Ann Fillmore
âWhoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.â âFriedrich Nietzsche
I love monsters. I love scary stories and monster movies. I love classic monsters and contemporary monsters. Spine-tingling stories are a part of our history and are passed down from generation to generation as folklore and pop culture. Humans are fascinated with monsters, but why? What is the connection? What makes a monster?
The word monster is a derivative of the Latin word monstrum, which is defined as “that which reveals, that which warns” (Cohen 4). This definition sparked my interest since I teach rhetoric and writing, and I ponder such things. And, I found myself asking, âWhat do monsters reveal to us? What can monsters teach us?â
In the article âMonster Culture: Seven Theses,â medieval scholar Jeffrey Jerome Cohen presents several criteria (theses) about what makes a monster. His work not only captivated my attention but has helped me to appreciate how monsters can be an effective tool for understanding rhetoric and discourse today. âHow?â you might ask. Because monsters show us that language matters.
DO MONSTERS REALLY EXIST?
Yes. What is a monster? It depends on the audience.
![graphic representation of a red dragon](https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/4119/2022/09/dragon-300x247.png)
Monsters exist in many forms. They can be literal or metaphorical and can manifest as people, places, things, and even ideas. Monsters are âoutsidersâ that symbolize the fears, taboos, and values of a culture. They emerge as âa construct and a projectionâ of the cultures who creates and perpetuate them (Cohen 4). Therefore, a monster is a part of folklore that represents different things to different people. For example, when I think of a dragon, I think of a scaly, fire-breathing creature that burns villages (like Smaug in the book The Hobbit). However, in China, dragons represent good fortune and luck.
By examining how people use language to do things, be things, and make things in the world, we gain insight into a culture. Cohen argues that all monsters are, in fact, âtextsâ and that we can more fully understand a culture by âreadingâ its monsters. Monsters, old and new, are a reflection of their audience during specific moments in time. Therefore, âevery monster is in this way a double-narrative, two living stories: one that describes how the monster came to be, and another, its testimony, detailing what cultural use the monster servesâ (13).
WHAT CREATES A MONSTER?
We do.
![illustration of a skeleton lying on the parched ground with its finger spelling out "It's a hoax" on the cracked clay](https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/4119/2022/09/climate-change-300x250.png)
Monsters are rhetorical. A monster lives in the way we tell its story. Itâs all in the delivery; as we can see from the example above, those who fear dragons draw on a diction that generates emotions of fear, whereas societies who value dragons employ a discourse to portray creatures of wisdom and nobility, worthy of celebration. Language matters.
Modern examples are not difficult to find. Think of how people discuss current issues. For instance, climate change is a beast that ravages the landscapes, flora, and fauna, resulting in extinctions and extreme natural disasters worldwide. Some frame climate change as a conspiracy (climate change is not the monster, but those who claim so are) and others argue climate change as fact (climate change as the monster).
We can also see this in how people manipulate language to frame Covid-19 as political. For some, itâs a monstrous pandemic, a tragic circumstance that has devastated global economic, health, and social systems. For others, the virus was an act of carelessness or mal intent by the Chinese. They choose to cast blame at this nation with terms such as âChinese virusâ and #kungflu. The spread of pejorative language has lead to a racializing of the virus and a profiling of individuals of Asian descent. And who says language doesnât matter?
MONSTERS SERVE MANY PURPOSES.
Every culture has distinct values, customs, and ideals, and monsters are often used as a rhetorical tool for enforcing the norm. One move often associated with monsters is the use of fear because fear can shape behavior and attention to more desired actions. For example, parents in the U.S. lay on the pathos (an appeal to emotions) in order to âencourageâ their kids into behaving during the holiday season. Parents threaten that Santa is always watching and wonât deliver presents if a childâs name is on the naughty list. In this narrative, we see that the monster (yes, Santa) is used to warn children against âcrossing the lineâ and to behave in a manner that is expected. The story brings consequences to life for children and serves as a useful behavioral tool for parents because it gives them control and power.
![cartoon image of Santa winking at the viewer as he checks off his naughty-vs-nice list](https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/4119/2022/09/santa-300x273.png)
What does this monster tell us about American culture? It reveals many things if we âreadâ into it. One could see that though Christmas is a traditional Christian holiday, it has morphed into a commercial holiday. One could infer that children are part of this consumerism and parents leverage merchandise and happiness (Christmas morning) for control. It could also prompt us to examine why certain behaviors are considered ânaughtyâ or âniceâ in American culture and how these norms developed. It could also illustrate that children in the U.S. are highly emotional, and that pathos can be an effective rhetorical tool for manipulation. To be fair, Santa is also a âmonsterâ who brings cheer, celebration, and reward. In this way, we can see the purpose of the double narrative for children and parents.
MONSTERS ADAPT TO THE NEEDS OF THE SITUATION.
![image of 12 different Jason masks from the Friday the 13th series](https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/4119/2022/09/Jason-300x240.png)
Monsters never truly die. Cohen claims that a monster can survive âcultural shiftsâ and that monsters are continually adapted and revised to meet the needs of the situation. In this way, a monster can âreturn in slightly different clothing, each time to be read against contemporary social movementsâ that give them ânew life in a modern rewritingâ (Cohen 5).
Monsters possess the ability to escape only to return at a later date (another opportune moment) to haunt again. Think of the movie franchise Friday the 13th. How many times will Jason Voorhees return from the dead to torture the poor camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake? Even his masks have endured cultural shifts to more effectively scare contemporary audiences.
![colored sketch of Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series](https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/4119/2022/09/harry-potter-300x220.png)
Likewise, language endures, and the stories we write will live on (and be revised) long after we are gone. For example, during the late 1600s, witches were feared, tortured, and killed in Colonial America. Puritans considered âblack magicâ to be an evil abomination of God. Their accusatory language caused mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts, and consequently, resulted in punishment, torture, and execution of women and men. However, in modern times, we have reframed the narratives to meet the shifting cultural landscape. We depict witches and wizards as beings (not quite humans, but not quite monsters) who fight evil and social injustice (think Harry Potter). Authors have created a successful pop culture of witchcraft and magic to be entertaining, heroic, and lucrative in print, television, and cinema (Hocus Pocus, Maleficent, Bewitched, The Craft, The Magicians, etc.) Doing so moves the audience to envy their magic and relate to the human challenges the characters face.
![purple cartoon image of the coronavirus wearing a face mask](https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/4119/2022/09/covid-300x300.png)
As Cohen puts it, cultural shifts are all about timing: âThe monster is born at [a] metaphoric crossroads, as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment â of a time, a feeling, and a placeâ (4). For example, think of the way weâve seen language give ânew lifeâ to the face mask in the U.S. What was once a simple device used for protection (and seldom talked about) has been recast to tell a story of political affiliation and protest during the Covid-19 pandemic. For some, the face mask is considered a monster with devious intentions to take away our rights. For others, the face mask is a hero that intercepts dangerous germs and keeps people safe. This double narrative shapes meaning, identity, and action (to wear or not to wear?). How will we feel about face masks in the future? Only time will tell.
WHAT DO MONSTERS REVEAL?
Humans are the real monsters, and language is our weapon.
![old sketch of a male and female slave on their knees holding up chained hands that reads, "Am I not a man and a brother, am I not a woman and a sister"](https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/4119/2022/09/slavery-300x215.png)
Monstrous rhetoric is used to justify law, policy, and punishment (Cohen 11). For example, the enslavement of Africans and their descendants was argued as âcrucialâ for physical labor, and vociferous supporters argued that emancipation could lead to economic and social collapse. When we erase the violence from the narrative, we fail to convey the true story: the devastation of family separation, the pain of stripping away names and identities, the denial of basic human rights, and the frustration and grief the slaves endured as they were forbidden from using their heritage languages. The fragmented history of slavery has lead to stories being lost, and those that we have are whitewashed (told by white people with the intent to conceal).
Along the same line, Cohen argues that a walk through the history books shows us how deceptive rhetoric (written strategically by those with power) frequently dehumanizes those who are different, labels and âothersâ them as monsters, and serves as a scapegoat to justify âcultural, political, ideological differences and biasesâ (7). Many people have chosen to portray Native Americans as uneducated, anti-Christian savages; black people as criminals; and Muslims as terrorists. Women, immigrants, and people of color are underrepresented and marginalized, which leaves a fragmented history of civilization.
![image of German anti-Jewish propaganda with a star of David saying "Jude" and a statement in German](https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/4119/2022/09/nazi-propaganda-300x203.png)
One doesnât have to stretch very far to think of the Holocaust as another example. In his book titled, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Adolf Hitler wrote, âWas there any form of filth or profligacy, particularly in cultural life, without at least one Jew involved in it? If you cut even cautiously into such an abscess, you found, like a maggot in a rotting body â often dazzled by the sudden light â a Kike.â (Kike is an offensive word for a Jewish person). The Nazi propaganda poster with the Jewish star reads, âWhoever wears this symbol is an enemy of our people.â
In his article âFighting Words: What We Can Learn from Hitlerâs Hyperbole,â Dr. Michael Blain paints a dismal picture of how Hitler used âfighting wordsâ in his speeches and propaganda in order to convince German youth to exterminate millions of Jewish people. Blain argues,
The violence and cruelty so characteristic of our species is rooted in the resources of hyperbolic [exaggerated] language. Hitler seems to have turned his âmaggotâ aphorism into a strategy to achieve his political objectives. He turned the Jews into racial âmonsters,â and, in fighting Jews, he became âmonstrous.â ⌠The Jews and Slavs were described as the murderers of everything the German masses identified as good, true, and beautiful. The Nazis talked themselves and then the German people into a war of revenge against âmurderousâ enemies, a war to determine who would govern Europe for the next thousand years. Hitler conceived the goals of the Nationalist Socialist movement in millennial terms. (258)
Indeed language matters, and it can literally kill people.
WHAT CAN MONSTERS TEACH US?
Monsters offer an opportunity for reflection, revision, and action. Cohenâs final message to readers is that we should embrace our monsters as a learning opportunity because they âbring not just a fuller knowledge of our place in history and the history of knowing our place, but they bear self-knowledge â human knowledge â and a discourse all the more sacred. ⌠These monsters ask us how we perceive the world, and how we have misrepresented what we have attempted to place. ⌠They ask us why we have created themâ (20). The monster âseeks out its author to demand its dâetre [reason for being] â and to bear witness to the fact it could have been constructed otherwiseâ (12).
Monsters require a rhetorical analysis, and rhetoric is âa way to investigate, understand, and use languageâ to analyze our monsters. This is not easy work. As SLCC English professors Chris Blankenship and Justin Jory write in their article âLanguage Matters,â âWorking with language is difficult and itâs messy. Itâs a skill you have to learn and practice [and] rhetoric gives you a framework to make that process easier. Itâs a method that you can use systematically as a way of revealing and handling the complexity of language.â
Monsters exemplify the narratives we live, and we have many different stories to tell. We all have monsters in our lives that haunt us. Itâs an inescapable part of being human. And, we cannot forget that we are the narrators of history. As such, we will need to make very important choices. As SLCC professor Charlotte Howe says in her article âWriters Make Strategic Choices,â âIf we want to be heard, understood, and perhaps even agreed with, we must make choices, develop strategies, and enact decisions that go beyond simply deciding what we want to say. We must choose the occasion â find just the right moment â to speak.â
![a sketch of a pen and a sword crossed, their sizes equal, and reading "The pen is mightier than the sword"](https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/4119/2022/09/pen-mightier-than-the-sword-280x300.png)
Language matters. We can choose to be ethical, credible, and responsible with our messaging (ethos). We can choose to use inclusive language. We can choose to respect and acknowledge diversity. We can choose not to spread false or biased information. We can choose to accurately represent evidence. We can choose to âreevaluate our cultural assumptions ⌠, our perception of difference, [and] our tolerance towards its expressionâ (Cohen 20).
Remember that monsters exist in many forms. And, what feeds them?
We do.
Works Cited
Blain, Michael. âFighting Words: What We Can Learn from Hitler’s Hyperbole.â Symbolic Interaction, vol. 11, no. 2, 1988, pp. 257â276. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/si.1988.11.2.257. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.
Blankenship, Chris and Jory, Justin. âLanguage Matters: A Rhetorical Look at Writing.â Open English at SLCC: Texts on Writing, Language, and Literacy. Pressbook. openenglishatslcc.pressbooks.com/chapter/language-matters-a-rhetorical-look-at-writing/. Accessed December 4, 2020.
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. “Monster Culture: Seven Theses.” Monster Theory: Reading Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996, pp. 3â25.
Howe, Charlotte. âWriters Make Strategic Choices.â Open English at SLCC: Texts on Writing, Language, and Literacy. Pressbook. openenglishatslcc.pressbooks.com/chapter/writers-make-strategic-choices/. Accessed November 27, 2020.
Word-cloud monster image created by the author on wordart.com.