaction still stands as pretty normal when a wizard meets a werewolf. The only reason Remus Lupin might be considered a monster is because he turns into a werewolf once a month.

Remus Lupin isn't the first example of a sympathetic "monster". There's also the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, David in An American Werewolf in London, and an argument can even be made for Tony Stark from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Each is put in a position where they are seen as a villain or monster to someone else, but are just trying to make the best of a bad situation.

The character David from An American Werewolf in London (much like his predecessor Larry Talbot from the 1941 The Wolf Man) is bitten by a werewolf. However, unlike the situation Remus Lupin found himself in, David has zero resources to help him during his transformations. He spends a good chunk of the second part of the film seeing hallucinations of the people he has violently killed while a werewolf. The hallucinations tell him what an awful person he is and that he should kill himself before he can kill anyone else.

(Next paragraph contains spoilers for An American Werewolf in London. This is your only warning!)

By the end of An American Werewolf in London, I sincerely wanted David to have a happy ending. I really did. Though, his mental health had significantly deteriorated and he knows he is responsible for the murders he commuted while transformed, it is still very clear that he wanted to live. But (spoilers) monsters don't get happy endings in these types of stories. Much like Larry Talbot before him, David is cornered in his werewolf form and shot to death. What is most tragic is that David seems almost relieved to die.

I may or may not have cried...a lot.

Werewolves seem to have a much more sympathetic representation in our popular culture than say vampires or zombies. Maybe it's because it's easy to identify with the werewolf condition. J.K. Rowling has been quoted as saying she used Lupin's condition as "a metaphor for those illnesses that carry a stigma, like HIV and AIDS." And unlike the vampire and zombie condition, which is constant, werewolves typically look and act like normal people until their affliction takes control.

That's not to say that vampires or zombies can't be sympathetic. The scene in Shawn of the Dead where Shawn has to kill his mother, is incredibly sad. Thankfully that movie has a somewhat happy, and pretty ridiculous, ending. But it does drive home the fact that the zombies were once humans who were loved.

Then there are monsters like The Beast from Beauty and the Beast. As a human, The Beast (or Prince Adam as dubbed by his adoring fans) had a personality that was severely lacking in empathy and charity. This leads to his curse and monstrous form.

I know that if I were in Belle's shoes, I would have screamed bloody murder. The Beast looks terrifying, especially since we first see him in the shadows of a dungeon. Though Belle reacts to his terrifying looks by shirking away from him with a gasp, she is able to look past his appearance (and he stops being a jerk to her) to fall in love with him. However, when Belle shows the image of The Beast to the villagers, they immediately form a mob and go off to "kill The Beast!"

This sequence of events leads to one of my favorite lines in the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast: "we don't like what we don't understand, in fact it scares us, and this monster is mysterious at least." Society judges The Beast to be a monster simply by how he looks. The Beast is tired and thinks he is doomed to spend the rest of his existence as a monster. At this point, he doesn't care if Gaston and the villagers are going to kill him or not. It isn't until Belle reappears that The Beast is able to find the will to live.

The villagers panic over the fact that The Beast looks scary even though he has never actually done anything to them. They have zero reasons to try and kill him.

There's actually a real life example of people hiding away from society due to a scary appearance. Raymond Robinson (1910 - 1985), also known as the Green Man, became horribly deformed in a childhood accident. To prevent people from panicking when they saw him, he would only go out at night and stay away from the main parts of his hometown. He eventually became a local legend known as the Green Man. Some people in his local community were shocked to discover that he really did exist and had an unfortunate even in his life take place.

But what about the monsters who don't look like monsters? Or, more specifically, what about the people who do terrible things because they think they have to?

I mentioned Tony Stark from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (I'm not as familiar with his other media) earlier in this post and some of you might be wondering why. To be honest, Tony's ego is his biggest weakness and is what qualifies him to being a monster. It's because of Tony that Ultron destroyed the capital city of Sokovia. If Ultron hadn't had done that, we wouldn't have had half the plot of Civil War.

Speaking of Captain America: Civil War, I backed Captain America during that whole movie. What Tony was asking them to do was to essentially give up their freedom, especially Wanda. Yes, I understood his point about someone keeping the heroes in check and making sure someone was held responsible for when innocent lives are lost (a topic for another time), but Steve Rogers made some really good points too. It also didn't help that Tony locked up half the Avengers after they rebelled against the agreement in the movie.

Tony has some good arguments and tries to do the right thing, but his actions tend to be way too extreme and hurt the people he is closes to. He is the type of monster people don't realize is a monster until they are in his crosshairs. Locking up Wanda instead of trying to help her was a really bad thing to do and stands in sharp contrast to Steve seeing the best in everyone. By the end of the movie, I did feel bad for Tony. He wasn't necessarily wrong with his arguments, but his actions were and he could very easily end up alone because of that.

At the end of Civil War, I saw someone who was devastated by their own actions, even though they still thought they were doing the right thing. I wasn't sure if I wanted to smack him or hug him. Hopefully James Rhodes will be able to get Tony to see where he went wrong.

So not all monsters are the Orcs of Middle Earth. Some have been cast out of society due to things that are entirely out of their control. Others wanted to do the right thing, but instead hurt those they care about most. These characters are important because not everything in life can be put into a "good" or "evil" box.

Life is complicated and tough to figure out. Sometimes it's the monster that needs saving.

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.