On monsters....
Oct. 12th, 2009 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniNow, this post is about (Checks her calender) sixty-one days later than I intended to post it.... I might have forgotten it altogether, if trouble hadn't posted this quote (in an access-locked post) about the Victorian attitudes toward the blind:
(Quote)
[Source: - Oliphant, John, “Empowerment and Debilitation in the Educational Experience of the Blind in Nineteenth-century England and Scotland”, History of Education, Vol. 35, No. 1, January 2006, p 53.]
---
Oh well, better late than never, right? ...And now that I think about it, maybe it's better late, period, since Halloween is close at hand, now, and images of monsters will be everywhere in the public consciousness (if they are not, already).
Anyway, for this year's National Art-Making Month, I latched onto a long stretch of drawing different sorts of monsters, each day. After nearly a week of this, the geeky, pedantic, part of myself started to wonder what, exactly, the word "monster" meant back in the day. This is what I found:
1) any plant or animal of abnormal shape or structure, as one greatly malformed or lacking some parts; monstrosity
2) any imaginary creature part human and part animal in form, as a centaur, or made up of the parts of two or more different animals, as a dragon;
something monstrous
3) a person so cruel, wicked, depraved, etc. as to horrify others;
any huge animal or thing
4) Pathology: a malformed fetus, esp. one with an excess or deficiency of limbs or parts; teratism
Etymology: ME monstre < OFr < L monstrum, divine portent of misfortune, monster < monere, to admonish, warn: see monitor (and, the example from my own word-store, deMONSTRate)
(unquote)
So, yes. I can see how, way back in the day, when every storm, drought, plague, and earthquake were taken personally, as punishments from angry gods, still-born and malformed babies were reasons to be scared -- because it meant that people had to be on the lookout for something even worse to happen, and not knowing what, where, when, or how...
But think about this: there is nothing, even in those most primitive and superstitious origins of the word, that suggest that the monstrous creature, itself, is angry, or wants revenge. S/He/It is not the source of the misfortune. And yet, almost from the beginning, that's how monsters have been treated, in our folklore, and modern stories since then.
It just strikes me as horribly unfair.
Here, have a chipper Sesame Street song about monsters -- from the days when Sesame Street monsters were the real thing.
There's a monster name of Frazzle
Who's a good friend of mine
He looks ferocious, but he's really fine
Go up and ask him for his autograph
He'd be so happy that he'd start to laugh
He goes Argh! That's how he laughs
He goes Argh! That means he's glad
He goes Argh! That means he's having
The greatest time that he ever had
Now you know my buddy Frazzle
He's got fangs on his jaws
His fur is orange, and he's got these claws
He looks so mean that he could scare a crowd
But if you tickle him he laughs out loud
He goes Argh! That's how he laughs
He goes Argh! That means he's glad
He goes Argh! That means he's having
The greatest time that he ever had
Mr. Frazzle has emotions like the rest of us do
Sometimes he feels low down and ugly, too
And then the tears begin to fill his eyes
It's so pathetic when a monster cries
He goes Argh! That's how he cries
He goes Argh! That means he's sad
He goes Argh! That means he's having
The lowest time that he ever had
Argh! That means he's hungry
Argh! That means he's hot
Argh! That means he's sleepy
Argh! That means he's not
Argh! That means yes
Argh! That means no
Argh! Means thank you for the dinner
But, it's getting very late and I really must go
Argh!
trouble hadn't posted this quote (in an access-locked post) about the Victorian attitudes toward the blind:(Quote)
Considered to be bearers of a grave moral fault and for long associated with the rise of mendicancy, the blind often suffered from harsh comparisons with the great past figures from their ranks, and they were judged accordingly as either seers or beggars. Since the latter clearly outnumbered the former, confinement was seen as a step towards making them as light a burden as possible in their communities.(Unquote)
[Source: - Oliphant, John, “Empowerment and Debilitation in the Educational Experience of the Blind in Nineteenth-century England and Scotland”, History of Education, Vol. 35, No. 1, January 2006, p 53.]
---
Oh well, better late than never, right? ...And now that I think about it, maybe it's better late, period, since Halloween is close at hand, now, and images of monsters will be everywhere in the public consciousness (if they are not, already).
Anyway, for this year's National Art-Making Month, I latched onto a long stretch of drawing different sorts of monsters, each day. After nearly a week of this, the geeky, pedantic, part of myself started to wonder what, exactly, the word "monster" meant back in the day. This is what I found:
1) any plant or animal of abnormal shape or structure, as one greatly malformed or lacking some parts; monstrosity
2) any imaginary creature part human and part animal in form, as a centaur, or made up of the parts of two or more different animals, as a dragon;
something monstrous
3) a person so cruel, wicked, depraved, etc. as to horrify others;
any huge animal or thing
4) Pathology: a malformed fetus, esp. one with an excess or deficiency of limbs or parts; teratism
Etymology: ME monstre < OFr < L monstrum, divine portent of misfortune, monster < monere, to admonish, warn: see monitor (and, the example from my own word-store, deMONSTRate)
(unquote)
So, yes. I can see how, way back in the day, when every storm, drought, plague, and earthquake were taken personally, as punishments from angry gods, still-born and malformed babies were reasons to be scared -- because it meant that people had to be on the lookout for something even worse to happen, and not knowing what, where, when, or how...
But think about this: there is nothing, even in those most primitive and superstitious origins of the word, that suggest that the monstrous creature, itself, is angry, or wants revenge. S/He/It is not the source of the misfortune. And yet, almost from the beginning, that's how monsters have been treated, in our folklore, and modern stories since then.
It just strikes me as horribly unfair.
Here, have a chipper Sesame Street song about monsters -- from the days when Sesame Street monsters were the real thing.
Who's a good friend of mine
He looks ferocious, but he's really fine
Go up and ask him for his autograph
He'd be so happy that he'd start to laugh
He goes Argh! That's how he laughs
He goes Argh! That means he's glad
He goes Argh! That means he's having
The greatest time that he ever had
Now you know my buddy Frazzle
He's got fangs on his jaws
His fur is orange, and he's got these claws
He looks so mean that he could scare a crowd
But if you tickle him he laughs out loud
He goes Argh! That's how he laughs
He goes Argh! That means he's glad
He goes Argh! That means he's having
The greatest time that he ever had
Mr. Frazzle has emotions like the rest of us do
Sometimes he feels low down and ugly, too
And then the tears begin to fill his eyes
It's so pathetic when a monster cries
He goes Argh! That's how he cries
He goes Argh! That means he's sad
He goes Argh! That means he's having
The lowest time that he ever had
Argh! That means he's hungry
Argh! That means he's hot
Argh! That means he's sleepy
Argh! That means he's not
Argh! That means yes
Argh! That means no
Argh! Means thank you for the dinner
But, it's getting very late and I really must go
Argh!
