North American Monsters

North American Monsters

Author: David J. Puglia

Publisher: University Press of Colorado

Published: 2022-03-15

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1646421604

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Mining a mountain of folklore publications, North American Monsters unearths decades of notable monster research. Nineteen folkloristic case studies from the last half-century examine legendary monsters in their native habitats, focusing on ostensibly living creatures bound to specific geographic locales. A diverse cast of scholars contemplate these alluring creatures, feared and beloved by the communities that host them—the Jersey Devil gliding over the Pine Barrens, Lieby wriggling through Lake Lieberman, Char-Man stalking the Ojai Valley, and many, many more. Embracing local stories, beliefs, and traditions while neither promoting nor debunking, North American Monsters aspires to revive scholarly interest in local legendary monsters and creatures and to encourage folkloristic monster legend sleuthing.


Monsters

Monsters

Author: David D. Gilmore

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2012-05-26

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0812203224

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The human mind needs monsters. In every culture and in every epoch in human history, from ancient Egypt to modern Hollywood, imaginary beings have haunted dreams and fantasies, provoking in young and old shivers of delight, thrills of terror, and endless fascination. All known folklores brim with visions of looming and ferocious monsters, often in the role as adversaries to great heroes. But while heroes have been closely studied by mythologists, monsters have been neglected, even though they are equally important as pan-human symbols and reveal similar insights into ways the mind works. In Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors, anthropologist David D. Gilmore explores what human traits monsters represent and why they are so ubiquitous in people's imaginations and share so many features across different cultures. Using colorful and absorbing evidence from virtually all times and places, Monsters is the first attempt by an anthropologist to delve into the mysterious, frightful abyss of mythical beasts and to interpret their role in the psyche and in society. After many hair-raising descriptions of monstrous beings in art, folktales, fantasy, literature, and community ritual, including such avatars as Dracula and Frankenstein, Hollywood ghouls, and extraterrestrials, Gilmore identifies many common denominators and proposes some novel interpretations. Monsters, according to Gilmore, are always enormous, man-eating, gratuitously violent, aggressive, sexually sadistic, and superhuman in power, combining our worst nightmares and our most urgent fantasies. We both abhor and worship our monsters: they are our gods as well as our demons. Gilmore argues that the immortal monster of the mind is a complex creation embodying virtually all of the inner conflicts that make us human. Far from being something alien, nonhuman, and outside us, our monsters are our deepest selves.


Monsters and Monarchs

Monsters and Monarchs

Author: Debbie Felton

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2021-07-27

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 1477323570

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Jack the Ripper. Jeffrey Dahmer. John Wayne Gacy. Locusta of Gaul. If that last name doesn’t seem to fit with the others, it’s likely because our modern society largely believes that serial killers are a recent phenomenon. Not so, argues Debbie Felton—in fact, there’s ample evidence to show that serial killers stalked the ancient world just as they do the modern one. Felton brings this evidence to light in Monsters and Monarchs, and in doing so, forces us to rethink assumptions about serial killers arising from the decadence of modern society. Exploring a trove of stories from classical antiquity, she uncovers mythological monsters and human criminals that fit many serial killer profiles: the highway killers confronted by the Greek hero Theseus, such as Procrustes, who torture and mutilate their victims; the Sphinx, or “strangler,” from the story of Oedipus; child-killing demons and witches that could explain abnormal infant deaths; and historical figures such as Locusta of Gaul, the most notorious poisoner in the early Roman Empire. Redefining our understanding of serial killers and their origins, Monsters and Monarchs changes how we view both ancient Greek and Roman society and the modern-day killers whose stories still captivate the public today.


Monsters and Their Meanings in Early Modern Culture

Monsters and Their Meanings in Early Modern Culture

Author: Wes Williams

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-05-26

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0199577021

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Wes Williams explores the place of monsters in the early modern imagination, charting the migration of the monstrous from natural history to moral philosophy, from descriptions of creatures found in the external world to the drama of human motivation, of sexual and political identity. At its centre are readings of major works of French literature.


The Brick Monster

The Brick Monster

Author: Harry Pope

Publisher: Andrews UK Limited

Published: 2011-12-21

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 1849899576

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Let your imagination feed on itself as a Brick Monster comes to live under the sidewalk of a seaside resort. He has anti-social eating habits, bad breath, is thrown out by his parents and at the tender age of 58 has to fend for himself. The Brick Monster finds new friends, eats a Mermaid, and then falls in love. Author Harry Pope brings together a range of characters, situations and humour that children and adults will find enjoyable


Legends and Lore of the North Shore

Legends and Lore of the North Shore

Author: Peter Muise

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2014-07-15

Total Pages: 141

ISBN-13: 1625850484

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For over three hundred years, stories of witches, sea serpents and pirates have amazed and terrified residents of Massachusetts's North Shore. In the summer of 1692, phantom men were spotted in the fields of Gloucester. Farther north, "A" marks the spot for pirate treasure in the marshes of Newbury, while to the east, full moons might bring out the werewolf of Dogtown. The devil himself has burned his mark on the boulder-strewn landscape, while shaggy humanoids have been sighted loping along the coast. From Boston to New Hampshire, Massachusetts's North Shore is filled with remarkable stories and legendary characters. Join author Peter Muise and discover the North Shore's uncanny legends and tales of the paranormal.


Myths & Monsters of Reston, Virginia

Myths & Monsters of Reston, Virginia

Author: Eric MacDicken

Publisher: Eric MacDicken

Published: 2016-10-13

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780997314137

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Every town has myths, but not every town has monsters. Reston, Virginia could be the most monstered town in all the world! At least according to the recently unearthed journal of the scholarly yet skittish Dr. Padraigin W. Thalmeus, PDS. Join us and discover the supernatural creatures he faced on his perilous quest for a legendary hidden treasure!


Monster Anthropology in Australasia and Beyond

Monster Anthropology in Australasia and Beyond

Author: Y. Musharbash

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-11-19

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1137448652

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Offering a dialogue between anthropology and literature, culture, and media, this book presents fine-grained ethnographic vignettes of monsters dwelling in the contemporary world. These monsters hail from Aboriginal Australia, the Pacific, Asia, and Europe, and their presence is inextricably intertwined with the lives of those they haunt.