things you can use in place of cultural monsters
Can’t use golems in your fantasy world because they’re beings that belong to Judaism and you aren’t Jewish? Try using elementals!
Can’t use w*nd*goag in your story because they’re monsters from Native beliefs and you aren’t Native? Try wraiths or forest spirits!
Can’t use Skinwalkers, either? How about changelings, The Thing-type aliens or faeries?
Don’t want to use Christian biblical angels? Try eldritch monstrosities from another world.
Don’t want to namedrop La Llorona, Hachisukisama or the Cupecabrah? How about old-fashioned undead, zombies or ghosts?
Just because certain supernatural beings are only for certain groups, doesn’t mean you have to limit your monsters! There’s plenty of demographic-neutral alternatives to famous creatures that you can use without culturally appropriating or disrespecting people’s beliefs.
ok which popular person rbed this
No offense but how is any of that cultural appropriation? That’s like saying you can’t use Krampus in your work of fiction because you’ll offend people who celebrate Christmas.
I mean if you’re gonna use a creature like Wendigo or a Golem, make the effort to do some research about them so you can get a clear idea how they are represented in said culture.
I’m not trying to sound rude (apologies if I do sound it) but saying using certain creatures in your story is cultural appropriation is just absurd. Cause to be fair with proper research it would be nice to have some representation of these creatures in media.
Look I’m not a Native person but I know that w*ndigoag can’t be used by non-Native folks because their beliefs are a closed religion, and I’ve seen plenty of Native folks say that white people shouldn’t talk about them.
I’m not saying that using creatures like that are inherently offensive per say, but its kind of a bad choice to use beings from a religious belief or culture that have already been misinterpreted heavily in media. Chances are, people who make the diluted and incorrect depictions of these monsters probably said the exact same thing.
td;lr like you can, I guess, in some situations but it’d be better not to.
i’ve said this before on a previous post but:
using golems as your fantasy “monster” is inherently antisemitic.
they’re not only specific to jewish folklore, but they are benevolent. they’re protectors of the jewish people from those intending to harm us.
you can understand the problematic implications here, yes?
I have a question: is it okay to have a golem be a protector in your story, even if you’re not Jewish? Would it be better to have them protect, specifically, a Jewish character and their belongings/allies? Or should someone who is not Jewish omit the idea of a golem entirely from their writing? (I am not trying to start and argument or be malicious, I am just curious. I like getting writing inspiration, but I also like educating myself on these types of things and would like to know if I should abandon the effort to include a golem before even starting). Thank you.
In my opinion, I think a golem as a protector/ally for a Jewish character would be a better choice. As long as the golem is not portrayed as a monster or enemy in any way and the story you’re writing is based on Jewish folklore, you can have a golem in your story.
To clarify in a little more detail:
Golem mythology is deeply and intrinsically linked the the concept of Blood Libel.
Blood Libel was the very real historical practice of Christians making up stories about Jews kidnapping and cannibalizing Christian children in order to justify antisemitic genocide. Frequently, Christians even went so far as to plant actual bodies of Christian children in ghettos in order to whip up hate mobs (and often, in order to cover up the child abuse that had actually caused the deaths of the children in question). Many, many, many pogroms and antisemitic genocides were started over accusations of Blood Libel – it’s a real thing that had a real body count. (And as an aside, this is also why you should never draw Jewish people drink blood or eating children – we have a really traumatic history with that accusation.)
The story of the Golem has many variations, and exists in many Jewish cultures, but the basic structure is roughly this:
First, a Christian (sometimes a criminal, sometimes a priest, sometimes just a bigot) attempts to start a Blood Libel by hiding a Christian dead body (often a child he himself killed) in the Jewish quarter. The plot is thankfully discovered, and the villagers, fearful of how close they came to destruction, consult the local rabbi. The rabbi then takes some clay, and using magic, creates a construct with the singular mission of protecting the Jewish people from Blood Libel. In many versions, the Golem is brought to life by the word “Truth” being carved into the clay, because it’s purpose to uncover the truth, ie. to prevent Christians from framing the Jewish community and then committing genocide.
Generally, the fun part of the story happens at this point, after the Golem is brought to life, but before anything important happens. Since it was constructed with only one purpose, Golems are generally hyper-literal and very bad at doing anything other than protecting the Jewish community. People will sometimes try and get the Golem to help with chores, leading to unhelpful and hilarious results when the Golem follows their instructions Amelia Bedelia style. Sometimes, children will try and befriend the Golem, also to hilarious results. Note, however, that the traditional myth DOES NOT include the Golem accidentally harming the children who try to befriend it, or otherwise endangering the community in any way. The Golem’s hijinks are always ultimately harmless, and annoying more than anything. Sometimes the rabbi will even chastise the villagers involved by pointing out that the Golem was made only to be a protector, and if the Golem screwed up their chores, that’s their own fault for treating it like a servant.
The next part of the story typically deals with an attempted Blood Libel, which the Golem is used to thwart. Someone (frequently the same bad actor from the first part of the story, or sometimes their relative who is looking for revenge) attempts to start another Blood Libel. The Golem typically stops or kills the person responsible.
Sometimes – and this is where things get frequently misunderstood – the Golem grows to a gigantic size and gets out of control, and even violent. HOWEVER, it is important to note that this is always in order to protect the Jewish community. If the Golem is unable to fully prevent the Blood Libel, and if some of the villagers are killed by a Christian mob as a result, it will sometimes grow to a gigantic size and tear up the Christian community that murdered the villagers. If a mob has already gathered outside the ghetto walls, sometimes the Golem will single-handedly fight them all back. Sometimes, if the bad actor in question was a priest who was abusing children and starting a Blood Libel to hide it, the Golem will tear apart the local Church, and burn it to the ground. But always, when the Golem becomes violent, it targets those who were attempting genocide, not those who created it (although sometimes there is collateral damage to the ghetto due to the fight).
Regardless of whether or not the Golem grows gigantic and goes on a rampage, the story typically ends the same: the rabbi who created the Golem will see that its purpose has been fulfilled, and so he will retire it. Typically, this is done by erasing or removing the letters that were used to animate the Golem – if the Golem was animated by the word “truth”, the rabbi removes the first letter so that the Hebrew now reads the word for “death”, and the Golem “dies” by reverting back into a lump of clay. Typically, the rabbi then carries the clay back to the community, and stores it in a secret place so that the Golem can be revived if the community is ever threatened by genocide again.
If you’ve deeply internalized the purpose and meaning of this basic mythological structure, and if you’re thought long and hard about the real historical events that made this myth so appealing and culturally important, then I feel like you can easily use Golems in fantasy, even if you aren’t Jewish. But if any of what I’ve just written here strongly conflicts with your idea of Golems as a fantasy trope, you should consider steering clear. If you are using Golems in your story as monsters which needs to be defeated, you are unwittingly placing your main characters in the role of anti-semites and child abusers who are attempting to commit a genocide. And that should maybe give you some pause.
If you’re going with an artificial humanoid created from non-living material there’s nothing stopping you from literally just calling it a “homunculus,” I’m just saying…
Good point.
And if it copies somebody else, it’s a doppelganger.
