I was trying to bring it back to Cole’s question: “What is your favourite monster allegory in any medium (and for extra points, what is the best interpretation of said monster)?”
that said, i don’t disagree – sometimes (a lot of the time?) the shark is just hungry
This painting is terrifying on a computer screen or book page, but in person it's more extraordinary than most paintings are. The repulsion is actually the attraction.
The werewolf. But this time turn it around. A man bites a wolf and he turns into a terrible wolf. Is not faithful to his wife, destroys his environment, steals, murders, cheats, lies... in short a human.
By the way here's a super smart and very insightful article about del Toro's Frankenstein. Worth reading. And no it's not written by that Elena Sagan.
love your werewolf idea – i can see it as *Watership Down* style animated movie that, while made for adults, will inadvertently traumatise a new generation of kids
Monster historian feeling the pressure here! I'm not sure I have a favourite; different allegories are powerful at different moments or for illuminating different things about the real world. Monsters, Inc. often returns to my mind: the ecological envelope; the fact that treating people as human is better all round than monstrifying them and trying to extract value from them by force.
I loved getting to discuss the Borg with you on 5AM StoryTalk, Surekha. It's fascinating that the Borg is the only Star Trek villain I can think of that hasn't been redeemed in some way over time. We still distrust and hate them. I suppose that says something about where we are with technology in the 21st century.
So many choices! But I’m going to call out Stephen Graham Jones’ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Vampires have represented different things over the years, from the Middle Ages’ plagues to the ‘80s AIDs crisis (Ann Rice’s beautiful, erotic, gay vampires). He not only gives us a Native American vampire, but a European “pretendian” (pretend Indian) vampire, and a brilliant but tragic means for vampires to mimic their prey (and a metaphor for colonialism — and, perhaps, if I’m not reading too much into it, a critique of the blood quantum means of determining just who is and who isn’t an Indian).
Carpenter's "The Thing". Existential body/identity horror mixed with helpless paranoia on the edge of civilization. The who film feels like staring into an abyss and, it's entirely appropriate for Carpenter to call this part 1 of his "Apocalypse Series". Every time I see this film, and watch the end, I can't help but shudder to think of the rest of civilization, and how it would all fall apart so easily. And, watching the things transpiring now, it's really not that much of a stretch.
Yeah, this is up there for me. It marries so many different unsettling aspects of horror. I wonder when we're going to give Carpenter the due he deserves for his work in the 80s.
The first thing that came to mind for me was A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. He took an idea conceived by Siobhan Dowd before her death and wrote a beautiful story dealing with bereavement and loss. The monster in question is a physical manifestation of a child’s fear and rage in the face of losing a parent.
I don’t think I’ve seen it, tbh. I was a bit wary of it as I think it’s easier to accept the monster as metaphor when it’s in your head rather than displayed on the screen. I think the book is fantastic.
first thing that springs to mind – Warwick Thornton and Brendan Fletcher's *Firebite* – an Australian series about vampires set in the outback – mostly among First Nations communities – in this case the vampires represent the longterm damage caused by colonialism
This is a series people had high hopes for. I don't recall why it didn't get renewed, but I think it had something to do with AMC's ownership and politics that accompany those kinds of transitions.
Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Children" is the most monstrous thing I've seen.
so, previous generations devouring their offsprings' chances of a liveable future?
It could be read as that now. But Goya would have just said that he was illustrating Greco-Roman mythology.
I was trying to bring it back to Cole’s question: “What is your favourite monster allegory in any medium (and for extra points, what is the best interpretation of said monster)?”
that said, i don’t disagree – sometimes (a lot of the time?) the shark is just hungry
This painting is terrifying on a computer screen or book page, but in person it's more extraordinary than most paintings are. The repulsion is actually the attraction.
The werewolf. But this time turn it around. A man bites a wolf and he turns into a terrible wolf. Is not faithful to his wife, destroys his environment, steals, murders, cheats, lies... in short a human.
By the way here's a super smart and very insightful article about del Toro's Frankenstein. Worth reading. And no it's not written by that Elena Sagan.
https://libertiesjournal.com/online-articles/monster-of-the-enlightenment/
love your werewolf idea – i can see it as *Watership Down* style animated movie that, while made for adults, will inadvertently traumatise a new generation of kids
Ditto re: the werewolf idea, Thomas.
Monster historian feeling the pressure here! I'm not sure I have a favourite; different allegories are powerful at different moments or for illuminating different things about the real world. Monsters, Inc. often returns to my mind: the ecological envelope; the fact that treating people as human is better all round than monstrifying them and trying to extract value from them by force.
The Borg Collective in Star Trek TNG are now an allegory for something that didn't exist when it came out: extractive, surveillance tech that no body asked for and everybody hates, as I wrote in Reactor Magazine: https://reactormag.com/star-trek-tng-borg-collective-is-the-perfect-monster-for-our-time/
I loved getting to discuss the Borg with you on 5AM StoryTalk, Surekha. It's fascinating that the Borg is the only Star Trek villain I can think of that hasn't been redeemed in some way over time. We still distrust and hate them. I suppose that says something about where we are with technology in the 21st century.
The attack of the killer tomato!
It’s so happening now!
So many choices! But I’m going to call out Stephen Graham Jones’ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Vampires have represented different things over the years, from the Middle Ages’ plagues to the ‘80s AIDs crisis (Ann Rice’s beautiful, erotic, gay vampires). He not only gives us a Native American vampire, but a European “pretendian” (pretend Indian) vampire, and a brilliant but tragic means for vampires to mimic their prey (and a metaphor for colonialism — and, perhaps, if I’m not reading too much into it, a critique of the blood quantum means of determining just who is and who isn’t an Indian).
I don't know this novel, but I'm now off to learn more about it. Sounds fascinating!
Reading the whole question this time: again, so many monsters in art! But the monsters that are Satan and his demons in an early 16th-century Portuguese painting of hell - painted about a decade after 1492 - are pretty complex and powerful: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this-disturbing-16th-century-painting-of-hell-linked-satan-and-his-demons-with-the-new-world-beyond-europe-180987547/
This painting is horrifying!
Carpenter's "The Thing". Existential body/identity horror mixed with helpless paranoia on the edge of civilization. The who film feels like staring into an abyss and, it's entirely appropriate for Carpenter to call this part 1 of his "Apocalypse Series". Every time I see this film, and watch the end, I can't help but shudder to think of the rest of civilization, and how it would all fall apart so easily. And, watching the things transpiring now, it's really not that much of a stretch.
Yeah, this is up there for me. It marries so many different unsettling aspects of horror. I wonder when we're going to give Carpenter the due he deserves for his work in the 80s.
The first thing that came to mind for me was A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. He took an idea conceived by Siobhan Dowd before her death and wrote a beautiful story dealing with bereavement and loss. The monster in question is a physical manifestation of a child’s fear and rage in the face of losing a parent.
I've only seen the film. How does it compare to the book?
I don’t think I’ve seen it, tbh. I was a bit wary of it as I think it’s easier to accept the monster as metaphor when it’s in your head rather than displayed on the screen. I think the book is fantastic.
The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb" ("Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher").
I can't believe I don't know about this whole book. I feel like I did my children a terrible disservice not reading it to them when they were younger.
https://www.kqed.org/arts/13863411/how-one-brutal-childrens-book-from-1845-left-permanent-marks-on-pop-culture
first thing that springs to mind – Warwick Thornton and Brendan Fletcher's *Firebite* – an Australian series about vampires set in the outback – mostly among First Nations communities – in this case the vampires represent the longterm damage caused by colonialism
This is a series people had high hopes for. I don't recall why it didn't get renewed, but I think it had something to do with AMC's ownership and politics that accompany those kinds of transitions.
It's pretty amazing. And now I realize I forgot the ART bit so I'll have to post another answer! :-)