Why Modern Monsters Have Become Alien to Us :: Papers

Why Modern Monsters Have Become strange to Us Late autumn has arrived and with it comes the dark magic of Halloween--and, of course, themurky quake of monsters. Yet our appetite for a good monster knows no season. ever so since ancienttimes we have been fascinated with all sorts of tales about monsters and intrigued by myths andlegends about those wild half-human beasts who haunt the edges of our forests and lurk in therecesses of our oceans. The sphinxes, minotaurs, and sirens of early mythology gave air to BeowulfsGrendel and Saint Georges dragon, then to the mermaids, trolls, and one-eyed giants of our fairy andfolk tales, and finally to those 19th-century mediaeval classics. Nor are these stories on the wane, for themonster tales that made Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, and Bela Lugosi stars of the silver screen put out to draw megacrowds six and seven decades later. In 1994 Kenneth Branagh and Robert DeNiro brought us the latest rebirth of Shelleysstory of Frankens teins tortured creature, and Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt starred in Interview with aVampire, the first installment of Ann Rices homage to StokersDracula. Meanwhile, Andrew LloydWebers musical turnout of Gaston Lerouxs Phantom of the Opera continues to pack inaudiences from London to L.A. Much of the sign appeal of monster stories comes from the fact that they, wish well their twistedsiblings, creature features and slashers, both terrify and fascinate us with their ghoulish brand ofhorror. Its the rattling-the-tigers-cage kind of tingle that Scout and Jim Finch got from sneaking ontoBoo Radleys porch under a pale moon. indicant or watching great monster stories, we get toaccompany the affright heroes or heroines as they descend into the dragons lair crane our necksover the stand out of books or movie seats and peek into the dank recesses of the giant cyclops spelunkstretch out our trembling hands and actually touch the monsters reptile scales, hairy paws, or clovenhoofs an d then run screaming like a banshee the instant it wakes from its slumber. What a rush As shake as these creatures are, in monster stories it is always the beast that ends up pickingsthe fall, which means that this is a place where we not only get to broom with evils most daunting anddangerous minions but to vanquish them with regularity. Pretty unflinching stuff.