Who will be the next monster?
I've discussed the idea of monsters previously in my article, Loving the Monster , and the recent Hallowe'en season has got me thinking about it all over again. It seems to me that most of the fictional monsters and villains we meet through books, films and TV these days are generally created in a way that we can understand their crimes or brutal approach. For instance, in the novel, The Warm Bodies (and subsequent film) by Isaac Marion, we find a zombie who grows tired of his life of noshing human flesh and seeks something more, well, human. He wants to fall in love and have experiences beyond his condition. In Dexter , the character of the title is a serial killer who appears to take delight in his gruesome murders but only slaughters criminals who have escaped justice. Time and again, the actions of fictional monsters and villains can be explained away but what happened to having a baddie who was just bad? I miss that. We need more thoroughly evil characters like...







Great quotes. I took a college course as an undergrad where we read nothing but Dickens's work. I love the books, and hated how quickly we had to read them. Um, Bleak House is insanely long and we read it in less than a week. Still, Dickens is a master. Happy birthday, Mr. Dickens!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post! I love Dickens, and read many, many of his books in high school (on my own, not for school). Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWonderful post.
ReplyDeleteI also had to read Bleak House as part of my course in Uni. It was so long, and there was a lot of pressure to get it done, fast.
But, his characterisation has always been absolutely fantastic. His description of industrial age Britain is so detailed.
Happy Birthday:)
Was Bleak House the one with the Grimes family? My favourite Dickens novels are Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities (which I'm re-reading at the moment).
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the comments.
Yay, a post on Dickens! I read few of his, and the least prolific 'Barnaby Rudge' is my favourite. Little Dorrit required some warming-up to, but it's good, too.
ReplyDeleteClaudine
http://www.carryusoffbooks.com/blog.html
I loved Great Expectations! I haven't read Tale of Two Cities, not yet anyways.
ReplyDelete