#profmonster

Since we’ve been on the topic of robots and cyborgs in @profmonster​ class I thought this specific topic would fit very well with what we’ve been covering in class, and with us recently watching the 1980′s Blade Runner the themes of robots and cyborgs within the movie play go well with the subject of this post.

As we know Blade Runner’s plot revolved around robots known as replicants developing empathic abilities that make them almost impossible to detect when compared to an actual human. In a sense their development of emotions makes them more human to us as they’re able to show the same level of humanity that is to a human. 

But what about the opposite of this? What if a human were to lose their humanity through excessive technology?

That’s where the idea of cyberpsychosis comes in. Cyberpsychosis is a term that was developed by the original pen and paper RPG and also now popular videogame series Cyberpunk. Cyberpsychosis is a mental illness, specifically a dissociative disorder, caused by an overload of cybernetic augmentations to the body. Those that develop cyberpsychosis are referred to as cyberpsychos and hold little to no disregard for life and become dangerous and violent towards other humans and organic beings. A single augmentation is unlikely to cause  cyberpsychosis but replacing multiple limbs and body parts for cyber improvements is likely to cause madness as they start to identify themselves more as machines rather than human and often times have to be either subdued or killed.

While I don’t think that we’re anywhere near that kind of future where augmented limbs become superior to their organic counterparts, it’s interesting to think about how that might become a possibility in the future. While I find it hard to believe that cybernetics would drive someone insane, I can imagine it being possible to create a divide. Pitting individuals that use augmentations versus individuals that choose to remain in their natural form.

What kind of monsters were you scared of as a kid?

For me, zombies took a major role for what I was afraid of as a kid. I think the first kind of monster I really became afraid of were zombies. I went over to spend the night at a friend’s house and his older brother had just bought House of the Dead 3 and he ended up playing it through the whole night. I think that was my first real introduction to zombies and least to say it was a little bit hard going to bed that night. While I eventually got used to that game still the idea of zombies really scared me for a good part in my life.

At the time I think what made zombies scarry to me was not just the fact that zombies ate people but also how anyone was susceptible to the infection and could become a zombie. Something about how you could be taken over and become a monster to sum it up.

I recently finished the last season of Netflix’s Caslevania series and one thing that was expanded much more were characters motives and justification. One of these characters that has significantly changed is a Forgemaster names Isaac.

Isaac was originally a Muslim slave who was abused by his former master which is why he developed such a distaste for humanity and is also why he became a Forgemaster. A Forgemaster is a person that is able to reanimate a corpse with a spirit of the dammed to create terrifying demonic creatures that are forced to do their creators bidding. These monsters are referred to as night creatures and have only been used for killing and destruction throughout the show.

During Isaacs journey across Europe, he has had various interactions with different characters, with some were friendly and defied his expectations while others ending in bloodshed. During this time Isaac is trying to evaluate his place in the world and whether he should continue his path of destruction on humanity or a new path of creation. At the end of season 3 Isaac liberates a town that has been taken over by a wizard that had used magic to enslave all the nearby towns residents to build his own town through forced labor. At the start of season 4 we see Isaac living in the town, taking time to rebuild and repairing the damage caused to it.

This is where some of the concepts of monsters we learned in @profmonster​ class as well as Mary Douglase’s book, Purity and Danger come in. As we know monsters can help be defined by boundaries and transgressions. When something is able to break those boundaries, we may perceive them as monstrous. While we can easily say that night creatures are monstrous because they break boundaries between things that are living and dead (similar to zombies or vampires) as well as moral boundaries such as killing and eating people, I specifically want to focus on transgressing boundaries what makes them not monstrous.

As I’ve said before night creatures have always been used as a means of destruction. As one of the night creatures describes themselves, “We kill, destroy and despoil it is our pleasure”. For the most part they are seen as tools of destruction and are believed to be bound by these rules of nature. Isaac challenges these ideas by having him and his night creatures clean and rebuild the city. He believes that an individual’s nature is fluid and they’re able to change how they act regardless of nature. “Your nature is fluid; you believe you are tools of destruction only because this is how your kind have always been used”. 

This idea of a fluid nature breaks the boundary of what was initially thought to be a compulsory idea of night creatures. While night creatures are created from a reanimated corpse using a soul of the damned, they’ve only ever been used as tools before. Tools aren’t inherently evil; it depends on how they’re used. “You can use a hammer to build a house... or crack a skull”. This shows that night creatures are capable of not just destruction and death, but also creation and life, all they need is the right guidance from their Forgemaster. 

Another boundary to explore is the concept of tools and humanity. As we just discussed, night creatures have mostly seen and used as tools, but they were also once people too. We learn earlier in season 3 that one of the night creatures was once a Greek philosopher that was persecuted and killed by the rising Christians in Athens who saw their philosophical questioning of Gods existence as a sin. During his conversation with Isaac, he’s offered a berry in which causes him to remember things about his past life that he wasn’t able to ever remember before. From this Isaac remarks about how their purpose in life can be more than just tools. “I can also choose in the end to recognize that you are not tools at all. for no tool would taste a berry and remember the time in its first life when it encountered them”.

This is another boundary that is explored as it’s questioning the humanity of night creatures and how close to humans they really are. This whole concept of purpose, tools can be compared to Aristotle’s idea of Telos where we study the true purpose of things and their end goals.

I think there’s a lot of other great examples of monsters throughout the show, but this was one of the few examples I wanted to cover. I’ve also attached video of the scenes I talked about.

Part 1

Part 2

If you’re like me and sometimes need a quick recap on stuff or maybe you’re trying to explain the concepts you learned in class but aren’t able to articulate what you’re trying to say easily I like to refer back to this video that covers some of the concepts we learned in @profmonster class.

Risk of rain is a 2D side scrolling action platformer developed by Hoopoo Games and released in 2013. You play as a one of 12 different characters each with special abilities. The story starts with a space cargo ship that you’re on, carrying special cargo being shot down and crash landing on a mysterious planet. You’re the only one that survived the crash and it’s your job to find a way back home. 

In order to survive you must fight against the planet’s inhabitance while collecting items that from your crashed cargo ship to deal with the increasing number of hostile monsters and creatures found on the planet. Throughout the game you discover field notes and logs that describe the nature of the monsters. It’s assumed that these writings are written by the commando class and within his notes it suggests he deeply regrets what he is forced to do in order to survive.

At the end of the game, you are greeted with various messages that hint at each character’s fate as they escape the planet. Some of these messages indicate new beginnings while others denotate a more somber outcome. 

An interesting thing to consider is the difference in outcome between the human’s and monsters/robots and how each person delt with their actions. Some of the most notable quotes are...

Humans

Commando - "...and so he left, with everything but his humanity."

Enforcer - "...and so he left, mutated beyond recognition."

Mercenary - "...and so he left, never to become human again."

Engineer - "...and so he left, more steel and circuit than man."

Robots/Monsters

HAN-D - "...and so it left, servos pulsing with new life."

CHEF - "...and so it left, entirely forgetting its original purpose."

Acrid - "...and so it left, with a new hunger: To be left alone."

Many of the endings for the human’s characters are them reflecting on the ordeal that just occurred as they escape, meanwhile for the robots and monsters their escape shapes new beginnings for themselves.

Have you ever seen a monster or robot movie as a kid that you thought was really scarry only to come back to it years later and not think too much of it? For me that movie that movie 9, directed by Shane Acker. It wasn’t until many years later when I rewatched the movie and while I understand what made the movie scarry for me as a kid, but it didn’t have the same impact. Which got me thinking how monster movies also have changed over the years.

It’s likely you’ve seen some sort of old monster/robot movie, such as the original King Kong in @profmonster class. But compared to some of the more recent monster’s movies such as Alien. I think it’s comfortable to say that within the past few decades monster movies have become much more terrifying.

This can be in part to improvements in technology and cinema as a whole. But if we were to continue this trend of improvement, where would we end up within the next few decades?

We’ve already seen other forms of media such as virtual reality using monsters such the Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners taking advantage of VR’s increased immersion, but it’s interesting to think and speculate where we’ll be within the next few decades for monster media.

The Middle Ages were a strange time where religion was high, and science was a low. The world was still relatively new, and mankind was beginning to explore and document it. It seemed like everyone was discovering something new within this world and during this time bestiaries were written as to document and understand popular monster and animal stories explorers told about their discoveries. These books were filled with descriptions and illustrations showing what these beasts looked like as well as other important information about them.

If you were to study a bestiary today, we might scoff at the absurdness of some of the documented creatures people believed existed at the time. Monsters such as manticores, griffins, dragons, etc. were all documented and believed to be real creatures at one time.

While we’d like to think that we’re past the days of what we’d think to be make-believe monsters I still think we’re still holding onto some idea of unusual monsters today. Today we might refer to these monsters as urban legends. Monsters such as Bigfoot, Mothman, The Wendigo, The Chupacabra and The Loch Ness Monster are all popular examples of urban legends that exist in our culture today.