monster
the domestic minx
31 Comments
There must have been 60 of them.
Hard, grey and shrivelled, they sat in formation, poised as if awaiting further instructions, as they hugged the wall.
Once moist and full of promise, their very pith had been squeezed from them as the rolling and squeezing of their essence rendered them lifeless; inanimate trophies of crude decoration. But their purpose served a higher purpose, claimed my little brother, whose vile and forbidding booger collection stood proudly above the bed.
They were a talisman against evil.
An amulet against malevolence.
Cross my heart and hope to die!
His boogie collection was a gris gris for The BoogeyMan.
Were you scared of the Boogeyman as a child?
What was it that chilled you to the bone?
Was it the lurking figure under the bed, the shadow by the door, the Nosferatu tapping at the window?
As a child I was both paralysed and fascinated by The Monster.
While scared shitless, I wanted still to see the beast, to feel it, to immerse myself in the darkness of it's shadow.
I needed the volume.
How can one appreciate light without something to contrast it with?
What is light without dark? What is white without black?
There are lessons in stories and I didn't want hush and I didn't want whitewash in the fables found in my fairytales.
I needed to see the spectrum, from one extreme to another.
From black to white with a big splash of blood red.
Oh, how I feared, yet longed to see, the monster.
We need monsters like we need heroes.
From time immemorial there have been tales told of Him.
Monsters were used by primitive man to explain Nature, the eating of the day by the night, the changing of the seasons, the cycle of life and death, the punishment of evil by something greater.
They explain those horrible parts of us that we clamour to explain, the darkness that defies description, the darkness that adds balance to the light.
An oral tradition, fairytales encompassing archetypes of Good versus Evil, Hero versus Villain, were told around the hearth, often via the travelling cobbler or tailor in the family, and inevitably woven around the experiences and journeyings of such people. The entertainment value of their stories were naturally based on the contexts of their contemporary situation; there were kings and queens, dark forests and castles, famine and pestilence. There would be moments of sheer brutality to titillate the adults and unveiled threats of retribution to scare disobedient children into misbehaving.
It was natural then that there should be a Monster.
A Troll. A Big Bad Wolf. A Rumplestiltskin. An Evil Step Mother.
For monsters teach us something about ourselves. They tap directly into our spirituality and consciousness and they reveal the dark side that exists not only within each of us, but within the dark and dirty side of our society. There are lessons to be learned through the instigation of fear and the probing of our insecurities, our weaknesses and our wickedness.
How many references to a dark sensuality, a corrupt and devouring sexuality hidden behind a handsome and seductive visage, can you find within the Big Bad Wolf?
Do you know such a person? Perhaps your experience is more insidious. Is this infamy an Institution?
The increasing complexity of society has seen the invention and subsequent use of monsters to explain a multitude of psychoses and archetypes.
Fairytales, the inevitable storytelling vehicle of the monster have provided a plethora of Freudian dissections. How better to describe the unmentionable and incomprehensible side of the human psyche than through the model of the monster?
The fairytale, with it's good, it's bad, it's protagonist and villain, is a deep and fascinating fable on the morality of man.
Not surprisingly, my fascination with the fairytale has continued into adulthood.
Not for me the sanitized, whitewashed, Disneyfied shit on Nickelodean of course, but the dark and cautionary tales as they were intended to be told. Brutality juxtaposed with innocence, dark with light, good with evil. A delicious and dangerous commentary on our psychosis and fears. While I see them in example every day, enacted in the motions of poor mortals, most cruelly conspicuous in the newspaper and on the television, I love to see the splendour of a beautiful and barbarous tale, rich in imagery and fable, told exquisitely in a manner mesmerizing and marvellous.
Last night I watched Pan's Labyrith (El Laberinto del Fauno) and I am still mesmerized.
A gothic fairytale set against the postwar repression of Franco’s Spain, it is both spellbindingly beautiful and brutal.
"Dark, dreamlike and dangerous, it is a fairytale every bit as scary and moving as they were always meant to be. In both the real world and the fantasy underworld she discovers, our heroine Ofelia must battle against the most twisted, nightmarish evils to survive. Transcendent, passionate, full of beauty and endlessly affecting, this is without question the movie of the year." 1
While there is exquisite terror and some vile visions of evil throughout the tale, Pan himself remains gloriously ambiguous, almost frighteningly neutral.
In his role as storyteller, director Guillermo del Toro, weaves a spell, pulling us into the labyrinth of a story rich in imagery, fable and lesson.
It is the fairytale told in all it's delicious glory.
Oh and it is obvious who the monster is, throughout the film.
He is cold, calculating and callous. He is infinitely ruthless and brutal.
Oh, he is a Monster.
The worst kind.
He is human.
As for Guillermo del Toro, dear readers. I think I am in love with him. He is a god.
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Reader Comments (31)
Domestic Minx, Your Creme Brulee is waiting for you at my wordpress site. Please come and get it.
http://skdd.wordpress.com
Yes. I am not so much afraid of the B_____man guy (I don't like to say his name because he might hear me) as I used to be. Although I haven't seen this movie I plan to watch it while holding Joe's hand. Deep down I'm still a little kid. Your photos are so incredible. Where may I get some too? Great post today!
I was, and STILL AM, very afraid of the B___ man. I still get scared in the middle of the night when I hear a noise, and I still run from my bathroom to my bed, and jump so that whatever may be lurking underneath my bed doesn't grab my feet.
fear fear fear...hum flirting with it is a great feeling...brings you to life in a strange way...I will be watching your suggestion. :-)
Theresa,
I am salivating at the very thought of creme brulee!
I will be over directly.
Put that kettle on, darling!!
As for the Boogeyman. His human presence is much more frightening...
Do watch the movie. It is gorgeous.
Although it was more deliciously disturbing than frightening, I had no one's hand to hold but my own...
my husband is more fearful of the Boogeyman than I am.
(now I will whisper so that he doesn't hear me...)
xx
Meleah,
I am frightened and fascinated all at the same time.
Exhilarated even!!
(Perhaps, after years of spending weeks at a time by myself with two little ones to defend I have grown testicles of steel..small, invisible, girlie ones...)
xx
Fear is a deliciously enlivening experience, isn't it Sylvie!
It is like an electric shock!!
I plan on watching the movie over and over just to wallow in it's beauty and explore the layers of meaning...
xx
Being bold and brave and endowed with a massive pair of balls, the Boogeyman can't scare me.
Not unless it's dark that is.
Our deepest fears lay in the dark, don't they Eddie?
x
when i was young, i had many a fearful fantasy...
when i wasn't so young, i lived many of them out...
and now that i am older,
i fear not, as i have lived thru the worst,
and the best is yet to come.......
Of all the evils released by the opening of Pandora's Box, the only thing left behind when it was closed was Hope.
I know you've met the Boogeyman several times, Paisley and a variety of monsters in between...
You have passed through the Dark Woods and are well deserving of meeting a Hero now.
I wish I was a Fairy and could grant you Three Wishes.
xxx
I am both terrified and intrigued by this movie, have added it to my Netflix queue and intend to watch it with my monster-slayer beside me, a bottle of wine for courage, and a fluffy pillow at the ready should I need to cover my eyes at any moment.
Rapunzel,
It is brutal and beautiful.
There is no gratuitous violence, but it is graphic -and essential...
I'm sure you will love it like I did.
Keep monster slayer, courage and comfort at the ready.
xx
Wonderful movie, wonderful post, and hurrah for small steely girly testicles. Where can I order some?
Hello darling Michelle,
I'm so glad you liked the movie too!!
And hurrah indeed for small girlie testicles!!
I will assist you in their fashioning...
All you need is one part delusion and
two parts bravado.
Stir together in a big pot of je ne sais quoi.
Roll in palms of hand into small, girlie testicular shape and allow to cool.
Conversely, the cold light of day will encourage them to swell to enormous size, whereas moments under pressure may result in shrinkage and withering...
There's nothing like the real thing in an emergency...
xx
The monsters aren't scary people they're scared people
Minx I just cant do horror films because I get scared. I like happy endings.
There are some pretty scary scared people out there, aren't there, Thinista...
In PL the bad guy is really very horrible, but suffering deep down from a very bad case of pathos...
Not that I could muster pity....
xx
Oh darling Norman,
I will hold your hand...
It's not really Horror, as such...
But the happy ending is ambiguous...
xx
What an absolutely wonderful post! I love to play on the dark side...
I will never forget the impression 'The Labyrinth' left on me as a little girl. I saw it with my father and it was surely the most darkly dreadful thing I had seen thus far in my little life... I was very young.
After the film we walked back to my father's downtown office to collect the car, and we passed a labyrinth pattern painted on the wall of his building... had it been there before? To this day, I do not think so.