36
Monsters The monster is best understood as an embodiment of difference, a breaker of category, and a resistant. An other known only through process and movement, never through dissection… Jeffrey Cohen, PhD

Monsters

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Monsters. The monster is best understood as an embodiment of difference, a breaker of category, and a resistant. An other known only through process and movement, never through dissection… Jeffrey Cohen, PhD. Dictionary definition of ‘Monster’. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Citation preview

Page 1: Monsters

Monsters

The monster is best understood as an embodiment of difference, a breaker of category, and a resistant. An other known only through process and movement, never through

dissection… Jeffrey Cohen, PhD

Page 2: Monsters

Dictionary definition of ‘Monster’ 1.a legendary animal combining features of animal and human form

or having the forms of various animals in combination, as a centaur, griffin, or sphinx.

2.any creature so ugly or monstrous as to frighten people. 3.any animal or human grotesquely deviating from the normal

shape, behavior, or character. 4.a person who excites horror by wickedness, cruelty, etc. 5.any animal or thing huge in size. 6.Biology. a.an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure, as

from marked malformation or the absence of certain parts or organs.

7.anything unnatural or monstrous. –adjective

Page 3: Monsters

Monster Theory1. The Monster is an embodiment of culture

2. The Monster always escapes

3. The Monster is the harbinger of social crisis

4. The Monster is societal/personal “difference” made flesh

5. The Monster polices the borders of possible

6. Fear of the Monster is really a kind of desire

7. The Monster stands at the threshold of becoming

Page 4: Monsters

What is a Monster?

Questions to consider:

How does someone become a monster?

1) Can a ‘monster’ change?

2) How does someone’s appearance affect our perceptions of them?

3) What are your first impressions of each

picture?

Page 5: Monsters

Frankenstein’s Monster

Initial realization coincides with the basic “needs” outlined by Maslow

His first physical encounters with humanity are met with violence, disdain, and hatred

Do you feel sympathy for the creature? Is there justification in his “revenge” upon

Victor?

Page 6: Monsters

All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature... You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind.

Page 7: Monsters

Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all

human kind sinned against me?

Page 8: Monsters

Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.

Page 9: Monsters

I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow creatures, who owe me nothing? They spurn and hate me. The desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge. I have wandered here many days; the caves of ice, which I only do not fear, are a dwelling to me, and the only one which man does not grudge. These bleak skies I hail, for they are kinder to me than your fellow beings. If the multitude of mankind knew of my existence, they would do as you do, and arm themselves for my destruction. Shall I not then hate them who abhor me? I will keep no terms with my enemies. I am miserable, and they shall share my wretchedness. 

Page 10: Monsters

At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity.

Page 11: Monsters

You accuse me of murder, and yet you would, with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. Oh, praise the eternal justice of man! Yet I ask you not to spare me; listen to me, and then, if you can, and if you will, destroy the work of your hands.

Page 12: Monsters

Myra Hindley In 1966 Hindley was convicted of murdering Edward Evans and Lesley Ann Downey, and for being an

accessory in the John Kilbride murder. In prison she claimed to have found religion and repented her sins. Her lawyers told the

press that Hindley was truly sorry for what she did. She had always portrayed herself as a remorseful sinner, but knew that

few people were willing to forgive her. Her lawyers told the press that Hindley was truly sorry for what she did. In 2002 Hindley

died in prison.

Is someone still a ‘monster’ if they’re sorry for what they’ve done?Are they a monster if they say someone else made them do it?

Page 13: Monsters

Adolf Hitler. Leader of the Nazi party who systematically killed about 11 million people, including about 6 million Jews, during the Holocaust in WW2.

Do you think that Adolf Hitler was born a monster?Hitler found justification in his actions. Does that

make him more or less a “monster?”Were the people who carried out Hitler’s orders also

monsters?

Page 14: Monsters

Joseph Merrick ‘The Elephant Man’. He was deformed as he suffered from a genetic disorder also known as von Recklinghausen's disease. Born in 1862, he spent most of his life working as a circus ‘freak’, where he was humiliated and mistreated. He was later discovered by a doctor who cared for him in the hospital and Merrick began a new life. He died at the age of 27 as a result of his condition.

Why do deformities scare people?Why do we judge people on their appearances?

Page 15: Monsters

Victor was a 12 year old boy who emerged from the forest in France in 1800. His appearance and actions indicated that he was raised in nature as he had no knowledge or aptitude for language and had physically adapted to a life in the outdoors. He did not have the same reactions to heat or cold and was labeled a “freak” or “monster” for the rest of his life.

Was Victor born a monster or did he acquire themonster label due to his abandonment?

Page 16: Monsters

Aileen Wuornos was a prostitute who murdered six men. She claimed that it was in self-defense (one of the men she had murdered had spent 10 years in prison for the violent attack of another woman). She had also had an extremely abusive childhood, having been abandoned by her mother at an early age and subjected to various tortures as a young girl. She was executed in 2002. Documentary film maker Nick Broomfield said of Wournos, ‘Aileen Wuornos led a tortured, torturing life that is beyond my worst nightmares.’ Before she was executed, Wuornos said that she was ready to die.

What makes someone become a ‘monster’?Is Wuornos a monster, given that her life was ‘tortured’?

Page 17: Monsters

Ted Bundy. Confessed to murdering 30 women in the 1970s. Said that pornography had driven him to it. People were shocked that someone who looked so ‘normal’ could be a serial killer.

Why do we judge a person’s character on their appearance?

Page 18: Monsters

"Am I just an extremely evil person or is it

some kind of satanic influence, or what? I have no idea. I have no idea

at all. Do you? Is it possible to be influenced by spirit beings? The

Bible calls him Satan. I suppose it's possible because it sure seems

like some of the thoughts aren't my own, they just come blasting into

my head… These thoughts are very powerful, very destructive, and

they do not leave. They're not the kind of thoughts that you can just

shake your head and they're gone. They do not leave.“

Jeffrey Dahmer

Page 19: Monsters

"I will in all probability be convicted, but I will not go away as a monster, but as a tragedy."  Joel Rifkin

Page 20: Monsters

"Hello from the gutters of New York City, which are filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood." David Berkowitz, “The Son of Sam”

Page 21: Monsters

"Most of the people at the ranch were just people you did not want… Look down on me, you will see a fool. Look up at me, you will see your Lord. Look straight at me, you will see yourself." 

Page 22: Monsters

"Society right from the very beginning started to make me an animal. . .” Albert DeSalvo, “The Boston Strangler”

Page 23: Monsters

Cultural Monsters

Page 24: Monsters
Page 25: Monsters
Page 26: Monsters
Page 27: Monsters
Page 28: Monsters
Page 29: Monsters
Page 30: Monsters
Page 31: Monsters
Page 32: Monsters
Page 33: Monsters
Page 34: Monsters
Page 35: Monsters
Page 36: Monsters