DETAILS

Title: Monsters

Categories:

Horror

Location: James Herbert, The Rats Edward Lee, Monstrosity Steven Harriman, Sleeper

Pagination: 0

Illustrations: - creature of great size and physical power - unknown or unnatural origin - very little mysticism

Document Type: Graffiti

Notes:

Within horror fiction, monsters embody an external force bearing down on the protagonists. The monser is a direct, unambiguous physical threat, to be defeated by strength and cunning. Centrally, the monster embodies the unnatural. In its mythic origins, the monster is a combination of different animal traits and attributes, producing a creature more powerful, while at the same time more base, than any found in the natural world (consider the griffin and manticore of Greek mythology). It is characteristically large, ugly, and brutal, but not especially agile or intelligent. This elemental simplicity of the monster is the key to its defeat. Monsters may also act symbolically for greater fears and threats to society, and as such possess great possibility for reinvention. As well, different types of monsters play on different fears and thematic concerns. See also: Artificial monsters, Nuclear creatures