Explanation of Color Scheme/Spatial Metaphors of Site
Glossary of Terms


      The Oxford English Dictionary lists four definitions for monster:
           2. An animal or plant deviating in one or more of its parts from the normal type; spec.,
           an animal afflicted with some congenital malformation; a misshapen birth, an abortion.
           3. An imaginary animal (such as the centaur, sphinx, minotaur, or the heraldic griffin, wyvern, etc.)
           having a form either partly brute and partly human, or compounded of elements from two or more
           animal forms.
           4. A person of inhuman and horrible cruelty or wickedness; a monstrous example of (wickedness,
           or some particular vice).
           5. An animal of huge size; hence, anything of vast and unwieldy proportions.

     The word 'monster' in America today can mean all of these things, though in the common vernacular it is
generally used as 3 and 5 above: 'Monsters' are creatures we become on Halloween; we drive 'monster' trucks
and look for jobs on '' 'Monster' implies largeness, a quality almost universally admired in
American culture. But what does the existence of monsters (as 'imaginary' animals) in a culture signify?

taboos and morals.


      In Totem and Taboo, Sigmund Freud writes that taboo, originally a Polynesian word, means something
that is simultaneously sacred and profane (821). Taboo does not solicit silence nor encourage ignorance, but
demands rather an awareness and deliberate avoidance of the sacred/profane object or action. Taboo is
characterized by a "dread of physical contact . . . . [and a conviction] that violation will be followed by
unbearable disaster," which is not necessarily "external" or physical (828). The violator of a taboo likewise
becomes taboo and must be avoided. Freud writes that the transgressor "has the dangerous property of
tempting others to follow his example . . . . He is therefore really contagious [emphasis mine], in so far as
every example incites to imitation and, therefore, he himself must be avoided" (832).

      Acknowledging that any system of categorization is somewhat arbitrary, subject as it must be to the
caprices and whims of its creators, we propose four categorical rubrics of origination for our discussion of
monstrosity, with the premise that each monster symbolizes one or more cultural taboos: Reanimated
Monsters (once-dead monsters revived); Ecological Monsters (monsters with environmental origins);
Human Monsters (genetic freaks and psychotics); and Technological Monsters (monsters coming into being
through the (mis)application of technical knowledge). Such a taxonomy allows for the cross categorization
reanimated monster).  A table of taboos and monsters is included within this site, encouraging comparisons
and debates about the meanings of the monsters and their relations to one another. Furthermore, each over-
view contains a "Monster Blender" which visually depicts the melding of related creatures, reinforcing the
similarities of the monsters and ourselves. Perhaps the horror derived from cinematic and literary monsters
stems from latent monstrosity that lurks within each and everyone of us.

Click here for the Childhood Monsters Essay