Greek Monsters

                Monsters have been an important part of culture since the beginning of time. Monsters were seen in religion, stories, etc. One culture in specific that monsters played a huge role in was ancient Greece.  In Greek mythology, there were many gods and heroes that the people worshiped, but also, there were many monsters that tried to defeat the hero’s and the Gods. Not only are monsters used for entertainment purposes, but were an important part of the Greek people’s everyday life.  These intriguing monsters played a huge role in Greek mythology and are a huge reason that it has such a large appeal. Greek monsters are even seen in today’s world in books, movies, television, and more. Mythology was created in order to answer questions such as “who were the first men on earth?” and “who created the world?” but more importantly, mythology was used to justify aspects of the social system as well as account for certain traditions in the society in which the myths existed. Greek Mythology was an important part of everyday life in ancient Greece. They were used to explain everything from religion, weather, and aspects of the world around them. At the same time, some could argue that the Greek Gods and Monsters could not explain the ways of life.

 

In this paper, I will attempt to research the different types of the monsters that existed in Greek Mythology, their history and background, as well as how they tied in to religion, the world around the Greeks, as well as events in everyday life. At the same time, I will take a look at the counterargument that these monsters did not explain these things. Some other questions I will answer are what is a Greek monster? what makes monsters from Greek mythology so interesting? what aspects of life are explained? what aspects of life aren't explained? what effect does Greek mythology have on modern day society?

Rap

In Rose's article about crime and you black rappers, we got the main ideas that media overexcites news about crime, and often, associate young black males with said crimes. The reason, she believes, that black males are associated with these crimes is because of rap music. She claims that most rap music involves lyrics that include various crimes, such as drugs, theft, murder, etc. Rose also says that these lyrics only support stereotypes that go along with young black males. The stereotype being that black males are criminals. All these lyrics do is make even more people believe in these stereotypes. Rap music in turn, makes black males "easily identifiable villan's of news media crimes.

I would personally agree with what she says. Writing lyrics about doing illegal things, is not going to help people move on from racial stereotypes. I personally hate rap music for that reason. I don't feel like there's any need to write about things like doing drugs, degrading women, and many other similar topics. I do know that not all rap is about that, but a lot of it is. If you don't want people to judge you and make stereotypes, don't do things to make people believe those things. For example in Biggie Smalls' song "Juicy" he talks about how he rose up from racial segregation and made a name for himself. he also talks about how young black males are given a bad reputation. Yet, he raps about doing drugs, and in his other song, Big Pappa, talks about degrading women. Therefore, not helping his case whatsoever. In order to move on from stereotypes, people need to change the way people feel by perhaps writing more positive, non violent, lyrics.

American Horror Story

The show "American Horror Story" which premiers on FX, is a series that focuses on the idea of monstrosity and takes different looks at its ideas and definitions and uses them in various scenarios. In the clip that we watched in class, which was taken from the first episode of the shows second season, "Asylum" we are taken inside of a 20th century asylum where we follow the tale of a man accused of being the legendary "Blood Face" Given the three quotes that we were supposed to analyze, the one that I chose was the third one which stated "The monster is continually linked to forbidden practices, in order to normalize and to enforce. The monster also attracts. The same creatures who terrify and interdict can evoke potent escapist fantasies; the linking of monstrosity with the forbidden makes the monster all the more appealing as a temporary egress from constraint... We distrust and loathe the monster at the same time we envy its freedom, and perhaps its sublime despair" which was taken from Cohen's piece.

There are multiple scenes from the clip that we watched that both support and disagree with this quote. The quote says that "The same creatures who terrify, and interdict can evoke potent escapist fantasies, the linking of monstrosity with the forbidden makes the monster all more appealing". The main male character in this clip is a great example of tis quote. He is labeled as "Bloody Face" who allegedly killed his wife, however, he doesn't look like much of a monster, but rather a normal looking and perhaps good looking, which makes him more appealing to the audience. This also apples to the character Grace, who was accused of chopping up her family. A part of this quote that I disagree with is "...at the same time, we envy its freedom and perhaps its sublime despair" the reason that I disagree with this quote is because in these scenes, the monsters have little to no freedom and are locked up in a mental institution. This is something that no viewers would be envious of, unless that for some reason someone would want to be kept in a 1960's asylum.  

Twilight Comparison

When the series Twilight came out, it changed our views of vampires forever. The vampires that we saw in the series were nothing like the vampires that we were used to from stories such as "Dracula". Because of this new view on monstrosity, the movies sparked many new questions and views. Aside from raising questions of monstrosity, the movie also raised issues about sex, the power of women, and much much more. If we take a look at the articles "Bite Me! (Or Don't)" by Christine Seifert, "After 'Twilight': Where Do Vampires in Pop Culture Go From Here?" by Scott Meslow, and "Twilight Is Not Good For Maidens" by Anna Silver, we can see 3 different views on the series and the questions and theories that they raise.

Focusing first on the article from Seifert, she takes a big look at the issue of sexuality in the novels. She uses the term "Abstinence Porn" to describe her view of the first book in the series. She starts off the article by saying "Abstinence has never been sexier than it is in Stephenie Meyer's young adult four-book Twilight series." Her main idea is that the idea of abstinence goes so far in the first book to the point to where its almost just as good as actual sex. However, starting with the second novel, the sexual relationship between Edward and Bella becomes a rather big part of the story, having sex in the first few chapters of the book. Even though they are married at this point, they are still very young and given the audience of the series, It leaves a bad impression on the young teens of our generation, putting importance on sexual activities. Here, the first book references the importance of abstinence, only to throw that all away in the beginning of the second novel .

In Meslows article, He talks about the actual evolution of the vampire. He talks about how Meyer changed the entire genre of vampires with her books. She did so by targeting the most neglected vampire audience, teenage girls, and she did a good job at it. Creating such a romance story and exciting sexual relationships drew in the attention almost every teenage girl in existence. He claims that the genre will never be the same. 

Silver focuses more on the negatives of the novel. The issues of feminism. She claims that the novel gives young women a bad image. Bella rely's too much on Edward and is basically powerless without him. It makes it seem like girls need men in order to be safe and sufficient, which gives a very bad impression on a big audience of the novel, teenage girls. 

One thing that all three of these articles had in common, was the ideas of how the series has impacted the teenage girls who are the main audience of the books. Mostly, they all agree that there were some pretty bad ideas from the books that were very impressionable on the audience. Ideas of abstinence which were basically ripped away after the first book, and how the ideas of sexual relationships are made to be exciting and something that girls would want. And of course, ideas about how women need men and how they are powerless without them, which is the exact opposite of what women have been saying in recent years about how they can be independent and sucessful without the help of men.

Monster Theory

After reading through Jeffery Cohen's "Monster Thoery (Seven Theses)" The specific thesis that I found most interesting was thesis Number 7. This thesis states that "The Monster Stands at the Threshold...of Becoming" I think what Cohen is trying to say with this thesis is that Monsters have no limitations. They can be pushed to the edge and basically have no boundaries. At the same time, when we take a look at monsters, we can get a better look at the knowledge of human beings of the time period that a monster is created and we can get a look at how things were viewed during that time period. Monsters are created by human beings and the term monster is a man made term, meaning that we created its definition and we created the idea of a monster to begin with. Over time, we have seen this definition change several times. For example, we have much different views about monsters then the views that existed during the creation of Dracula. If we compare the first ever vampire, and compare that to our modern day vampires, such as the ones from Twilight, we see significant differences. This relates back to Cohens Thesis because he is saying that the characteristics of monsters are based on the knowledge that we have as humans, and as our knowledge expands, the concept of monsters will also be more complex.

Overall, I would agree with this specific thesis. I personally think that our idea of monsters will forever be continued to be expanded. The possibilities are basically endless for what can define a monster. I think throughout our life times, and in future generations, the monster will evolve even more and more questions will be answered, and raised. Monstrosity is a very complex idea that is yet to be fully understood. I think it will be interesting to see where our ideas of monstrosity will go in the future.

Textual Analysis

For my Textual analysis, I decided to use the first thing that came to mind when I thought of the word monster, and that is the television show Dexter, that is shown on Primetime. I am a huge fan of the show and the word and definition of "monster" are brought up and questioned several times throughout the series. For those who are unfamiliar with the show, it features a Blood Spatter Analyst who is also a serial killer. Due to the teachings of his father and knowledge in the criminal justice system and in forensics as well as his access to police resources, he is able to cover up all of his crimes. Despite being a murder, the audience tends to side with Dexter and root for him because of the fact that he only kills people who deserve it, other murders who murder innocent people.

I find the topic of monstorisity interesting in this show because Dexter often questions his own monstrosity and we question weather or not Dexter truly is a monster. If indeed he is a monster, the show gives us an inside look on the life of a monster and the emotions and feelings that he goes through. For my paper, I decided to take a look at one particular episode of the show from the second season titled "theres something about Harry" where Dexter learns interesting things about his fathers death and questions his part in his discovery. This in turn makes Dexter question his own monstrosity. can he live with knowing the things that he's done? can he protect the people he cares about even if he's a monster? these are all great questions that are raised that I look forward to further discussing.