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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Express Yourself: Five Monsters


Time for another installment in the Express Yourself Weekly Meme!  As always, this meme is brought to you by Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests.

Week #4 (Oct 22-25): List 5 favorite monsters throughout history.

Wow.  Monsters are an appropriate subject for late October.
  1. The Xenomorph: The creatures from the Alien movies are creepy. What could be more terrifying than the idea of something monstrous growing inside you against your will, just waiting to burst forth into the world.  It doesn't help that, as the host, you're killed in the process.  The acidic blood and singular goal of killing everything in its path doesn't help either.  You can't negotiate with it, and the thing is extremely difficult to kill.  Who wouldn't feel uncomfortable with one of those on your spaceship?  In a spaceship, there's nowhere to run.
  2. Frankenstein:  When I say this name, most people think of the monster created in the laboratory, but no, I'm referring to Victor Frankenstein, the mad scientist.  Sure, the creature wasn't exactly a looker, but for a guy who was stitched together from the body parts of dead people, he wasn't that bad.  His appearance, however, set him apart from everyone else. Thrust into a world filled with those who would judge him with no real guidance, it's no wonder he ended up where he did.  His creator didn't even give him a proper name, and he only addressed his creation with derision.  The problem was this: Frankenstein was unprepared to take responsibility for his creation.  He brought the monster to life, then quickly washed his hands of it.  Science is awesome, and scientists understandably explore the world.  Unfortunately, in this situation, Frankenstein was irresponsible.  If he wasn't ready to take the responsibility of caring for his creation, he never should have created him in the first place.
  3. Id Monster:  Growing up, Forbidden Planet was one of my favorite movies.  In that movie, a long-dead alien race had built a machine that could produce anything its creators desired.  All they had to do was think about it.  As it turns out, the power to create anything with a mere thought is quite a dangerous one.  Dr. Morbius is now the only one whose mind can harness the power of the machine, but his subconscious mind fuels it.  The result is a beast with a limitless power source behind it. What's terrifying is the idea that our subconscious thoughts could be unleashed on the world, and the knowledge that we have that kind of destructive potential inside us.
  4. Zombies:  What is there to say?  Zombies are mindless, relentless, and they sneak up on you, never allowing you a peaceful moment of rest.  And in a world like we see in The Walking Dead, everyone who dies turns. That means the onslaught will always keep coming.  You never have any hope of returning to the life you had before.  All you can do is adapt and try to stay alive as long as you can.
  5. Weeping Angels:  Of course I had to include a Doctor Who monster. Why wouldn't I?  The Weeping Angels are terrifying.  They look like ordinary statues, and they sneak up on you when no one is looking.  They can displace you in time, then can snap your neck, they can take over your mind if, in your attempt to keep them from coming after you, you look at them too long.  That's seriously scary stuff.  Who could look at a statue the same way again?
Image courtesy of Victor Habbick
/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Anyway, there's my list.  Which monsters do you like?

8 comments:

  1. The weeping angles are nasty. Don't blink ;)

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  2. I had to look up the Weeping Angels... they are pretty fugly! Id Monster isn't so cute either. Bleh!

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  3. I always feel sorry for Frankenstein's monster. Whenever I read the book I'm always rooting for him, he didn't ask for any of it! He just wanted to fit in. I definitely agree with you, Frankenstein is more of a monster than his monster!

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  4. I'm with you and Laura. I felt sorry for Frankenstein's creation, too.
    I love The Walking Dead, and zombies are on my list!

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  5. That's a great list! You have a lot of creatures I never even thought about. I felt bad for Frankenstein's Monster too, and agree that Dr. Frankenstein is perhaps worse than his creation.

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  6. Hmm... Weeping Angels They get you when you aren't looking you know...

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  7. This was an awesome list. I loved what you said about Frankenstein. Mainly because of what it means from Mary Shelley. When she wrote it, she was very young and afraid of having children because she thought they'd turn into monsters. Then she had this nightmare and BOOM this masterpiece was born. I also felt bad for the monster, it seemed like for awhile, he just wanted to be loved, and I wanted to love him like a pet :)

    I'm kind of correlating what you said to the pro-life/pro-choice movement. You say Dr. Franks didn't take responsibility, so he shouldn't have created the monster. I kind of feel like Shelley then, was maybe trying to say if you're not ready to take responsibility of your child, don't create one.

    Your thoughts?

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  8. The weeping angles from Dr Who certainly have their own agenda. I felt sorry for Frankenstein too, but I didn't add him to my five, but zombies were on my list.

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