TEJ Blog 3: Davis, 'Monsters and Messiahs'

TEJ Blog 3: Davis, 'Monsters and Messiahs'

Quote

“Elsewhere in Mexico, the beloved devil-rat-alien, Latino if not literally raza, was supplanting Mickey Mouse and the Power Rangers as a popular icon… The delicious embrace of chupacabrismo by Mexico was, first and above all, a celebration of the national sense of humor. Despite all the setbacks and infamies of the Salinas era, Mexico still owned its laughter.” (Monsters, 48)

Summarize

     In this quote, Davis intends to make sure his audience knows that the true view of the chupacabra was not only of fear or as a political metaphor, but instead was largely a celebration of sharing a story, of sharing a joke.

Response

     I liked that Davis focused on multiple aspects and moods about Chupacabra; it was feared for the legend of its blood-sucking devil-creature status, but in it was found a "familiar monstrosity" - it was a monster that, like many others, was a "messiah of consolation" (47) that refamiliarized new issues to people who needed reassurance from their culture. I was glad that Davis properly acknowledged the culture that the monster was born in - many consumers of pop culture love to illustrate how monsters were a symbol of fear and horror, but often forget to investigate the general culture of the society that made them, and ultimately do a disservice to themselves and others interested in the creature by ignoring or simply missing the depth the creature's originators built them with. By exclaiming the love with which Mexico introduced and shared this evolved-from-lore Chupacabra cryptid, Davis joins in celebrating the Chupacabra's role, and invites his readers to do so as well, with just as much exuberance as Latine people themselves tend to do in sharing stories. 

TEJ Blog 2: Del Toro & Hogan, 'Why Vampires Never Die'

TEJ Blog 2: Del Toro & Hogan, 'Why Vampires Never Die'

Quote

“Science… allows man to experience fear and awe again, and to believe in the things he cannot see. And through awe, we once again regain spiritual humility. The current vampire pandemic [in pop culture] serves to remind us that we have no true jurisdiction over our bodies, our climate or our very souls.” (Monsters, 38)

Summarize

     Del Toro and Hogan, in this quote, believe that the narrative of the vampire helps people understand and come to terms with the mortal nature of predisposition toward entropy; we cannot truly change the whole world on our own - our bodies created for us in a random roll of nature, having no control or choice over the society that raised us - but even as we have been dulled or unfamiliar with parts of the world we can ignite a passion in ourselves that we may have lost or needed to find, and change the world through the idea of what is new.

Response

     Del Toro and Hogan speak of having "no true jurisdiction" over ourselves, and in an initial sense, this is true. We do not choose the bodies we are born with or the ideals we are raised with - however, I disagree about this lack of jurisdiction, because if one seeks to improve themselves, their society, or simply their quality of life, all they need to do is seek intellectual pursuit, critical thinking, and do all in their spirit in order to bring about the change they need. To say that we have no jurisdiction over ourselves is to fundamentally misunderstand the truth of freedom to choose; it may be affected by certain circumstances, such as societal rejection or even mental abuse, but to act in faith when you know you can takes only courage and hope for the better. 

TEJ Blog 1: King, 'Why We Crave Horror Movies'

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TEJ Blog 1: King, 'Why We Crave Horror Movies'

 Quote

“For myself, I like to see the most aggressive of [our base instincts and nastiest fantasies] - Dawn of the Dead, for instance - as lifting a trap door in the civilized forebrain and throwing a basket of raw meat to the hungry alligators swimming around in that subterranean river beneath. Why bother? Because … it keeps them down there and me up here.” (Monsters, 18)

Summarize

     Stephen King's 'Why We Crave Horror Movies' extrapolates on the reason he believes people seek ways to to scare and horrify themselves - specifically through films - and how it helps us as people, even though we do much in order to avoid these feelings in real life. He explains that he thinks that everyone is, at different levels, not quite entirely sane; that when we seek out things like scary movies or rollercoasters, it is to remind different sides of ourself their role in being a human person. The side that is animal and aggressive, to be trained to stay in check, and the 'civilized' side, that it cannot ignore every other part or else leave itself open to takeover. He believes that when we do such things it is to remind ourselves subconsciously to keep balance between these two sides, lest we be completely lost to either.

Response

     I believe that King's view on why we tend to like scaring ourselves is right in a lot of aspects. I agree that we need to give attention to stimulate our instincts and remind ourselves that we are perfectly mortal as any other animal on earth - in some instances, moreso even (lobsters' and tortoises' longevity, the sheer ability to survive in both cockroaches and waterbears). That we are unlike the gods we may believe in; if we fall, we can break. If we are threatened, there isn't much we can do to protect ourselves as we are. We do not have power over the world save for what we create, and often we can lose control of those things too. 

     I also believe that King misses that mark when he says that everyone is "mentally ill" (Monsters, King 16) and alienates the 'hungry alligators' from the sense of self. Instead, I feel that while King makes a good point with the first idea, he falls quite short on what that means because he fails to mention that the model of 'sanity' in the eyes of society can be extremely flawed. The traditional idea of sanity doesn't account for the behaviors and habits that are healthy for neurodivergent people (such as stimming), and usually sets up a standard behavior for the entirety of society to follow when each individual in society has different ideals, language habits, health needs, and personalities. King also fails to recognize the nature of humans in reality as simply another creature of Earth, divorcing the idea of animalistic tendencies from people when all people truly are, are animals that evolved and survived with a different skillset than the rest. He eschews his duty as a scholar when he does not acknowledge every single side of the human self and even elevates one facet of the mind above the others as 'civilized' - disrespecting our nature and history as animals who require basic outside- and self-stimulation, by idealizing the prompt of leaving our instincts behind in order to act in a stifling performance for others to see and deem 'normal'. He demonstrates in the quote above that he believes such base-origin instincts must be bottled up and stay beneath rather than be explored and recognized as a pillar of the human self. 

     King's passage 'Why We Crave Horror Movies' is, then, interesting at a surface level for considering different sides of the self. But going any deeper than surface, the passage fails to properly scrutinize these nor provide counsel to the reader that the partaking in actions that scare ourselves, that "feed the alligators" so to speak, are perfectly healthy and an excellent way to explore situations in the world that are unlikely. The curious mind naturally seeks out data and enlightenment on the unfamiliar; by suggesting that the instinctual side of ourselves must stay hidden away, King completely fails as a guide to assure the reader that exploring scary, horrifying, or morally ambiguous narratives is healthy and perfectly acceptable as a way of learning.