Monstrous Creatures Research Articles

'You Can Resurrect Me, but Only Piecemeal': Embodied Texts and the Heterotopian Regeneration of the Cyborg

This article explores Donna Haraway’s concept of the cyborg through its prosthetic and heterotopian extension in embodied text. With this fractured and ironic ‘cyborg’ figure, Haraway attempted to move feminist theory and politics into a new direction that broke with second-wave feminism’s perpetual reconceptualization of ‘the woman’ as a natural category. However, the text also became the subject of scholarly critique for dissolving the singularities and material contexts of the bodies marginalized by the categories of gender that Haraway’s abstract and utopian metaphor of the cyborg excludes. Unlike these critics’ disposal of the cyborg, this article stays with this monstrous creature and attempts to give her back some embodied singularities, whilst further elaborating Haraway’s concept of ‘cyborg writing’ and close-reading Shelley Jackson’s digital hypertext novel Patchwork Girl (1995). In this hypertext novel, Jackson creates a new myth from the torn-apart body parts of the monstrous female companion of Frankenstein’s monster in Mary Shelley’s original novel. Readers are invited to cooperate in the infinite tearing apart and stitching together of this female monster and, in doing so, form the text as heterotopian; the embodied practices of readers in actual space are, namely, co-constitutive of the text’s multiple and always changing form. The author argues that focusing on the way Patchwork Girl’saesthetics and literal uses of prostheses endlessly move this—and within this—heterotopian regeneration, makes present how Jackson’s hypertext departs from Haraway’s theoretical text and gives way to the acting out of a queerness that cannot imagine its place in utopia. Like Haraway, Jackson emphasizes the fragmentary nature of bodies and subjectivities. But Patchwork Girl’s never-resting hypertext makes these bodies, and their prosthetic extensions betray the theoretical territory of metaphor and abstraction.

“Shoggoth with Smiley Face”: Knowing-how and letting-know by analogy in artificial intelligence research

This paper examines the fame of the Shoggoth with Smiley Face meme within the growing communities of AI research professionals and enthusiasts. Published on X at the end of December 2022, soon after the release of the ChatGPT model by OpenAI, the original version of the meme contributes to the popularization of the analogy between AI systems based on deep neural networks and the monstrous creatures called “shoggoths” of Howard P. Lovecraft’s horror fictional universe. The description of the evolution leads us to highlight two modes of analogical association between AI and shoggoths: letting-know by analogy and knowing-how by analogy.

Traumatic Seclusion in M. Night Shyamalan’s Garrison Trilogy: Signs (2002), The Village (2004) and The Lady in the Water (2006)

Shyamalan’s Signs, The Village and The Lady in the Water turn around the need to find refuge away from violence, in an updated version of Northrop Frye’s garrison motif. Absolute safety is, however, threatened by spectral, even fictitious monstrous creatures that can be defined as projections of specific traumatic situations, provoked partly by the terrorist attacks of September 2001 but mostly by Shyamalan’s own response to social violence.

Wolfwood by Marianna Baer

Reviewed by: Wolfwood by Marianna Baer Natalie Berglind Baer, Marianna Wolfwood. Amulet, 2023 [384p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781419733710 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781683354888 $15.54 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 9-12 Indigo’s mom, Zoe, was once a great artist who painted a series of disturbing water-colors of girls being tortured in a jungle, but after having a daughter, she couldn’t bear to continue to depict female trauma; the art world forgot her, and she and Indigo have barely scraped by for years. When the opportunity to make money by exhibiting new Wolfwood paintings at a gallery arises, Zoe still can’t make herself paint them—so Indigo steps in. Surprisingly, Indigo is able to mimic her mom’s style, but at a cost; whenever she paints, she gets sucked into the jungle itself, hunted by monstrous creatures and even waking up with injuries in the real world. Hiding the forgery from her mom, the gallery owner, and the gallery owner’s cute son takes a huge toll, especially as Zoe spirals deeper into depression and Indigo has to act as breadwinner and parent herself. While the sequences in Wolfwood are unexpectedly flat, Indigo’s strong narrative voice takes readers to the depths of her despair as she struggles with the nearly impossible task of keeping up appearances while living in poverty and caring for her mentally ill mother. The danger [End Page 214] she’s in comes not from the monsters in the jungle but from the circumstances that necessitate her returns to Wolfwood again and again. Trauma is explored with sensitivity—both Indigo’s from a violent encounter while unhoused and her mother’s from a dark incident presented through flashbacks—and the hardship of continuing to love and protect an unwell parent is conveyed with complexity and compassion. Readers looking for a character-driven story fraught with emotional suspense should pick this one up. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Violence and the Masks of Monsters in José Donoso’s Fiction

In his well-known novel The Obscene Bird of Night (El obsceno pájaro de la noche, 1970) Chilean writer José Donoso analyzed the progressive decay of the old and illustrious family of Jerónimo de Azcoitía, but also the general degradation of Chilean society. Nevertheless, the novel implies a symbolic and allegoric level as such: the author discusses, in a direct or subtextual manner, the implications of the masks within the modern world and the meanings of the monstrous creatures populating the hypnotic universe of Rinconada, imagined and made up by Jerónimo in order to shelter and hide his son, Boy. The monsters prove to be different versions of human identity and they also mark the process of modern alienation, expressing the terror determined by the violence in the Latin American world of the 20th century. KEYWORDS: Latin American Literature, Fiction, Identity, Mask, Monster, Violence.

Beckett’s Early Image of Sade: Dream of Fair to middling Women, More Pricks Than Kicks, and Sadism

This article illustrates how Beckett’s engagement with the works and ideas of the Marquis de Sade in the early 1930s plays a role in shaping his earliest extended fictions, Dream of Fair to middling Women and More Pricks Than Kicks. It begins by delineating how Beckett’s jottings in the ‘Dream’ Notebook prove that he read Mario Praz’s La carne, la morte, e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica (1930) whilst writing his first novel, Dream of Fair to middling Women (1992, written 1930–32), before then assessing the evidence indicating that he was also familiar with Guillaume Appollinaire’s L’Œuvre du marquis de Sade (1909) at this time. Following this, the essay examines how Beckett’s knowledge of Sade’s works and ideas, as gleaned through the aforementioned secondary sources, influences Dream of Fair to middling Women and More Pricks Than Kicks (1934). It argues that Dream of Fair to middling Women’s portrayal of the Smeraldina and the Frica align with an essential sadistic tenet theorised by Praz: namely, that the sadistic individual, out of ‘necessity’, regards lovers and sexual beings as ‘monstrous creature[s]’ ( Praz 1970 , 152). Following this, the essay argues that there is a reduction in sadistic force between Dream of Fair to middling Women and More Pricks Than Kicks, which renders visible a potentially unexpected similarity between Apollinaire’s depiction of Sade’s opposition to the death penalty and the textual condemnation of vulgarised sadism in ‘Dante and the Lobster’. The essay then concludes by highlighting how the entrance of the above-mentioned notes into Beckett’s earliest extended fictions exposes the fact that Beckett’s interest in the artistic potential of sadism pre-dates his 1938 encounter with Sade’s Les 120 journées de Sodome, thereby emphasising how the shade of sadism saturates Beckett’s œuvre.

Gods and monsters: Greek mythology and Christian references in the neurosurgical lexicon.

Background: Myths and religion are belief systems centered around supernatural entities that attempt to explain the observed world and are of high importance to certain communities. The former is a collection of stories that belong to a cultural tradition and the latter are organized faiths that determine codes of ethics, rituals and philosophy. Deities or monstrous creatures in particular act as archetypes instructing an individual’s conduct. References to them in Greek mythology and Christianity are frequently manifested in the modern neurosurgical vernacular.Methods: A review of the medical literature was performed using the PubMed and MEDLINE bibliographic databases. Publications from 1875 to 2021 related to neurosurgery or neuroanatomy with the medical subject headings (MeSH) terms mythology, religion, Christianity and Catholicism were reviewed. References pertaining to supernatural beings were classified to either a deity or a monstrosity according to their conventional cultural context.Results: Twelve narratives associated with neurosurgery were identified, nine relating to Greek mythology and three associated with the Christian-Catholic faith. Eight accounts concerned deities and the remaining with monstrous creatures.Conclusion: This article explores the etymology of commonly utilized terms in daily neurosurgical practice in the context of mythology and religion. They reveal the ingenuity and creativity of early pioneers who strived to understand the brain.

동굴벽화의 미학 : 동굴과 인간도상의 그로테스크를 중심으로

This paper aims to study cave paintings from an aesthetic point of view. Even though cave paintings are human artworks, researches only have been conducted from the religious, archaeological, and ecological perspectives. Therefore, it is worth studying the aesthetics of cave paintings as works of art. The main features of cave paintings are the fact that the exhibition hall is a cave rather than a white cube, and that the human iconographies are combined with other living things. Compared to general exhibition halls and iconographies of humans, those of cave paintings are unique. The inside of the cave is dark and humid, and the surface of the walls is uneven. Human figures drawn on the cave walls are combined with animals, plants, or unknown creatures. As these variations of cave interiors and human iconographies are difficult to define, predict, or imagine, viewers are puzzled and frightened. The most suitable aesthetic concept for the art work of cave paintings with these characteristics is the grotesque. The word grotesque comes from the Italian word 'grotta', meaning cave, and was first used in a 15th-century painting found in the basement of a Roman palace. According to Wolfgang Kaiser's study on the use of the word 'grotesque' in German and French, the key symbol of the grotesque is the figure of a monstrous creature, a chaotic mixture of animals, foliage, and humans in distorted proportions. Thus, the grotesque can be defined as the collapse and unfamiliar change of the world, which was familiar to us and operated according to a fixed order, is engulfed in confusion. The cave gives viewers a sense of unfamiliarity through its features of low illumination and uneven walls, which are different from general exhibition spaces. The human figure in the cave paintings is a combination of animals, plants, and something unknown to the human body that the viewer encounters daily, giving the viewer confusion. The implications of this thesis are to study cave paintings from an aesthetic point of view. And the cave paintings are grotesque works of art that cause eerie and bewildering emotions in the viewer. Also, although the concept of grotesque was formed in the 15th century, there are some artworks made before the 15th century, such as cave paintings, to which the grotesque is applied. Therefore, this study argues that it is necessary to expand the scope of research on grotesque.

Interspecies systemic chimeras

Inter-species chimeras are both fantastic and monstrous creatures from Greek or Egyptian mythology, and a long-established research tool. Recent advances in the field of pluripotent stem cells have made it possible to extend the repertoire of inter-species chimeras to "systemic" chimeras, in which the mixing of cells from both species involves all organs including the germline. These chimeric embryos and fetuses open up new research avenues and potential medical applications. We will review the latest advances in the field. We will discuss the concepts of developmental complementation and developmental equivalence. We will discuss the methodological hurdles to be unlocked, as well as the biological and ethical limits of these new technologies.

‘It’ before It: Stephen King and the abhuman from Carrie to The Shining

Although Stephen King’s most famous use of the pronoun ‘It’ comes from his 1986 novel It, he nevertheless uses ‘It’ in highly distinctive ways well before then. These uses of ‘It’ before It need to be discussed because they signify a complex transformation of human characters into monstrous creatures. Focusing on texts ranging from Carrie to The Shining, this article explores how King developed these distinctive ‘Its’ from a somewhat vague sense of unease or twisted desires into complex signifiers of the ways human characteristics can transform into monstrous actions. But King’s focus is never solely on the spectacle or the general horror of this transformation from human to monster. Instead, he explores the unsettling problem of the ways even the most positive human desires and actions can turn characters into ‘It’ creatures. Thus, the real tragedy of becoming an ‘It’, this article argues, comes from recognizing that these ‘It’ creatures are never just simple variations on a monstrous theme; instead, they represent the ways ordinary people can become monstrous as they lose themselves to their own alluring, but ultimately empty, actions.

“I Am Not Returning Home”: A Transgender Reading of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation

ABSTRACT Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation (2014) takes the form of a field journal written by a character known as “the biologist.” It follows an expedition of four women into Area X, where monstrous creatures roam and all living things, including the biologist, undergo transitions as their DNA radically changes. This reading of the biologist’s journal presents it as not only a transition narrative but as a fictional transgender autobiography, sharing many similarities with the features of trans autobiography identified by Jay Prosser (1998). I argue that the biologist’s attempts to assert her identification of a topographical anomaly as the “tower” can be a metaphor for the struggle in trans autobiography for self-identification to be accepted as truth. Contextualizing Annihilation within current discourses in transecology, I make links to the rhetoric of blame on LGBTQIA+ people as the cause of environmental disasters. I conclude with a hopeful reading, which defies this blame, of the biologist’s statement that “I am not returning home,” as an ending of trans possibility. Trans people must constantly reassert and fight for our existence, so as a trans-identified scholar I hope to highlight transgender readings in unexpected places, showing that our experiences exist across all genres.

Beasts, Humans, and Transhumans in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. J. Eugene Clay. Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 45. Turnhout: Brepols, 2020, xxiv, 168 pp., 2 b/w and 3 color ill.

Recent research has increasingly focused on the phenomenon of hybridity between animals and humans, with monsters situated somewhere in-between. Hence the title of this volume, in which the contributors examine medieval and early modern cases of animal-human interactions, though transhumanity, or transhumanity, as defined by the editor, J. Eugene Clay, Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University, who works primarily on religious movements in Russia and Eurasia, represents more a desire for or anticipation of the transition of humanity into a combination with computers or robots, which has not much to do at all with the issues addressed here. Instead, the focus rests on how animals were viewed in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and on how somewhat monstrous creatures were assessed (there are no monster-focused articles here). As fascinating as the new approach determined by Animal Studies might be, this is not really the emphasis by the contributors, not even to talk about “Posthumanism” (ix-xi), which has no relevance in this volume. But it makes sense, as Clay outlines, to consider the biblical and classical heritage to understand how medieval and early modern writers regarded animals in their interaction with people, who commonly identified themselves, as Eriugena already defined them, as non-animals (xvii). And yet, the borderline to beasts was thin, as the various examples discussed by the individual authors occasionally indicate.

The Edge of Strange Hollow by Gabrielle K. Byrne

Reviewed by: The Edge of Strange Hollow by Gabrielle K. Byrne April Spisak Byrne, Gabrielle K. The Edge of Strange Hollow. Imprint, 2021 [384p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781250624666 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781250624673 $9.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 5-8 Poppy’s family is unusual: her parents work in the Grimwood forest with the place’s dangerous magical creatures. Banned from the wood for her own safety, she is helpless when her mother and father disappear, but despite her lack of knowledge she’s determined to save them and her town as well. She’s also not good at listening, taking advice, or being patient, and her approach of flinging herself headlong into danger and scrambling to figure it out on the fly lands her in all sorts of additional trouble before she finally finds a solution (with the help of many far more level-headed, sage allies) that keeps both the townsfolk and magical creatures safe. There’s a nifty suggestion that beyond the thick fogs that both protect and isolate this region there exists our regular world (IKEA is mentioned as a grand mystery, for example). The concept of the true monsters being people rather than the actual monstrous creatures is a well-worn one, but Byrne effectively shades nearly all of her characters with elements of selfishness and altruism. Rather than being a showdown of pure good versus evil, it’s more about the limits of community against self-interest. For those drawn by the supernatural side, fairies, enspirited trees, valkyries, and even a cerberus share space here, providing a true cornucopia of fantasy interest. [End Page 330] Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Poor Tom and the linguistic performance of monstrosity in King Lear

Edgar’s disguise in King Lear draws upon a popular early modern figure, the Bedlam beggar. This article argues that Poor Tom transcends the cultural representations of the Bedlamites, inasmuch as his liminality and otherness turn him into a monstrous creature. Tom’s monstrosity emerges from his language rather than his appearance or actions. Close readings reveal how the fashioning of Tom in 2.2 is anticipated by Edmund’s and Gloucester’s words, which foretell the metaphorical self-birth whereby Edgar delivers his own monstrous alter ego through language, in a multifaceted linguistic performance made of overlapping voices that are monstrous in structure and content.

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE FEMALE PROTAGONIST IN JOANNE HARRIS’S NOVEL “GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS”

The paper zeroes in on the peculiarities of representing the main female character in a British novel “Gentlemen and Players” published in 2005. The crucial point that the research encompasses is a challenge to the status quo of gender imbalance which is portrayed, inter alia, through showing a certain playfulness of the main character. Notably, playfulness must be read here as a form of (social/cultural/political) subversion, which enables one to look beyond and deconstruct “arbitrary ranks/truths”. The carnivalesque nature of the female protagonist is manifested in connection with the changing status of women in contemporary societies. The image of a submissive woman fabricated by men still lingers in many cultures. This gives rise to a mutant woman, mirrored with the help of a subversive fictional female character who is a trickster. It is evinced that the fossilized patterns of perceiving a woman, and attitudes towards her in the male-dominated environment are likely to pose an impending threat, not only to men’s lives but also to the lives of children and other women. Affected by a number of factors, the female protagonist reveals her eclectic identity and we witness how she turns into a monstrous creature with overwhelming destructive power inside. Consequently, the authenticity of the woman suffers and we may talk about her symbolic death.

Depictions of the Deep: Illustrations in the Popular Press of Deep-Sea Animals from Jules Verne (1860’s) to William Beebe (1930’s) and beyond

Our vision of deep-sea life changed dramatically with the results of scientific explorations and study of the deep that began in the 1860's. Mythical monsters, epitomized by Jules Verne's giant octopus, gave way to mysterious landscapes inhabited by odd creatures actually dredged up from the deep. While we now know of the diversity and unusual life cycles of deep-sea creatures, visions of the deep as a world of monstrous creatures persists today in the popular press. Introduction Here are shown, in five 'chapters', changes in the depictions of deep-sea life in popular books and magazines. The time period covered is from the era of Jules Verne (1860's) to that of William Beebe (1930's) and to recent years. The major focus is on the period of the 1860's to the 1930's as it corresponds, firstly with early scientific exploration of the deep-sea, and secondly, growth in our knowledge of natural history of organisms in the deep-sea. Traditionally images such as those illustrating 20,000 Leagues under Sea (and before) were of mythical monsters in the deep sea. With the first scientific explorations of the deep sea, from the 1860's-1920's, the existence of odd creatures became known. The deep-sea was then depicted as an eerie land of monstrous forms but about which little was known. Finally with the first systematic studies, including in situ observations by William Beebe, some of the natural history of deep-sea organisms became known. Organisms were then shown with their predator-prey relationships and depictions of life-cycle stages of deep-sea animals appeared. From the eras of Jules Verne to that of William Beebe, the imaginary monsters of the deep were gradually replaced by actual animals but of many with frightening shapes and unimaginable life cycles. Nonetheless, ferocious-looking and monstrous forms of the deep-sea still remain popular in contemporary works.

The Metamorphosis of Stephen Da(e)dalus: The Plesiosaurus and the Slimy Sea

In Joyce’s scholarship, very little critical attention has been paid to the monstrous creature depicted in Stephen Hero, the plesiosaurus, a large marine reptile of the Lower Jurassic Period. It appears when the protagonist envisions the birth of prehistoric art: “He doubled backwards into the past of humanity and caught glimpses of emergent art as one might have a vision of the pleisiosauros [sic] emerging from his ocean of slime” (SH 33). The prime concern of this essay is to inquire into why Joyce conjures up such paleo-imagery as that of the plesiosaurus, rather than other extinct creatures, and how he represents the “ocean of slime” as the nonhuman geological actor in his own background. I first highlight the actual plesiosaurus fossil discovered in 1848 and brought into Dublin in 1853. The fact that it had been moved to the Natural History Museum, Dublin, in 1890 will suggest the possibility that the direct inspiration for Joyce’s description was the Plesiosaurus cramptoni (now known as Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni) fossil. I then examine the traditional imagery of the slime-clad plesiosaurus in paleo-geological writings to elucidate how he employs conventional verbal representation, despite Stephen’s search for primordial art. Finally, I will analyze the hidden nexus between the plesiosaurus and Stephen’s monstrous egotism, or “self-centred” spirit as opposed to “self-submersive reptiles,” shedding new light on the “ocean of slime” as an image symbolic of the geological soil of Dublin out of which the fledging artist attempts to rise. The argument regarding two nonhuman actors will illuminate a different form of “the square ditch” into which young Stephen (in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) is pushed and reveal his monstrous animality as a plesiosaurus before becoming a bird.

Contemplation on the Symbolism of Whales

The archetypes that exist in the human mind and soul, combined with raw materials of meaning and imagery, form symbols. Symbols have a powerful energy and are a source of vitality for human consciousness. Therefore, we need to ensure that our consciousness is not detached or disconnected from the depths of unconsciousness and understand symbols in our mind and soul to enrich our lives. Whales that appear in the client’s trays on various ages are predators of the aquatic world and are mysterious beings that arouse a sense of awe. They are highly intelligent, use their own language to communicate, and breed and raise their young by suckling them. They transformed themselves from terrestrial to aquatic creatures through a long evolutionary process. With these unique characteristics, whales have been a source of inspiration for a variety of literary works. This study examined the ecological characteristics of whales and their symbolic meanings represented in myths, legends and literary works of the East and the West as well as in the Holy Bible. Whales are symbols of absolute beings like monstrous creature that are: audacious and ideal, voyage guides and saviors, and messengers that mediate between deities and humans. In addition, whales symbolize maternal instincts, good luck and obsession with aggression over the cruel killing of other animals. The various symbolic meanings of whales elucidated in this study suggest that humans’ instincts can promote a positive energy flow in their mind through a connection with the symbolism of whales.

Reimagining the colonial wilderness: ‘Africa’, imperialism and the geographical legerdemain of the Vorrh

Novelists and other cultural producers have long employed the African continent as a palimpsest to construct fantastical tales. From Sir John Mandeville to Joseph Conrad, Africa’s blank spaces on the map have been filled with monstrous creatures that fuel the western imagination. As a consequence, this constant othering of the so-called ‘Dark Continent’ has had a deleterious impact for African states and their citizenries, as spectacularly evidenced in U.S. President Donald Trump’s now-infamous labelling of the entire continent as a host of ‘shithole countries’. This article wrestles with the continuation of this trend in popular culture via an empirical examination of the speculative fiction of the British novelist and performance artist, B. Catling. Publishing in 2015, The Vorrh is the first of the three novels set in a parallel Africa, specifically a former German colony that is home to remnants of the Garden of Eden. Focusing on the enchanted forest known as the Vorrh and the colony’s (fictional) capital, Essenwald, this article employs methods drawn from geocriticism and popular geopolitics to interrogate Catling’s built-world. This is done with the aim of connecting structures of iteration in the representation of fictional ‘Africas’ to the West’s imperially inflected geopolitical codes towards the actual physical and human geographies that constitute the world’s second largest and most populous continent.

Compounding Compound Creatures

Abstract In Tristia 4.7, Ovid describes a series of mythological hybrid creatures. This paper will argue that this catalogue of hybrids alludes to scientific accounts of the primitive creatures that existed in the early stages in the evolution of living beings, as well as literary depictions of monstrous creatures. In particular it will argue that Ovid alludes to his own Metamorphoses, Vergil’s catalogue of insubstantial monsters at A. 6.285-289, Lucretius’ account of primitive creatures at DRN 5.890-894 (a model for both the Metamorphoses and the Vergilian catalogue), and most significantly Empedocles (fr. 60 DK). It will demonstrate that Ovid ‘remythologises’ this passage from Empedocles through the use of multiple allusions to both scientific and mythological discourse, in such a way as to question a series of distinctions, such as that between science and mythology. It will also discuss whether Ovid’s catalogue of hybrids could aid a reinterpretation of the compound creatures described by Empedocles.