A Discussion Of Monster In Monster Culture By Richard Cohen

To start off, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen who wrote Monster Culture is Professor of English and Director of the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. He is known for researching strange mysterious things that connect to an imaginative mind. He finds interested in monsters, foreigners, queers, inhuman forces. In Jeffrey Cohen’s essay Monster Culture Cohen discusses and effectively covers important reasons on how monsters connect with the cultures from which they rise from. I believe that Cohen’s theories are valid and that monsters are a good window into a certain culture.

In today’s society there are violent people. Some of these people can be found in the book Monster by Walter dean Myers. The main character is Steve Harmon and he is facing trial for murder. Steve was the lookout but wasn’t responsible for Mr.Nesbitt's death. Steve is on trial for murder because he was in the store that day

In this reading, Cohen proposes a sketch of a new modus legendi, meaning, “a method of reading cultures from the monsters they engender.”(Monsters page 11) He also says that he’s going to break some rules from recent cultural studies. Now, Cohen offers seven theses towards understanding cultures through monsters by their character, appearance and representation, such as: Vampires, the Alien, Frankenstein, Werewolves, Grendel, the Boogey man, and etc.

Monsters are challenges that the human race must overcome. In Jeffrey Cohen’s essay “Monster Culture,” Cohen reasserts the presence of the monstrous within society, and its relation to different cultures in a specific time period. All of Cohen’s seven thesis makes sensible arguments that gives the audience a glimpse on what his purpose is. Each thesis are presented differently, but Cohen correlates his ideas to explain the monster’s true existence. The convergence of intellectualism makes a strong connection between Cohen’s appeal to pathos. Cohen utilizes emotion in his writing to mainly appeal to his audience, and give them an idea on what goes on behind the monster’s identity. The final thesis “The Monster Stands at the Threshold of Becoming”

In the article “Monsters and the Moral Imagination,” Stephen Asma, a professor of Philosophy and Distinguished Scholar at Columbia College Chicago, argues that the existence of monsters have a purpose in our lives. It is not only to reveal our deepest fears, but to question our moral instincts. Being attacked by fictional monsters seems impractical, however, chaos and disasters do happen and exist in the real world. The creation of monsters is due to our reaction of our fears and the inability to control the world we live in.

“Fear and euphoria are dominant forces, and fear is many multiples the size of euphoria” - Alan Greenspan. New York author, Alan Greenspan, here is explaining that the threat fear presents is really no different than the state of intensity caused by euphoria. In Andrew J. Hoffman’s anthology, Monsters, there is substantial evidence that both fear and euphoria are inflicted upon men, by female monsters. The two threats men typically face against women are temptation and emasculation. Thus, in mythology and folklore, female monsters exemplify the impulse of desire (sexually) for men, and male weakness. These are creature that are lusted after and yet, still feared because of their power. Men find female monsters both fearsome and euphoric and will always threaten their dominance and control.

The Monster Culture Seven theses written by Jeffrey Cohen discusses seven areas of monstrous aspects that have appeared in our culture due to a number of reasons by society. The story of the immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks can be intertwined in several of the thesis on monsters. Four areas I found to most correlate are Thesis I: The Monster’s Body Is a Cultural Body as it relates to Night Doctors, Thesis II: The Monster Always Escapes comparing to the HeLA bomb chapter in the book, Lastly, Thesis IV: The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference reflecting on the race of Henrietta and the concept of black genes/cells running thru all of mankind regardless of color. The Monster concepts in Jeffrey Cohen’s article interrelate to the story of Henrietta Lacks based on her story reads like science fiction and

How would you feel to be put on trial for a crime you did not commit? In the book, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, this is the case for a sixteen-year-old Harlem boy named Steve Harmon. Steve is on trial for felony murder because he has been accused of being involved in being the lookout for a robbery that took place on December 22nd in an uptown convenience store that resulted in the shooting of Alguinaldo Nesbitt, the convenience store clerk. Steve Harmon is innocent for the reasoning’s of he does not know who Richard Evans is, the convenience store was not empty, and there was no signal.

Monster by Sanyika Shakur yields a firsthand insight on gang warfare, prison, and redemption. “There are no gang experts except participants (xiii)” says Kody Scott aka. Monster. Monster vicariously explains the roots of the epidemic of South Central Los Angeles between the Crips and the Bloods that the world eventually witnessed on April 29, 1992. As readers we learn to not necessarily give gangs grace but do achieve a better understanding of their disposition to their distinct perception in life.

The book Monster by Walter Dean Myers is about a 16 year old, African American boy, being accused of a crime. Steve was claimed to have been seen at the drugstore before the robbery ‘went down,’ he is claimed to be the lookout, however he denies this allegation A seemingly innocent 16 year old boy who has never perpetrated a crime before, is on trial for murder for Mr.Nesbitt along with James King, so how innocent is Mr.Steve Harmon after all? Mr.Nesbitt was the owner of the drugstore that was robbed by Mr.King and his acquaintances, he was killed by being shot in the lung with his gun. Steve’s time is mostly spent being defended by Miss O’Brien and be prosecuted by Sandra Petrocelli.

One of the most controversial questions in the novel, Frankenstein is if the monster is really a monster. Osama Bin Laden once said, “ We treat them in the same way. Those who kill our women and innocent, we kill their women and innocent”. This quote is very similar to when the Monster states, “I will revenge my injuries …. I will work at your destruction" (Shelley 104-105). Both, Osama Bin Laden and the monster commit very similar crimes and murders; yet, one was killed by a navy SEAL and the other was let free. Osama Bin Laden was the most hated man in America for years. When the monster commits very similar crimes, most audiences pity him and question whether he, the monster, is a real monster or not. Why is this? In the book, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley demonstrates the manipulative acts of the monster and unjust punishments in order to prove that sympathy is almost as powerful as innocence.

The people of Salem start accusing more and more people and upstanding members of society of witchcraft. The trials end when they accuse the governor’s wife of witchcraft. During the trials, people were tested for being "witches" by tying bricks to their feet and putting the possible witches underwater. The theory was, if you survived, you were a witch and unfortunately, many people drowned. Although some people survived, the "witches" were soon killed anyway. The survivors were believed by the overly suspicious people to have used witchcraft to save themselves. These “witches” being killed without evidence against them proved the hunters to be merciless in their paranoid frenzy. About 20 years later the government apologized because there

Ah Monsters! The creaking of the floorboards underneath your feet as you rush into the safety of your bed. The adrenaline coursing through your veins as you see the shadows behind you even though in reality nothings there. Monsters still lurk in the dark corners of everyone’s mind even after all those years since being introduced in the media.

Monsters, the creatures of the night who prey on our fear. The ones who have no sense of emotion and lack the ability to show remorse. The big, the bad, and the ugly that lurks within all of us. The term “monster” has been around for centuries, throughout the years the view on monsters has changed, but the one thing that has stayed the same is the fact that we have always viewed them as something negative. We view monsters as evil and scary. Personally, I think of blood and murder when I hear the word monster. A monster brings out our darkest and weakest sides, whether it’s the anger that they cause or the fear they bring upon us. The term monster can be defined in many different ways, depending on how we view them, but I feel like the

What she never knew about her room was that it was haunted by demons that have been just waiting for the right moment to fill her head with that one fear. As she sleeps in her paradise of a bed, they suddenly appear, one as a gremlin looking sort of creature and the other as a horse. The gremlin is the one on top of her, putting her into the scariest, longest nightmare she’s ever been in while the other takes the form of a black, strong horse watching her, making sure the other has control over her as they both are entertained by how much this fear seems to consume her. This here is what could possibly be the creation of nightmares as something who feeds off of other people’s fears will come when they are most vulnerable and just sit there with you as you are sleeping. My worst nightmare is the thought of actually having one and having no control in when to get out of it and not knowing when it will end; compared to others like the one she’s having might be considered unusual but I just don’t fear anything except fear