>> It's Halloween.

>> Yay.

[SCREAMING AND APPLAUSE]

>> And this is our fourth year

to bring you something

kind of exciting for Halloween,

something that's both scholarly

and maybe a little spooky.

>> I think.

>> A little bit.

>> It should touch in

the right spots.

>> I think so.

So we have something

about monsters.

How wonderful is that?

And ancient monsters, ancient

fears, monster as a mirror of

cultural anxiety.

I think it's fair to say that

this something exciting to me.

It's part of my research

and part of yours as well.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

As a cultural topic, it finds

its foundation there.

So it's of inherent interest.

>> So, in terms of medieval

literature, in terms of

contemporary culture and popular

culture, as well as

anthropology.

>> Yep.

>> What could be more exciting

than that?

Okay, so we're going to split

this into two sections, and then

we'll do Q&A at the end?

>> Yep, that's the plan.

>> In that case, I'm just going

to sashay over here.

>> Good, good, good.

Well, good afternoon, everybody,

and my job is to sort of get us

started by talking a little bit

about what a monster is.

So it seems pretty

straightforward.

Although, if you start thinking

about it and trying to pick the

word apart, it actually may not

be that straightforward, because

a monster could be something

that is a physical manifestation

but it could also be a

reflection of behavior too.

You do monstrous things, right?

So we want to be more specific,

and we want to narrow it down

here to a specific set of

concepts.

So the word itself helps us

a little bit.

A little linguistics in there.

Monster derives from Latin,

monstrum, which means,

that which reveals,

that which warns.

So this may not necessarily be

what we exactly expect right

away when we're talking about

this.

Monster, then, takes on sort of

this kind of aura of being an

omen to tell of danger or as a

warning perhaps to something

that might be coming.

This fellow Pierre Bersuire

wrote in the 14th century the

Repertorium morale, and he

defined monsters very well

I think.

He said, "Monsters are creatures

from outside, beyond, or

contrary to nature.

Such things are called monstria

from monstrando, either because

they show or signify some future

event or because they exemplify

some moral or spiritual flaw."

So that's interesting.

It kind of adds a twist to it.

It's not just about sort of a

warning about the future, but it

also brings into this

this concept that maybe

they represent some kind of

error in judgment or a bad or

a not moral act.

So these are kind of

interesting.

And then also adding into this,

this idea of outside or

contrary to nature.

It makes it, by definition then,

a categorical violation.

So what does that mean?

That sounds like a lot of kind

of fancy talk for a very basic

idea.

And that is, all things fit into

sort of a category, and when you

look at an apple, for example,

you expect to see an apple.

You don't expect the apple to

have arms and legs and a long

tongue or something like that,

right?

If it had those things, that

would be a categorical violation

and, therefore, by definition,

monstrous.

Right?

So that's what we're dealing

with.

That's what we want to talk

about.

Monsters.

Let's look at some of the

characteristics of monsters.

Here would be an example of sort

of a grotesque hybrid.

So here you have a human head

that has sprouted these

arthropod sort of legs and is

scrambling around on the floor.

That's not normal.

That's a categorical violation.

[LAUGHTER]

No good.

Right?

So that's definitely a monstrous

sort of thing.

Monsters also are typically

huge.

They're disproportionately large

in size.

So, for example, in the Odyssey,

you've got the giant cyclops

that is holding Odysseus and his

men captive.

And there, this is a giant.

It's monstrous in size.

And giants come into that, not

just cyclops, but giants in

general fit that category

Monsters are typically

mysterious and menacing.

So here you have a satyr where

you've got sort of the part

goat, part human, part other

things mixed in together.

And although there's no

threatening sort of action going

on here, it is very sort of

curious, and we tend to be more

suspicious of things that don't

sort of fit our expectations.

So, again, mysterious and

menacing can be part of this.

Oh, yeah, and they also

typically eat people.

[LAUGHTER]

That's the other thing that

monsters are particularly

good at.

So here we have an early kind of

a woodcut of a werewolf doing

its business.

So they typically eat people

and, therefore, have this sort

of negative connotation.

So, my part of this business

is about looking at sort of

how old this concept is.

Where does this concept of

monster come from?

How long have we been living

with this?

Now, we can look at old medieval

pictures, and we can clearly see

that this goes back and has some

antiquity into the dark ages

probably for sure.

Certainly there's been as many

monsters, there's been monster

slayers that have gone with

that.

There's Beowulf and Grendel and

there's St. George and the

dragon.

Even Odysseus could fall under

that realm.

So, how long, how far back can

we push this?

Well, I would argue that maybe

we could push this back to the

very beginning.

To the very sort of roots of

human consciousness.

We weren't always this way,

the way that we are now.

We have relatively little fear

of, for example, other

predators.

We hunt a lot of things, but

there aren't a lot of things

that hunt us.

So, is it possible that going

back into the very faintest

echos, our very most distant

cultural and sort of even

genetic memory, we could even

talk about this idea of being

afraid of the things that hunt

us, the things that have hunted

us traditionally.

Here you have an

australopithecine skull, a very

distant ancestor of ours who

very clearly met an unfortunate

end.

These guys were more dinner than

they were actually anything

else.

So the idea, then, of being

afraid of things that hunt us

could be a very good start for

where monsters might come from.

And if we wanted to kind of look

at this in a little bit more

detail, we could jump forward

here, forward right, relative

term, to 35,000 years ago, and

the very first cave art, what

people were drawing and

expressing themselves and what

they were thinking about.

And we know this stuff best from

southern Europe.

So here's an example of some of

the earliest cave art that's

ever been discovered, and it

comes from a place called

Chauvet Cave.

Chauvet Cave is a very large

cave system.

The scale here is 20 meters to

the inch.

So it goes deep, deep into the

rock face here.

And there's a funny little

pattern here with the art.

There's lots of images here, but

what tends to be in the front of

the cave are things that people

were eating.

Horses, bison, auroch, which is

the progenitor to cows.

And the further you get back

into this cave, the darker, the

scarier, the hard to access

regions, you start finding these

other things, like bears.

Bears, very powerful creatures

these cave bears.

Big, strong.

Lived in this cave, actually,

and would have been a threat to

humans.

So it's not too surprising that

we see their depictions at least

up front, right?

Lions.

I know we don't like to think

typically that there were lions

in Europe because it seems out

of place, but in southern Europe

they had lions.

And again, lions would have been

competitors for food with

humans.

So they would be hunting the

bison, humans would be hunting

the bison and, of course, humans

being about prey size for lions,

especially women and children,

these would be something that

might be very scary.

Even rhinos, which we don't tend

to think of as being dangerous,

they actually nearsighted.

They don't have very good sense

of smell.

They're startled very easily.

You get a lot of deaths each

year from being gored from

rhinos.

Again, shows up in the back of

the cave.

Lions and, of course, the art

itself is interesting.

This idea of being in motion and

lions being a scary thing tucked

away.

Tucked in the back in a

manageable way.

Controlled.

Hyenas, cheetah.

In this case, all sort of

competitors, dangerous things

that are part of this world that

these people perceive.

So do you think they might have

had some anxiety then about

these things being out there?

And, of course, a way to deal

with that anxiety is to create

it and then control it.

Helps us to deal with that

anxiety.

This one's always fun.

A field day, right?

For all of those out there

because the images show, of

course, the lions, you see

another lion, you see a bison,

and then you see this women's

genitalia.

Talk about Freud, right?

Here's all these things mixed

together.

Anxieties and fears all kind of

pulled together into this one

sort of realm.

And it wasn't just cave art.

They made objects, like this

lion man.

This one comes from Germany.

Not very big, but the body of a

man with a lion's head.

Whoops.

Categorical violation.

[imitating sustained siren]

Be aware.

Danger.

So this tells us that the

consciousness of these things,

as time goes on, is becoming

more and more acute.

As we get more in control of our

environment, as we are better

hunters, as we bring these

dangerous populations under

control, the nature of the art

changes, and we start seeing

human representation for the

first time and humans that are

categorical violations.

The little devil here, which is

a human face with some sort of

horns or protrusions from

the top.

This one is more obvious.

They call him the sorcerer.

But you've got an auroch or

an ibex's head attached to

a human body.

Strange.

Now, some of that might be from

the fact that hunting was done

by, for example, dressing in the

skins of an animal to perhaps

get in and amongst the animals

to do the hunting.

But that doesn't always explain

all of the various pieces.

Like this.

Here is not something that's

hunting.

Here is something that is

walking on two legs, wearing

this headdress, and is

definitely part human, part elk,

part owl.

Some kind of categorical

violation.

At the dawn of history, when

writing first comes into place,

6,000 years ago, the writings

that people made in Mesopotamia,

where today Iraq and Iran are,

the writing that people are

doing is at first about numbers

and it's about accounting, but

almost right away, on the heels

of things, they're talking about

this.

They're talking about their

monsters, their gods and

goddesses.

And here, Tiamat, one

representing the primeval chaos,

the goddess of the ocean,

has this scaly reptilian body,

bird legs and talons.

This creature was slain by

Marduk.

And, again, the idea is to

control the anxiety coming

about here.

So we've seen a switch now.

People aren't so concerned about

natural predators as they are

about the bigger title primal

forces out there, like the wind

and the ocean.

Things they can't control.

So Labbu, a sea beast, huge

dimensions, and, again, not a

surprise, killed by someone.

We've got to keep it under

control.

Pazuzu, in this case an

interesting character because

this guy is evil.

Everybody acknowledges him as

evil, but they summon him to get

rid of other evils.

So apparently he was fairly

territorial and so as a

consequence was able to sort of

help people in these times of

need, but I suspect probably

with a bit of a price tag that

would come with it.

But again, categorical

violation.

King of the evil spirits of

the air.

So again, that primal force

of nature.

Anzu, the divine storm bird,

shown here with a lion's head,

a bird with a lion's head.

Lamashtu, particularly evil

female demon who stole children

from mothers while

breastfeeding.

Gnawed on their bones,

drank their blood.

Wow.

Does it get any worse than that?

This is a piece from, this is a

clip from a cuneiform tablet,

and it talks about what Lamashtu

is about.

The daughter of heaven who

tortures babies.

Her hand is a net.

Her embrace is death.

She's cruel, raging, angry,

predatory.

Predatory, right?

A runner.

A thief.

The daughter of heaven.

She touches the bellies of women

in labor.

She pulls out the pregnant

woman's baby.

The daughter of heaven is one of

the gods, they acknowledge the

power and strength of this

individual, but definitely and

evil presence.

So it goes on to, of course,

give that categorical violation

description, which tells us

that, again, this is something

to be feared.

Lilitu, storm and wind demon.

Later a demon of the night.

So, again, these primal forces,

the night, the air, these are

all sort of important concepts

to sort of think of.

Hold on, we'll catch you

in Q&A here.

Humbaba, this one is a little

unusual.

Kind of a human or humanoid type

representation but very

different in the effects.

When he looks at someone,

it's the look of death.

Humbaba's roar is a flood,

his mouth is death, and his

breath is fire.

He can hear a hundred leagues

away any, and then they weren't

sure what that particular symbol

meant, but they think it's

rustling, in his forest.

A protector of the gods and of

the primal forest.

Raised by Utu, the sun, the

guardian of the cedar forest.

Very interesting that a set of

resources guarding this broader

set of their pantheon is a

monster.

And they use this monster to

keep people away.

So the monsters we see here are

all old.

It's an old thing.

It's as old as our

consciousness.

As long as we've been thinking

like we think, these have been

here, and they've been

companions with us, which makes

us wonder why.

Why is that the case?

Well, part of it may have to do

with the fact that monsters are

ultimately, in a way, a

reflection of us, a reflection

of our anxieties, and they can't

exist without us because we and

they are linked together.

So whether it's feeling bad

about how someone was treated,

or if it's something that can't

be stopped by technology, that's

a fear that we have.

The fear that we're going to do

something wrong to somebody and

it's going to catch up with us.

The monster that attacks us in

our sleep that we can't control.

It's all those factors out

there.

For the earliest people, it's

those predators that are out

there competing with us and

consuming us.

Then it becomes about being able

to try and control nature.

And we personify these things

and then we try and hold them

down.

And then, finally, as if science

should abolish all of this, it

should make it all go away

because we understand all this

stuff now.

It doesn't.

It just amplifies it, and it

continues to be a growing

presence here.

So that's what my

contribution is.

It's a little time depth here, a

little sort of basic run on

monsters, and I'm going to turn

it over to Dr. Auld who's going

to give you the good stuff on

the more recent monsters out

there.

>> Oh, I've got wonderful ones

too.

[APPLAUSE]

You know, George, I have to tell

you, I was tempted to go,

well let's just go back

through yours.

Let's go back through yours

because I recognized some of

those, and it was so very

exciting.

For myself, I have to say that

within reading about medieval

texts and ancient Greek and

Roman texts about monsters, I

just found so many things that

connected me to the things that

I'd see on TV, to the films, to

contemporary novels.

That's part of what interests me

so much.

And I love that you're talking

about these creatures as

predators because I think it's

so darn interesting that

sometimes we have monsters who

aren't necessarily predators.

It's not necessarily the monster

who breaks in and takes

something.

Sometimes we merely see a

monster, and the mere fact that

it exists is enough to break

those categories and terrify us.

Even if the monster doesn't live

next door.

The mere fact that it's living

somewhere makes us kind of crazy

angry.

So we're going to look again at,

we're going to look again at

category crisis, and we're going

to start with the absolute

beginning here, the harbinger of

category crisis.

This comes from

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen,

Monster Theses, and it's part of

something called Monster Theory.

And this theory, this kind of

analysis, this particular text

was a decade old just this year.

So this idea, one of the

earliest ideas is dragons.

And if you think about it, they

break physical categories, land,

sky, water.

They're both part worm, they're

part bird.

And they suggest a devolution, a

return to an earlier or more

primitive physical form.

And if you think about dragons,

dragons are medieval and they're

ancient and maybe they're kind

of contemporary too.

There's a book jacket at the

bottom here for Who Goes There?

which is written by

John Campbell.

This is a classic of science

fiction, and it becomes a film

called The Thing.

And it's this beautiful science

fiction story of something where

the shape doesn't quite hold.

You can see it as a dog.

You actually showed a picture of

The Thing earlier, and that was

its arachnid form where it's got

a person's face and it's got

kind of a spider body.

And it's so darn dangerous

because it's as if it's moving

through evolution at its

own rate.

And, of course, one of the

wonderful things is this thing

shows up essentially in a

spaceship.

So it flew to get there.

And it's kind of both a dragon

and something from the stars.

Okay, so let's see.

One of my favorite ever dragons,

everybody loves dragons, one of

my favorite ever dragons,

Gojira, Godzilla, and you have

two images of him.

I particularly, again, like that

darn dragon form.

I like that darn dragon form

because in some cases you can

really see the primitive aspects

of it.

You can really see it as an

older body.

As a matter of fact, does

anybody think that a lot of

dragons look a little like

dinosaurs?

Yeah.

There is an argument that in

some cases people found the

bones, they found fossilized

bones, and they couldn't

necessarily tell how old those

bones were but they recognized

them as the interior pieces of a

creature.

And, thus, they started telling

these stories about dragons.

But when I say that, even as I

say that, I think of, you

mentioned Beowulf.

Beowulf gets killed by a dragon.

That's the end of the story.

He may have kicked Grendel's

butt, but he's put out.

He's finished.

Done in, as it were, by a

dragon.

But the European dragons are

often very different than the

eastern dragons.

The eastern dragons are often

powerful, tremendous,

supernatural, but they tend to

be the good guys in a lot of

cases.

And one of the figures I find so

fascinating here with Gojira is

that essentially that was kind

of, well, maybe it was both an

eastern dragon and a western

dragon both come together.

Talk about category crisis.

So that's one of my very

favorite ones.

Again, have an eye out on size.

George was great about talking

about these monsters.

In the corner there, only hell

could breed the giant Gila

monster.

It's a dragon except for that

it's also something that's

really not all that big and not

all that terrifying.

Maybe a little scruffy looking

running around in the desert.

But this tremendous fear that

it's going to get out of

control.

That it's going to get too big.

That it's going to maybe revert

to a size that used to be

common.

Again, like the dinosaurs.

Okay, there's our western

dragons in their classic style.

One of my favorite ideas is

about the 10th century there was

a common folklore about dragons

that if people got too high and

mighty and got a little too

proud, they could slowly devolve

into dragons.

That was one of the places that

dragons came from.

Ever heard somebody called a

worm?

The idea was that people could

become dragons.

And it always came from pride

and greed.

Possessiveness.

So all the sudden we're

inscribing those thing into this

fantasy figure.

And if you think about dragons,

they get really possessive about

where they live.

They get possessive if you

happen to steal a goblet.

Heaven for fend you should steal

a magic ring.

All of these things make them

angry, and they come after you

because it's pride and it's

greed.

All right, let's look at some

more.

Ancient monsters.

There we go.

One more kind of wonderful

Gojira there.

And I have to point out, has

anybody caught the connection

between Gojira and pride?

Because he actually came from

what?

The bomb, which a lot of people

looked at as an excess of pride.

Something that was man-made, man

evoked, and had to do with a

tremendous pride in controlling

the elements.

So Gojira works especially well.

But here's another one, and yes

it's naked.

The Donestre, and I thought of

that image you had.

We have to talk later.

I thought of the Donestre

because, of course, they're

lion-headed.

They're ancient monsters.

They're lion heads.

They're, well, they eat people.

I can't say they're people who

eat people because they're not

quite people.

But the idea is that they are

people eaters.

And in the Libra Monstrum, The

Big Book of Monsters, which is

an Anglo-Saxon text that's

connected with the Beowulf text

again and with a text that,

shockingly enough, might be kind

of fudged, which is Alexander's

letter to Aristotle.

We get a lot of these ancient

monsters that are captured, if

you will, by the medievals.

They're captured, they're

painted, they're discussed, and

the Donestre are wonderful.

They're dangerous to travelers.

They live somewhere in the east.

The mysterious east.

The far away east.

Potentially India.

They live somewhere there, and

what I really love about them is

that a Donestre would

recognize you.

He's living far, far away.

Thousands of miles away.

He'd recognize you as a

traveler, and he'd say, "Hi,

Cindy," and he'd say it in

English.

He would call to you in your own

language.

And that's a real category

breaker, isn't it?

That category of language is one

of the markers of the monster.

The fact that this thing,

completely not human, calls to

you in your own language and

convinces you sweetly to come

walk with him.

I'm a traveler just like you,

and in that way, the Donestre

will kind of sneak up, if you

will.

They'll take the traveler, and

then they'll eat it.

But when they're done, they cry.

They weep.

They weep because they are

Donestre.

And one of my favorite parts of

this is that monsters aren't

supposed to feel guilty, are

they?

Unless it's one of the things

that makes them so human, and,

thus, even scarier.

And talk about your category

breaking, can you guys see this

little tush of the Donestre and

his leg and his knee and then

his foot?

Have a look.

He's just stepped out of the

frame.

That's the best part is when

they step out of the frame they

kind of walk into your world,

don't they?

To the medievals this was

terrifying.

Maybe even to the ancients as

well.

What if there was a "foreigner"

who knew your language?

How could you be sure just who

this person is?

How terribly dangerous that is.

What a monster to know your

language and yet not be one of

your "kind."

Interesting.

Got to give you a local cannibal

here at least a little bit.

Anybody recognize this one?

>> [INAUDIBLE]

>> Yeah, Ed.

>> Ed Gein.

>> Yes indeed, Ed.

Okay, cannibals, whether they're

the Donestre or whether they're

local, homegrown, as it were,

break the categories of predator

and prey, and it's the

darnedest thing.

We're all supposed to be prey

together if a lion shows up,

right?

They are the lion.

They're just pretending

to be prey.

They're actually the predator.

And it's in this deception that

they are dangerous and

terrifying, and the mere fact

that they can lie with their

bodies and with their voices,

that's maybe one of the scariest

monsters of all.

And they suggest social

devolution so that not only

could bodies slide backwards

into something more primitive,

maybe people, maybe communities

could slide from an organized

situation where there are laws

and rules we all recognize into

something that's a free for all,

into something that's terribly

dangerous.

So be careful of cannibals who

address you in fine language and

offer you help.

And in that way, I have the

fictional Hannibal Lecter.

Some of Hannibal's

characteristics, as he is a

character, some of his

characteristics, though, are

taken from actual serial killers

and cannibals.

So in the same way that in that

big book of monsters that you

look at and you go, they just

made that up, that's not real,

well, perhaps it is real in

certain times and certain

places.

Perhaps there are folks out

there who are disturbed enough

to enact these behaviors.

It seems as if there are, which

doesn't necessarily mean they're

supernatural, but it might mean

that they're monsters.

And there's certainly something

that, boy, the culture gets

really scared of.

And it's really scared, well,

it's scared enough to try to

control Hannibal Lecter.

It's scared enough to try to

control a criminal.

But maybe one of the scariest

things is when you can't tell

that someone is a criminal.

And the culture is frightened

of that.

Okay, another quote from

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen.

"The monster's body is a

cultural body."

And I throw that out to you only

because what it means to be

different, even maybe what it

means to look like a criminal,

seems to be something that our

culture decides upon.

[INAUDIBLE]

Isn't it interesting that

the cultural body, the culture

tells us what the body may look

like and what's inappropriate,

and there's even a monstrosity

to those of us today who dress

up for Halloween.

If you were to wear these

costumes at other times, you

might get a bit of grief because

the culture has accepted some

things in the body and some

things it says, no, no.

One of my favorites here,

this is Abarimon.

They're found in Scythia.

Their feet are turned backwards.

Their feet are turned backwards

because they're on the other

side of the globe and clearly

you need that.

[LAUGHTER]

And you find yourself looking at

it and going, that's the oddest

thing in the world.

I personally find it unlikely

that they exist.

I don't know.

You know.

The Donestre I'm working with.

These guys, maybe not.

The monster dwells at the gates

of difference.

Maybe they're the maker for when

things are very, very different.

And maybe we mark them to try to

identify them as different.

I married a monster from outer

space.

He didn't look like that when

she married him.

He changed.

I'm just saying.

He changed and, sure enough, he

was able to "pass as one of us."

That bodily fluidity.

That idea that shapes don't

hold.

It's interesting because it

suggests that if you're going to

protect yourself from monsters,

you need to keep a real eye out

for anybody, any body, who's

a little bit different.

And what an interesting cultural

fear that if we could just

examine everybody, if we could

just control them carefully and

keep an eye on them, then we'd

be able to root out the

monsters.

And all the sudden that starts

sounding kind of scary because

what if I don't fit?

What if I've got a little bit

more difference than the culture

accepts?

Yeah.

I understand going after the

lion.

Personally, I don't care if

somebody is wearing a lion head

over everything else.

The gates of difference.

Think about that one.

I brought you Blemmyes,

another one from

The Big Book of Monsters.

The Blemmyes, these people live

in the deserts of Libya.

Their necks are on their chests.

They lack heads and necks.

Shakespeare says they've got to

be cannibals.

And I love their bodies.

Their bodies are so fascinating

to me because I think

they're real.

I think it's, I don't know that

they were cannibals.

I think Shakespeare was

fudging it.

Anybody who's in

Titus Andronicus' class, yeah,

he did indeed get a little crazy

with things.

But I want you to look at those

shapes, and I want you to

picture a human being shaped the

same as all of us, human being

carrying a shield in front of

herself or himself, and they

duck their head down.

What you'd have is you'd have

the appearance of eyes and a

face, and you'd have someone

very wisely hiding behind that

shield.

It's entirely possible that the

Blemmyes did exist.

As a matter of fact,

Scholasticus, like you got

nothing better to do, go read

Scholasticus, argued that one of

the tribes that was attacking

certain groups were

the Blemmyes.

So this was actually a name of

a tribe.

Again, not terribly far off.

Don't you like the one that's

just looking over the shoulder

and kind of smiling?

Smiling over their butt a bit.

By the way, where does reason

reside in the human body?

Where do you think reason might

reside?

Here?

If there's nothing to actually

to reason about what you eat,

then all of a sudden, your

reasoning is directly related to

your appetite.

Reason with no filter but

appetite, that's, appetite with

no filter I should say, that's

interesting.

And how often that is put on

another culture.

You know them.

They can't control their

appetites.

Again, a cultural marker that

makes someone else monstrous.

One more real one from

The Big Book of Monsters .

The sky pods lived in India.

They spent their days taking

shelter under their single great

big foot.

Well, once more, the idea, and

this is common amongst monster

scholars, which kind of sounds

sketchy, but it's a common idea

that some of the people

traveling may have seen

individuals performing yoga and

holding positions that seemed

"unnatural."

Category breakers.

They held those positions.

They were from a foreign place.

They lived in a different way.

They looked physically

different.

They brought these back.

And I have to tell you, many

people would look at the woman

doing the yoga move and say

that's not natural.

But, of course, maybe it is.

It's just that we don't

recognize it.

And don't you just love him

taking shade under his foot.

He doesn't look like somebody

who would hurt you, does he?

What's he going to do, hop over

and attack you?

But his body doesn't fit the

cultural markers of the body,

and it's from far away.

It's from far away.

So you've got to be careful, got

to look out for them.

All right, we have some more

Blemmyes, and I'd love to tell

you that that outfit on the

other side there is a costume,

but it's not.

That's science again.

And sure enough, those are the

Blemmyes who've been taken in

and at this point painted over,

and all of a sudden, you have

someone meeting the Blemmyes and

controlling them.

And that would be Alexander,

Alexander the Great, who's

perceived to be a man of great

reason and great control because

you've got to watch out for

those monsters.

You never know when they're

going to sneak in.

I think people would recognize

the Blemmyes.

Okay, I've given you a dog

head here.

The dog heads were absolutely

great.

St. Christopher is identified as

a dog head.

Cynocephali essentially.

Just dog head, that's all it

means.

According to at least one of the

ancient stories on this,

and I believe it's

Wonders of the East.

The dog heads live in India.

They bark at one another.

They live in caves.

They use bows.

They use javelins.

They use swords.

But they're people except for

their dog heads.

Another interesting one places

the dog heads in Japan.

Again, this needs to be far

enough out of the way that we

aren't worried about them.

Far enough out of the way.

One of the arguments for the dog

heads is that what people were

actually seeing or hearing were

great apes, and it looked like a

person but the face was wrong.

It wasn't a human face.

That becomes such a marker

of our humanity.

And the language wasn't quite

human, so they were barking.

With St. Christopher,

interestingly enough, even

though he's a dog head, his

language, and this is biblical

language, his language of

Christianity, those words were

so magic that even with the dog

head people understand him.

And in that way, you can see how

that inscription has got all

kinds of cultural meaning.

The animal made human through a

specific religious word and a

kind of power and even magic.

One last one for you here, and

that is fear of the monster is

really a kind of desire.

Again, this is from

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen.

I've given you some lovely

vampires here.

Some kind of pretty vampires.

You guys looked at one earlier

where a werewolf was biting a

woman in half, and is that maybe

Gilles de Rais?

Yeah, the loup-garou,

which many people think was an

actual person who had some

problems and chewed people up.

Fair to say?

Okay, great.

I don't know that he looked

fabulous doing it.

I don't know that he actually

got ears or anything else,

but he's very fierce.

That's the idea.

Isn't it interesting that

vampires, on the other hand,

tend to be looking what?

Well, here, come on up, George.

Look.

Suave.

[LAUGHTER]

The marker of vampire is suave

How scary is it if the really

pretty ones are dangerous?

How frightening is it?

As a matter of fact, I don't

think we should trust him.

He's in a suit.

Anybody ever seen him in that

suit before?

[LAUGHTER]

I don't recognize that cultural

body, sir, I'm sorry.

>> Violation.

On the other hand,

it's kind of cute.

It's a nice suit, isn't it?

He's well groomed.

Isn't it interesting because,

you know, we're really afraid of

the monster but everybody in

here is looking for him.

We desire the monster.

We want to see him.

We want to find him.

We want to see where they live.

We want to keep an eye on them

so that fear of the monster

leads to us searching for maybe

even making monsters, but

keeping our eye on them.

Fear of the monster is a kind

of desire.

We want our monsters.

We want to keep an eye on them

because they're part of the

marker that makes us human and

them something else.

And I think we're ready for Q&A.

[APPLAUSE]