Time to Make-a-Monster! (Click Pics for Link) What makes a terrifying monster? (Note: Monsters, have multiple interpretations and meanings based on the context they are used in. For example: Fear, Beauty) A terrifying monster, to me, has a sprinkle of subtle, unsightly features, such as disproportioned eyes, a twitching lip, petrifying teeth; but the terrorizing monsters have that extra cherry on top to fully compliment the cake, in other words, these monsters not only have an external involvement with me, but a personal relationship as well. To help explain these texts, these next vivid, personal scenes will describe my personal involvements with monsters, and my connections from these texts to my world. Our Textual Sources (Click Word for More Info): |
"The Kraken and Our Monsters Ourselves" (EQ #1, 2, 3)
My Personal Experience:
One night, after watching a scary movie with a group of my sister's friends, to validate my "manliness." I found myself ravaging through the stairs as my glistening sweat rushed down my face, in the darkness of the middle of the night, which was a horrific experience for me especially since I was terrified by the dark, ever since childhood.
Ever since that day, I go out of my way to not put myself back into the position of where I have to travel through the darkness in the middle of the night. I avoid all interaction or prevent myself to not face my fear and to not put myself through that predicament again.
"It's just darkness, what's the big deal?," I hear that one phrase from all my friends, and I don't have any reasonable answer. (Look to the bottom for the actual answer and the answer I should have gave)
I think to myself, "I don't have any reasonable answer that will make me sound not like a complete wuss." As a result, I got the mindset of making a monster or creating a monster out of darkness, a monster that could engulf me with one bite. I essentially added a face to darkness, to give me an escape or scapegoat from the criticism, I would have felt by just being scared of the darkness.
"I thought to myself, "If I don't confront it, It won't do anything to me."
Connections to "The Kraken":
I touched on this topic briefly on my previous blog post, "The 2-Option Survival Guide toward Monsters."
Basically, there are two options when faced with a confrontation with monsters:
The route I chosen in my response to my problem was the more popular short-term answer, avoid confrontation. Like, "What doesn't hurt me makes me stronger...Right?"
Wrong....
Like the myth "The Kraken," Fear and "The Kraken" go hand-in-hand, they are perpetual, mystical creatures.
Human Nature's Use of "The Kraken" to Symbolize Fear: To clarify, "The Kraken," is just a visible representation of fear itself, it allows us to portray a tangible aspect of fear. As a result, I view monsters and representations of personal fears as interchangeable, as a monster puts a face to fear itself. Similarly, in my personal fear of darkness, I not only did I create a tangible image to fear itself, I created a monster to symbolize my personal fear.
Human Nature's Response to Fears as seen in "The Kraken.": The first quote, describes essentially the time period- the perpetual, timeless mystical phenomenon of "The Kraken."- also, the term "uninvaded," implies that people usually avoided confrontation with there fears like mine. The second quote, also very similar, demonstrates not only the perpetual aspect of the kraken, but also the term, "will lie," in the future tense, implies that fears will lie forever as seen in my removal of confrontations with my fear until its interrupted, which leads us to our final quote. Once "seen" or confronted, these fears will rise out and "die."
Human Nature's Use of Monsters as Scapegoats as seen in "Our Monsters Ourselves":
As touched on in "The Kraken and Our Monsters Ourselves," Monsters are popularly used as scapegoats sometimes, rather than visual representations. "A tangible object," to blame for the problems of fear and reality. Similarly, in my personal experience with darkness, I not only had a fear for darkness, I also had a fear of the criticism I would get as a byproduct of my childhood, fear of darkness. As a result, Once confronted with darkness, I not only disregarded my actual fear of darkness, but rather replaced it with a fear of the monster that lies in darkness, similar to how the "The Kraken," lies in the "abysmal sea."
Summary: Specifically on "The Kraken," and my personal fear, Monsters are created, in two ways: used as a tangible, visible representation of fear or can be used as a scapegoat for a problem in reality, but for the elimination of fears; the two-options include avoiding confrontation or eliminating the fear.
Conversation between my Friend and I on My Personal Fear (Contd.):
Friend: "Its just darkness, what's the big deal?"
Me (My Actual Response): "Umm... you know... Slender Man scares me."
Me (My Future Response): "Nothing...I confronted my fears."
One night, after watching a scary movie with a group of my sister's friends, to validate my "manliness." I found myself ravaging through the stairs as my glistening sweat rushed down my face, in the darkness of the middle of the night, which was a horrific experience for me especially since I was terrified by the dark, ever since childhood.
Ever since that day, I go out of my way to not put myself back into the position of where I have to travel through the darkness in the middle of the night. I avoid all interaction or prevent myself to not face my fear and to not put myself through that predicament again.
"It's just darkness, what's the big deal?," I hear that one phrase from all my friends, and I don't have any reasonable answer. (Look to the bottom for the actual answer and the answer I should have gave)
I think to myself, "I don't have any reasonable answer that will make me sound not like a complete wuss." As a result, I got the mindset of making a monster or creating a monster out of darkness, a monster that could engulf me with one bite. I essentially added a face to darkness, to give me an escape or scapegoat from the criticism, I would have felt by just being scared of the darkness.
"I thought to myself, "If I don't confront it, It won't do anything to me."
Connections to "The Kraken":
I touched on this topic briefly on my previous blog post, "The 2-Option Survival Guide toward Monsters."
Basically, there are two options when faced with a confrontation with monsters:
- Avoid Confrontation, (Short-Term Answer)
- Confront and Eliminate these "Monsters" (Long-Term Answer)
The route I chosen in my response to my problem was the more popular short-term answer, avoid confrontation. Like, "What doesn't hurt me makes me stronger...Right?"
Wrong....
Like the myth "The Kraken," Fear and "The Kraken" go hand-in-hand, they are perpetual, mystical creatures.
- "His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep." (Tennyson 3)
- "There hath he lain for ages, and will lie." (Tennyson 11)
- "Then once by man and angels to be seen, in roaring he shall rise and die." (Tennyson 14-15)
Human Nature's Use of "The Kraken" to Symbolize Fear: To clarify, "The Kraken," is just a visible representation of fear itself, it allows us to portray a tangible aspect of fear. As a result, I view monsters and representations of personal fears as interchangeable, as a monster puts a face to fear itself. Similarly, in my personal fear of darkness, I not only did I create a tangible image to fear itself, I created a monster to symbolize my personal fear.
Human Nature's Response to Fears as seen in "The Kraken.": The first quote, describes essentially the time period- the perpetual, timeless mystical phenomenon of "The Kraken."- also, the term "uninvaded," implies that people usually avoided confrontation with there fears like mine. The second quote, also very similar, demonstrates not only the perpetual aspect of the kraken, but also the term, "will lie," in the future tense, implies that fears will lie forever as seen in my removal of confrontations with my fear until its interrupted, which leads us to our final quote. Once "seen" or confronted, these fears will rise out and "die."
Human Nature's Use of Monsters as Scapegoats as seen in "Our Monsters Ourselves":
- "On another level, our continued interest in monsters undoubtedly reveals our desire to find a scapegoat for our fears and anxieties."
As touched on in "The Kraken and Our Monsters Ourselves," Monsters are popularly used as scapegoats sometimes, rather than visual representations. "A tangible object," to blame for the problems of fear and reality. Similarly, in my personal experience with darkness, I not only had a fear for darkness, I also had a fear of the criticism I would get as a byproduct of my childhood, fear of darkness. As a result, Once confronted with darkness, I not only disregarded my actual fear of darkness, but rather replaced it with a fear of the monster that lies in darkness, similar to how the "The Kraken," lies in the "abysmal sea."
Summary: Specifically on "The Kraken," and my personal fear, Monsters are created, in two ways: used as a tangible, visible representation of fear or can be used as a scapegoat for a problem in reality, but for the elimination of fears; the two-options include avoiding confrontation or eliminating the fear.
Conversation between my Friend and I on My Personal Fear (Contd.):
Friend: "Its just darkness, what's the big deal?"
Me (My Actual Response): "Umm... you know... Slender Man scares me."
Me (My Future Response): "Nothing...I confronted my fears."
"The Birthmark and the Eye of the Beholder" (EQ # 1, 2)
Drumroll Please....
Assuming if all answers are 100% accurate and reflective of today's society, the most popular choice would be definitely be Girl A.
But, the underlying reasons for the popular choice, might not be that easy to distinguish.
Firstly, let's analyze the word "Beautiful."
Denotation: "Pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically"
Connotation: "I think of paradise, sunshine, flowers"
As we can see, the denotation of "beautiful," is definitely different compared to my connotation of the word, so "beautiful," will have various and multiple meanings and interpretations depending on the person's habits, hobbies, and personality since it literally means the pleasing of senses.
Now let's apply this to the visual sense only, keep in mind, this exercise merely demonstrates the theory I developed on my previous blog post, as women are the best choices to represent "beautiful," as seen in the subjects in "The Birthmark," and "The Eye of the Beholder."
Note: In this sense, Monsters in terms of beauty, represents the people whose ideal of a perfect society, is uniformity and flawlessness throughout the people.
Now, let's analyze the word "Flawless."
Denotation: "Without any blemishes or imperfections"
Connotation: "I think of 100% not human"
Now, specifically focused on my connotation of the word, "not human," I mean that all humans regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, all have flaws and blemishes. My views are the opposite of the views of the main protagonists in "The Birthmark," and "The Eye of the Beholder. As I was wrong in my approach to fears, I was right in my approach to beauty.
While, the doctors in "Eye of the Beholder," demonstrate flawlessness and uniformity as a societal virtue, while the outlier such as the woman, is viewed, as "ugly," because of her different external appearance and her "apparent flaws."
Assuming if all answers are 100% accurate and reflective of today's society, the most popular choice would be definitely be Girl A.
But, the underlying reasons for the popular choice, might not be that easy to distinguish.
Firstly, let's analyze the word "Beautiful."
Denotation: "Pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically"
Connotation: "I think of paradise, sunshine, flowers"
As we can see, the denotation of "beautiful," is definitely different compared to my connotation of the word, so "beautiful," will have various and multiple meanings and interpretations depending on the person's habits, hobbies, and personality since it literally means the pleasing of senses.
Now let's apply this to the visual sense only, keep in mind, this exercise merely demonstrates the theory I developed on my previous blog post, as women are the best choices to represent "beautiful," as seen in the subjects in "The Birthmark," and "The Eye of the Beholder."
Note: In this sense, Monsters in terms of beauty, represents the people whose ideal of a perfect society, is uniformity and flawlessness throughout the people.
Now, let's analyze the word "Flawless."
Denotation: "Without any blemishes or imperfections"
Connotation: "I think of 100% not human"
Now, specifically focused on my connotation of the word, "not human," I mean that all humans regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, all have flaws and blemishes. My views are the opposite of the views of the main protagonists in "The Birthmark," and "The Eye of the Beholder. As I was wrong in my approach to fears, I was right in my approach to beauty.
- "No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect of a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection." (Hawthorne 4)
While, the doctors in "Eye of the Beholder," demonstrate flawlessness and uniformity as a societal virtue, while the outlier such as the woman, is viewed, as "ugly," because of her different external appearance and her "apparent flaws."
- My Conclusion: Humans are especially designed to have certain imperfections, blemishes, and flaws..this is what make us humans, but the humans that turn into unnatural radicals such as the doctors and Aylmer, who try to change imperfections of someone, are the real monsters.. not the people who are different.
- The Correct Answer to the Poll: Thinking in an Aylmer mindset, the answer would be A, because he thinks beautiful=flawlessness and perfection. But, the correct answer is C, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and beautifulness does not have a direct correlation with flawlessness.
"The Lucifer Effect" (EQ #1)
"The Lucifer Effect?"-
(Click Here for More Info About the Lucifer Effect) (Click Here for More Info About the Stanford Prison Experiment)
The Lucifer Effect is the "ideology" behind what makes good people do evil things. Between our lifetimes, human existence will witness and be a victim of strict ideology and evil acts. The Lucifer Effects helps explain why normal people under certain harsh circumstances will be tempted to do evil acts.
To best visualize "The Lucifer Effect," look at the picture above, which demonstrates every human's conscience, the little voice in human's head, has two sides to it, as seen in this picture. The hardest thing to control in human history, is the bad side of human's subconscience, which demonstrated in this picture can emerge under the right circumstances.
"Circumstances," is the key word here, "What Circumstances?"
Examples of these Circumstances: The Stanford Experiment
The Stanford Experiment, was an experiment perpetuated for the sole purpose in finding out the "ideology," behind what makes good people do bad things, as two test groups were constructed, one acting as the guards, while the other test group were the prisoners. During this experiment, the results were shocking as the guards acted in such a way, including placing bags on top of the heads of the "prisoners," as well as forcing them to strip naked. This can also be seen in some of the prison camps in Iraq.
The Circumstances in both Events: Prison-like and Harsh Conditions, which resulted in the brutal mistreatment of others since Prisons are circumstances where the balance of power is so unequal, mistreatment is inevitable.
Dr. Phillip G. Zimbardo, a leader of the Stanford Prison Experiment, summed up how circumstances influence humans' decisions:
"It's not that we put bad apples into a good barrel, we put good apples into a bad barrel, where the barrel corrupts anything it touches." (Zimbardo 11)
Summary: To directly answer the question, the circumstances deviate one's ability to do bad things, as seen in the Stanford Prison Experiment.
(Click Here for More Info About the Lucifer Effect) (Click Here for More Info About the Stanford Prison Experiment)
The Lucifer Effect is the "ideology" behind what makes good people do evil things. Between our lifetimes, human existence will witness and be a victim of strict ideology and evil acts. The Lucifer Effects helps explain why normal people under certain harsh circumstances will be tempted to do evil acts.
To best visualize "The Lucifer Effect," look at the picture above, which demonstrates every human's conscience, the little voice in human's head, has two sides to it, as seen in this picture. The hardest thing to control in human history, is the bad side of human's subconscience, which demonstrated in this picture can emerge under the right circumstances.
"Circumstances," is the key word here, "What Circumstances?"
Examples of these Circumstances: The Stanford Experiment
The Stanford Experiment, was an experiment perpetuated for the sole purpose in finding out the "ideology," behind what makes good people do bad things, as two test groups were constructed, one acting as the guards, while the other test group were the prisoners. During this experiment, the results were shocking as the guards acted in such a way, including placing bags on top of the heads of the "prisoners," as well as forcing them to strip naked. This can also be seen in some of the prison camps in Iraq.
The Circumstances in both Events: Prison-like and Harsh Conditions, which resulted in the brutal mistreatment of others since Prisons are circumstances where the balance of power is so unequal, mistreatment is inevitable.
Dr. Phillip G. Zimbardo, a leader of the Stanford Prison Experiment, summed up how circumstances influence humans' decisions:
"It's not that we put bad apples into a good barrel, we put good apples into a bad barrel, where the barrel corrupts anything it touches." (Zimbardo 11)
Summary: To directly answer the question, the circumstances deviate one's ability to do bad things, as seen in the Stanford Prison Experiment.