Monsters

[rgraham666]

This thread was inspired by SeaCat's thread about mutation and cloning.

I read an article in a newspaper many years ago about monsters, monsters in the media. The authour said that the monsters of a society dealt with the taboos of that society.

He traced the history of monsters in modern culture.

The first was Frankenstein's monster. The taboo of pre-Victorian England was nature. Nature wasn't something you were supposed to fuck with. And Frankenstein's monster was definitely fucking with nature.

The next famous monsters he listed were Dracula and Mr. Hyde. The taboo of Victorian England was sex. Both these monsters were sexual monsters. I remember Stephen King commenting in Danse Macabre when Dracula was feeding on Lucy that you could tell she 'was coming her brains out'.

The authour then skipped ahead to today and stated our society's taboo, death. Look at our monsters. Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Hannibal Lecter. In the Final Destination movies Death itself has become a monster.

In the modern day, our monsters are killers.

No point to this thread. Just wanted to spark a discussion. Carry on.

 

[R. Richard]

Jack the Ripper is left out?

 

[rgraham666]

Jack the Ripper is left out?

Jack the Ripper isn't fictional.

Although I suspect that our fascination with serial killers and mass murderers is another sign of how taboo death is in our society.

 

[cloudy]

Jack the Ripper isn't fictional.

Although I suspect that our fascination with serial killers and mass murderers is another sign of how taboo death is in our society.

I think you're correct about death being our current "monster."

Everything in society these days is all about avoiding death, or any contact with it. Used to, when someone in your family died, you washed and prepared the body for burial, and then the person was laid out in their home for visitation by friends and relatives.

We've distanced ourselves so much from it now that we pay others to do that for us, lest we 'contaminate' ourselves.

 

[rgraham666]

And as I've mentioned elsewhere, our inability to deal with death fuels our perfectionist health attitudes. As if we can somehow become healthy enough to become immortal.

 

[Grushenka]

Communism was the monster in the fifties that inspired films like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (politics in seed pods!) Recalling this, I googled 'red scare films' and found some interesting sites.

Grushenka

 

[Liar]

http://www.rotten.com/library/culture/godzilla/godzilla2.jpg
Fear of da bomb.

 

[ungenderless]

So what do you suppose is the taboo that Final Destination represents? Maybe it's the anti-matrix. The Matrix taught you to free your mind from being enslaved by the higher powers, and final Destination is basically saying that it's impossible to be free. Death will always find you. But Death in that movie could be a metaphor for "God's plan". So maybe it's a taboo against trying to escape fate. i dunno, sorry if I'm rambling. It's an intriguing topic.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I think that we have an alternative monster to death in today's society. I think Nature is making a comeback, and celebs are terrified of Nature, and, especially, of looking natural.

That's why we have skeletons with huge silikon tits walking around on the red carpets in LA...

 

[rgraham666]

http://www.rotten.com/library/culture/godzilla/godzilla2.jpg
Fear of da bomb.

I recently caught the 50th Anniversary Godzilla movie, Godzilla: Final Wars.

And man, was it fun!

It ripped off everybody. It ripped off Star Wars, it ripped off Independence Day, it ripped off The Matrix, it ripped off Max Payne.

Plus all the usual Godzilla stuff.

And a soundtrack by Keith Emerson. (Dating myself here)

If you need a silly, fun movie for a Saturday afternoon with beer and popcorn, go with this one.

End threadjack.

 

[kendo1]

Global warming.

Let's not forget nuclear holocaust or radiation in the late 50's and 60's. There were some wonderful films released.
The Incredible Shrinking Man springs to mind.

And there was the threat of alien invasion. Some terrible films spring to mind.

Though The Thing was good.

 

[ungenderless]

Global warming.

Let's not forget nuclear holocaust or radiation in the late 50's and 60's. There were some wonderful films released.
The Incredible Shrinking Man springs to mind.

And there was the threat of alien invasion. Some terrible films spring to mind.

Though The Thing was good.

I LOVED The Thing! Still one of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi/Horror films.

 

[kendo1]

I do prefer the newer version.
But I loved the original.

 

[ungenderless]

I do prefer the newer version.
But I loved the original.

Oh, i never saw the original. I keep forgetting that it was a remake.

 

[kendo1]

Oh, i never saw the original. I keep forgetting that it was a remake.

Memories of a misspent youth.
The remake is far superior. Totally over the top.

 

[Misty_Morning]

Okey Dokey.

I'm going to everybody's best friend now.

Monsters... can you say Organized Religion?

 

[cloudy]

Okey Dokey.

I'm going to everybody's best friend now.

Monsters... can you say Organized Religion?

I'm SO with you there.

 

[kendo1]

Okey Dokey.

I'm going to everybody's best friend now.

Monsters... can you say Organized Religion?

Nope.
I can say ORal.

 

[Kev H]

I think that we have an alternative monster to death in today's society. I think Nature is making a comeback, and celebs are terrified of Nature, and, especially, of looking natural.

That's why we have skeletons with huge silikon tits walking around on the red carpets in LA...

ROFL! Damn, you're great, Svenskaflicka--this really got me going.

And Misty, that concept is so frightening, that few make monsters out of them (or is that because they don't have to?). I am always puzzled that individual religious people can be so amazing and wonderful (one of my best friends is pretty stout Christian, though she never flaunts that with me around...it's called prudence, which so many religious people seem to lack), yet the overall impression can be so bad. So, how can that be? Same underlying philosophy as mob mentality? How can that possibly be applicable to "matters of the soul"?

 

[wazhazhe]

Communism was the monster in the fifties that inspired films like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (politics in seed pods!) Recalling this, I googled 'red scare films' and found some interesting sites.

Grushenka

I think The Manchurian Candidate (1962) would be a good example, also.

 

[Trombonus]

Where do Barney, The Care Bears, and The Telletubbies fit in here, to name but a few. They all scare the shit out of me.

Not to mention Courtney Love and Anna Nicole Smith.

I'm just saying.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

We can't forget the monster of science following the first and second world wars in science fiction. The idea of scientists going to far and killing us all replaced the idea of science as saviour who could do no wrong. Sci-fi dystopias were the monster not only in the sense of post-nuclear devastation but societies of censorship, global death, or unstoppable wars. Androids taking over the world, emotionless socieities, apocalypses, and more were all monsters created by dark sci-fi. Even the Matrix is a science-monster dystopia with man's machines turning on their creators.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I thought all the current mosters resided in the White House

 

[ungenderless]

Okey Dokey.

I'm going to everybody's best friend now.

Monsters... can you say Organized Religion?

Yes, yes I CAN say...those words. And I ADORE you for coming out and saying that. You rule.

 

[ungenderless]

I thought all the current mosters resided in the White House

Not ALL of them, no. But some of the scariest ones, yes.