if i look back, i am lost
Claire Keane
Show & Tell
JVL
⁂
trying on a metaphor
noise dept.
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
h
Monterey Bay Aquarium
AnasAbdin
JBB: An Artblog!
#extradirty
Game of Thrones Daily
No title available
No title available
sheepfilms
ojovivo
Sade Olutola
One Nice Bug Per Day
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Morocco
seen from Morocco
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Indonesia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Iraq
@monsteracademia
this is everyone's friendly reminder that censorship of creative work and academic thought based on an individual person's comfort and emotional responses is never okay, and should never be supported. you cannot appreciate, analyse, empathise with and acknowledge the importance of monsters, and then in the same breath call for a witch hunt of someone because their tastes in fictional content make you personally uncomfortable.
this is everyone's friendly reminder that censorship of creative work and academic thought based on an individual person's comfort and emotional responses is never okay, and should never be supported. you cannot appreciate, analyse, empathise with and acknowledge the importance of monsters, and then in the same breath call for a witch hunt of someone because their tastes in fictional content make you personally uncomfortable.
Hello. I want to apply Monster Theory (esp. JJ Cohen's 7 theses) on Robert Egger's The Lighthouse film for my research project. Do you think it's a good idea?
Hi!
I think that The Lighthouse would make for a fascinating and particularly unique text to analyse using Cohen's Monster Theory framework. It definitely has a lot of basis in psychoanalytical elements, and while the reality of some of the 'monsters' that appear in the film is dubious, that definitely doesn't take away their value as socio-cultural artifacts.
Suffice to say I think your research project would be fascinating and I'd love to read it someday when it's complete!
I don't want to be rude, but would you consider increasing the font size on your blog? I'm really interested, but I'm having trouble reading it.
can do my friend! sorry for the trouble, the small text is a bad habit/relic from my days on ye old rp tumblr.
Alien Covenant (behind the scenes)
Is that all you got? Is that all you got?
ALIEN: ROMULUS (2024) dir. Fede Álvarez
yooooo love ur blog!!! thought i'd ask bc i didn't know if there was a way to search: do you have any recommended reading? definitely interested in theory, but also movies/shows/etc that have stood out to you/that you've had fun analyzing in your studies! basically....hi can i have Your Dream Syllabus Reading List
Well hi there! I'm glad you enjoy my blog.
I have my monster theory 101 reading list here in a post that goes into a bit more detail about why those particular readings. But there are definitely some other readings that I personally have really enjoyed and that have been really helpful to me. So here's a list of theory stuff that wasn't included in the 101 reading list;
Undead (A Zombie Oriented Ontology) by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
Maternal Horror Film: Melodrama and Motherhood by Sarah Arnold
Birth Traumas: Parturition and Horror in "Rosemary's Baby" by Lucy Fischer
Monstrous imagination by Marie-Helene Huet
Ex(or)cising the spirit of Japan: Ringu, The Ring and the persistence of Japan by Nicholas Holm
Posthuman Teratology by Patricia MacCormack
Evil Children in Film and Literature by Karen J Renner
Well-Travelled Female Avengers: The Transcultural Potential of Japanese Ghosts by Elisabeth Scherer
The Birth of the Clinic and the Advent of Reproduction: Pregnancy, Pathology and the Medical Gaze in Modernity by J Shaw
There's probably a lot more but these are ones that I remember very clearly and that made a real lasting impression on me.
In terms of fiction texts that stand out to me for their monstrous potential or that I've had a lot of fun analysing in my work;
Ringu (1998) and The Ring (2002)
Splice (2009)
Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Let The Right One In (2008)
Brightburn (2019)
Sinister (2012)
The Exorcist (1973)
Resident Evil Biohazard (2017)
Prometheus (2012)
Alien Covenant (2017)
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Like all of the Alien Franchise really but those three in particular. Even if I'm still upset that Alien Romulus came out after the cut off date for texts for my thesis and my supervisor won't let me include it because it is a Masterpiece
Dead Space (especially the recent remake holy shit I love the idea of decay as an extant form of life)
Not technically a movie or a show or any form of traditional media but I highly enjoy and recommend The Mystery Fleshpit National Park also
If this blog's user is still active... thoughts on the conciet of heroic-aligned magician figures whomst are effectively borne of demons, animals, or monsters? Merlin's father being an incubus in some tellings, the legends that Abe no Seimei's mother was a fox-wife, etc. What is the relationship between wise-men, shamans, wizards, etc and monsters?
Hi!
This is interesting, because it depends heavily on your working definition of monstrosity, and it's also incredibly intersectional in terms of research areas. Though quite luckily, my supervisor actually specialises in medievalism and fantasy, so we've discussed some of this sort of thing.
Personally, in my work, my definition of monstrosity always requires the presence of the supernatural. But equally so, a core tenant of monster theory is the dynamic of the norm/the other. That's what the monster is: the embodiment of that which a society has deemed 'other', wrong, outcast.
A concept I've been writing on for the past few months in my thesis relates to the perception of monstrosity; is a monster only a monster because we perceive it to be one? That's a very long conversation, but the perception of monstrosity is key. So in a sense, it depends on both the author intention and the audience understanding of a particular character in a work.
There's a thin line between characters who may have supernatural abilities or origins and monsters; and that comes down to whether or not they are presented to the audience as a monster.
A good example of this would be...Damien from The Omen vs Adam Young in Good Omens.
The narrative of The Omen presents Damien to us as a monster. He's devil spawn, he's the antichrist, he's a monster. We go into that with the preconceived notion of him as a monster, even before the character actually does anything 'evil'.
Adam Young in Good Omens is a direct parallel to Damien. He is, fundamentally, the same character. He's the antichrist, he's the spawn of Satan. But Adam isn't presented by the author and to the audience as a monster. Even though he is, objectively, the antichrist, literally the spawn of the devil.
All of this to say that in essence, with folkloric characters like Merlin especially, it depends on the individual depiction of the character. For instance, while some versions of Merlin depict him as being half-demon, others claim he was an immaculate conception ala Jesus Christ.
Personally, I think there's a fair few depictions of him as a character that someone could argue as being monstrous. In fact I would go so far as to say most; because despite his role as advisor to the king, his inherent 'supernatural' abilities position him as 'other' in his society. The same could probably be argued for a lot of those kinds of wizards, sages, magic users and so forth--because inherently their abilities place them external to the norm of their society.
I don't know if I actually answered your question but I hope it helped a little!
I firmly believe that some stories can never be translated into a different medium and that's okay
sometimes it has to be a book. sometimes it has to be a movie. if you try to make it something else, it's not the same story anymore.
monster theory reading list
this list is going to be some recommended reading when it relates to literary teratology or monster theory. some of these works predate 'monster theory' as a concept (which was coined in 1996 by jeffrey jerome cohen) but are foundational to that work regardless.
i'll try to include links to any readings that are freely available online and links to doi etc but if something isn't and you're really keen, hit me up and y'know we'll see what i can do.
monster theory: reading culture (1996) by jeffrey jerome cohen - the original and defining text on monster theory by the man himself. here is a link to a pdf of the first chapter, which i spoke about at length in another post.
the horror reader (2000) by ken gelder (editor) - an incredibly insightful collected edition about the horror genre as a whole, however gelder's introduction to part three, as well as marie-hélene huet's chapter introduction to monstrous imagination were incredibly helpful to my work personally. very generously, gelder has allowed free access to the entire work in pdf form!
the monster theory reader (2020) by jeffrey andrew weinstock - an amazing collected edition featuring cohen, creed, kristeva and a number of others that provides a really good foundational background knowledge of what contributed to the creation of monster theory as well as some fantastic takes on it post cohen.
classic readings on monster theory (2018) by asa simon mittman & marcus hensel - similar to weinstock, this collected edition features a number of classical foundational essays and some more modern ones surrounding monster theory. a very helpful starting point! here is a link to the introductory chapter by mittman and hensel in pdf form!
the monstrous feminine: film, feminism, psychoanalysis (1993) by barbara creed - creed's idea of the monstrous feminine is one of the foundational underpinnings of monster theory and is key in comprehending the 'other' as monstrous, particularly as it relates to women in a patriarchal society. highly recommend! here is the entire book in pdf form!
powers of horror: an essay on abjection (1982) by julia kristeva - kristeva's idea of abjection is a precursor to a lot of theoretical frameworks regarding the horror genre, in particular as a direct precursor to creed's work, then to cohen's work. here is the entire book in pdf form!
this is definitely not an all encompassing list of sources, but it is a good starting point for anyone interested in this particular niche field of literary theory. these are texts that were crucial for me in understanding the basics when i was starting work on my thesis.
so even though i haven't posted anything to this blog in a long long while, i was pretty shocked to find that my monster theory 101 post got so much traction. i'm glad you all think it's as cool as i do! just as an update, i'm currently toward the end of my thesis write up, have attended a few conferences (including one internationally!) and am driving my supervisor insane with my constant need to add things or ideas for projects beyond my thesis scope.
hopefully i'll be able to make some more posts (including that monster theory basics reading list i promised some time ago!), and if i get the okay from my supervisor, i might be able to post some edited versions of my conferences papers here too.
please always feel free to reach out and talk about anything you find interesting or any thoughts you might have relating to this blog. especially if you're also working on stuff in this area! i'd really love to hear from you.
the curious case of the child vampire
full disclaimer this is just a collection of my own thoughts and opinions on child vampires in literature, i might be jon snow and know nothing.
child vampire’s have proven to be a pervasive moral dilemma in fiction. they’re fascinating--but why?
the idea of immortality is, truthfully, a very childish thing. because children have no real concept of time or how things will change, an eight year old has no true conceptualisation of what the future looks like. but the true issue with the child vampire is, in my opinion, that the vampire is intertwined with concepts which are inherently adult, and therefore the transgression of the child into an ‘adult’ state is the real problem.
the vampire itself has long been associated with queerness and gender non-conformity, with a history dating back to foundational texts like stoker’s dracula (1897) and fanu’s carmilla (1872), through to more modern examples like rice’s vampire chronicles (1976 onwards). and while i believe this does contribute to the overall concern regarding child vampires--it can be noted that several non-english western texts adapted into english speaking western films remove aspects of gender non-conformity from child monsters--predominantly, the concern is something not unrelated, but still very different.
sexuality. the child vampire presents one of western society’s ultimate taboos--child sexuality. not only is the vampire seen as a sexual figure in general (with the act of biting often read as symbolising sexual penetration), but the child vampire presents the problem of an adult mind--one that might crave sexual intimacy--and the child, and therefore forbidden, body. the taboo of the child vampire is less about ‘never growing up’ and ‘being unable to care for themselves’ (as texts like twilight or interview with the vampire would suggest), and more to do with the transgression of the child (or perceived child) into the world of the sexual.
official apology for using the word penetration. my bad.
Since childhood, I have been faithful to monsters. I have been saved and absolved by them. Because monsters, I believe, are patron saints of our blissful imperfection, and they allow and embody the possibility of failing and live.
Guillermo del Toro, in his Golden Globe acceptance speech.
the ring (2002) dir. gore verbinski
here we go, the world is spinning. when it stops, it’s just beginning. sun comes up, we all laugh. sun goes down, we all die…
Let Me In (2010) dir. Matt Reeves
I’ve done some Twitter threads on this topic, so thought it might be nice to do a Tumblr post too. One of my pet peeves is when people act like adult fantasy (or sci-fi for that matter) is just a straight white dude thing and that diversity only exists in young adult fantasy. That’s such a disservice to all the authors of marginalized identities currently writing adult fantasy!
Authors and books below the cut, including links to Goodreads. I’m not providing trigger warnings (if I make the post too long Tumblr starts freaking out about it), but you can use the search function on Goodreads reviews to find more specifics.
Keep reading
I found perfection here. I’ve created it. A perfect organism.
Alien: Covenant (2017) dir. Ridley Scott
