Monster On The Brain: An Epistemology Of Monsters Hybrids In Literature Analysis

The psychology behind our fear of monsters is something Asma has been trying to understand for the better part of the last decade. In 2009, he published "On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears" followed by "Monster on the Brain: An Epistemology of Horror" in 2014. Both articles dig deep into the psychology behind why monsters create fear. In 2017, a couple of months after the next installment of Hollywood's hit hybrid "Alien" and just two weeks before Halloween, Asma capitalized on kairos by writing his newest theories on monster hybrids in this Nautilus issue on monsters. As a rhetor, his purpose with this article is to convince horror fans that his epistemological approach has correctly answered the article's title "Why Are So Many Monsters Hybrids?" To prove his hypothesis true, he successfully incorporates the rhetoric techniques of reasoning, pathos, and identification. Asma's primary and most effective tool of persuasion is his many instances of reasoning with enthymemes. His first and most obvious use is when he explains how human's obsession with hybrid monsters is innate. First, he introduces examples of current hybrid monsters in movies followed by
When most people first read an open-ended question they usually formulate their own answer. Right below the title "Why Are So Many Monsters Hybrids?" there is a picture of the spiderlike face-hugger from Alien with a doctor staring at it curiously (Asma, 1). Both the location and the picture were picked because it makes readers uneasy, anxious, and perhaps curious just like the doctor. There is a later picture as well of Vishnu, an ancient Indian hybrid, which strikes equal feelings of curiosity in the reader. By making the reader feel these emotions, Asma's premise that the allure of hybrids stems from their uniqueness is more easily