Monsters in
Our MidstThey’re pretty much
everywhere…
From
aro
und
the
glob
e . .
.
Indonesia
Central Asia
Burma
Mexico (ca. 1570)
Australian Amorodo: flies around at night and sucks out your insides
Northwestern Native
American (frog
monster)
Coatlicue, Aztec woman with a skirt of snakes and a necklace of hearts torn from her victims
Sphinx of Giza
Hum
baba
(Sum
eria
n)
Kalonoro, Africa
Oseberg ship burial, Norway
From
m
ytho
logy
…Paul Rubens, The Head of Medusa (1615)
Wendigo, Algonquian mythology
From the depths
of the sea…
To philosophy…
Aristotle, Hierarchical scale of the Great Chain of Being (left) extended by religions (right)
Polemical allegory of Arminianism as a five-headed monster (1618)
But there’s always a human element…
Kaspar Lavater (1704-1801), The evolution of a frog to the Greek God Apollo.
And size
matters…
Monster Truck…
(Grave Digger)
Mons
ter l
imo…
The power of
advertising…
Popular culture…
…equals popular fear…
Nam
e th
at
mon
ster
…
Name that monster…
Nam
e th
at
mon
ster
…
Name that monster…
Make the unfamiliar less frightening
through familiarity…
Beca
use
they
’re
cool
…
And
yet s
till
scar
y in
lots
of
ways
…
Always playing on the unknown…
Iceland
Norse mythology map
Map of Skyrim
In the realm of
the believable…
Argentinian version
Lake Champlain version
But really monsters are
the creations of our
own fears…
We see what we want to see.
“Monsters aren’t under the bed—they’re inside of
your head”
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