Monster Legend
Monster Legend
Jeffery Jerome Cohen writes in his essay Monster Culture (Seven Theses) that cultures can be understood by the monsters they have. Through seven theses, he argues for the importance of monsters and reaches a conclusion that monsters can define a culture. These creatures of the imagination are born from fears of the unknown and desires of the forbidden. They are the vampires and zombies, ghosts and goblins, dragons and demons that invade fantasy and fiction, dominating novels, films, and video games. They have grown to be an integral part of the media and common consciousness. Everyone has heard of and seen monsters in the media. Cohen’s first thesis, “The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body,” argues that monsters are born out of a particular “time, a feeling, and a place” and exists as “pure culture” (Cohen). The monsters, being a product of its time, represent the views of the people of those times but they can also challenge the public view. So, they serve to reinterpret parts of the culture. People learn to see themselves differently through a monster’s eye. The monsters and what the views they represent linger in the mind of their creators and audience; the monsters become legend. The novel I am Legend, by Richard Matheson, was published in 1954 during the Cold War when people viewed the world as a duality of pure good and pure evil. It was the perfect cradle for monsters. The view of the Soviet Union with its communism as evil and the United States with its democracy as good easily grew into a tension represented by monsters and the heroes that opposed them. In I am Legend, a worldwide disease turns everyone into a vampire-like monster except for the immune Robert Neville, who becomes a killer. Justified by a kill-or-be-killed drive, Neville bunkers in a fortified house at night and hunts the vampires in the morning. He responds to the question of why he kills: “Only to-to survive.” (Matheson) There is the image of a cowboy-like
Jeffery Jerome Cohen writes in his essay Monster Culture (Seven Theses) that cultures can be understood by the monsters they have. Through seven theses, he argues for the importance of monsters and reaches a conclusion that monsters can define a culture. These creatures of the imagination are born from fears of the unknown and desires of the forbidden. They are the vampires and zombies, ghosts and goblins, dragons and demons that invade fantasy and fiction, dominating novels, films, and video games. They have grown to be an integral part of the media and common consciousness. Everyone has heard of and seen monsters in the media. Cohen’s first thesis, “The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body,” argues that monsters are born out of a particular “time, a feeling, and a place” and exists as “pure culture” (Cohen). The monsters, being a product of its time, represent the views of the people of those times but they can also challenge the public view. So, they serve to reinterpret parts of the culture. People learn to see themselves differently through a monster’s eye. The monsters and what the views they represent linger in the mind of their creators and audience; the monsters become legend. The novel I am Legend, by Richard Matheson, was published in 1954 during the Cold War when people viewed the world as a duality of pure good and pure evil. It was the perfect cradle for monsters. The view of the Soviet Union with its communism as evil and the United States with its democracy as good easily grew into a tension represented by monsters and the heroes that opposed them. In I am Legend, a worldwide disease turns everyone into a vampire-like monster except for the immune Robert Neville, who becomes a killer. Justified by a kill-or-be-killed drive, Neville bunkers in a fortified house at night and hunts the vampires in the morning. He responds to the question of why he kills: “Only to-to survive.” (Matheson) There is the image of a cowboy-like