This is a life sized sculpture.This was part of a terrific exhibit at the Frist Center in Nashville. Of course, I was able to identify the fairy tales, but I realized how alien (ha) most monsters are to my reading. Who is your favorite monster? What books about monsters other than Frankenstein do I need to read? Is King Kong a genetic mutation. I guess so.
One video, in particular, interested me. A group of puffballs made their way over to a sleeping child. At first, the viewer is repulsed and feels worried for the child, but your perception changes over time. Are these puff balls monsters based on their appearance, their unfamiliarity or is it the sense of threat that makes them monsters? What is a monster?
6 comments:
Kraken in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", Moby Dick by Herman Melville, and Grendel in "Beowulf". I remember being fascinated, and frightened, by an illustrated Moby Dick book I read in mid-school - my first monster exposure. Are there any good anthologies on monsters in books and films?
Also remember reading John Gardner's GRENDEL eons ago.
Prashant--yes. Bill Pronzini (sometimes with Barry Malzberg and MH Greenberg) edited a series, and Peter Haining put together several amusing, if slightly less impressive on average, anthologies keyed directly to the film and other a/v adaptations.
Monsters are weird creatures which at least seem scary. Then they can become groovy ghoulies or they can prove to be as frightening as they initially appeared...or, as with most humans, have some mixture of those qualities and others about them.
Todd, thanks for the recommendation. I'll have an eye out for it. I guess Regan MacNeil and Hannibal Lecter were monsters too, in a way.
Lecter, at least, a ridiculous one, at very least after RED DRAGON.
No ideas (except Frankenstein) so I mainly read the comments for inspiration. I am not sure I feel tempted to try more monsters unless you include some of the Harry Potter characters.
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