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.