A Defense for Monsters
Monsters have plagued humanity for millennia, always lurking in the shadows and dark corners of our civilized world. They are born from fears that we have about that which is unknown. They are conquered when we either find out the true nature of something unknown or when we become familiar with that which was previously alien to us. They represent all that scares us, both as individuals and as societies. However, monsters are more complex than a tool to scare young children with their grotesque and frightening appearance.
Some of the earliest monsters to appear were drawn on maps of the world. Here we could see entire civilizations of “monster races” that lived on the outskirts of the known world. These “monsters” represented the xenophobic attitudes that the civilizations that created them had against those that lived outside of their culture. As societies mingled and interacted, these depictions of each other as actual monsters slowly dissipated, but the idea of the “monster other” still remained for centuries to come. Even today, it is not uncommon for us to call the reprehensible actions of our enemies as “monstrous.”
Another type of monster depicted on maps were the infamous sea monsters of old nautical maps. These creatures stuck around for a lot longer than the aforementioned “monster races”, but there is good reason for this. Much of the ocean was unexplored for a lot of maritime history and some of the deep sea creatures that resided in it were nothing short of nightmarish. It took a long time for people to research and catalogue the different animals of the sea. Slowly, monsters began to disappear from maps as people began to understand the seven seas. On some maps, however, they still remained as a means to show the control a certain nation had over an area by depicting its ruler sitting atop a sea monster. Other decorative maps kept the aquatic terrors merely as something interesting to look at as it hung on the wall.
There is another thing that monsters can represent other than the unknowns of the world and differing cultures: the values and fears of a culture itself. Many monsters find their roots in folk tales, and many of these folk tales are told as means of preserving a certain cultural value through fear. One example of this is the infamous cannibal spirit of Algonquin legend, the Wendigo, that displays the dangers of greed and the winter while encouraging fellowship and selflessness. Another is the devilish German antithesis to Santa Claus, Krampus, who encourages good behavior and obedience in children. All over the world, monsters are used to encourage and/or discourage certain behaviors to promote the betterment of that culture's society.
Monsters are much more than just a vehicle for horror and a tool to scare us, they are ingrained into our very perceptions of the world around us. From that which we consider unknown to the very values of the culture we exist in, monsters are a way for us to conceptualize and preserve the most abstract of ideas. Whether they are people, places, or creatures, monsters represent so much more than just the fear that they produce.
By: Caleb Schaber