The Monstrous Fantastic Conference Paper Abstracts - International ...

Simmons CollegeIn the spate of recent Y.A. dystopias, novels often depict atrocities, but they credit people with effecting the monstrous. I wish to engage withJonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin (2010) and Nancy Farmer’s The House of the Scorpion (2002); both novels include corporeal grossness butshowcase repellant human behavior. While Baldick defines the horror story as one that “focuses upon the violation of physical taboos,” bothRot & Ruin and The House of the Scorpion focus upon the violation of moral and ethical taboos. In the former, the bounty hunters inspire morerepulsion than the undead, and in the latter, El Patrón oppresses all residents of Opium. The novels inspire revulsion less through rotting fleshand other trappings of horror than through their overarching discussions of human behavior in worlds without appropriate moralbases.Although these novels locate the monstrous in the human, they try not to make it inherent to humanity. Instead, they particularize evil.Each novel has a delocalized menace – the lawlessness of the Rot and Ruin and the dehumanizing potential of science enacted in Opium – buteach distills that threat into more discrete, and therefore surmountable, enemies. Benny Imura can beat Charlie Pinkeye and The Motor CityHammer, and Matt Alacrán can help destroy El Patrón and dismantle his empire. Using Romantic plots, in which individual heroes defeat evilvillains, the novels attempt to contain the monstrous and glorify the human. They compromise that containment, however, by having initiallycombined the two. Is it enough that Benny and his brother, Tom, have noble thoughts and intentions, if they slaughter zombies wholesale whenthreatened? As El Patrón’s clone, can Matt escape inheriting his genitor’s negative qualities? According to these novels, what does it mean tobe human, and can that differ from being humane?The Passion of the Cullen: Blood(lust), Transubstantiation, and Mortification in Stephenie Meyer's Edward CullenAmanda FirestoneUniversity of South FloridaEdward Cullen is a vampire with a moral dilemma. In his own words: “I don’t want to be a monster” (Meyer, Midnight Sun 204). But that’sprecisely what vampires are, right? For centuries myths about unnatural, blood drinking fiends have followed humans, plaguing theirnightmares. For the hero of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, this simple fact causes a great deal of consternation. Edward’s bloodlust, whichhe calls “the monster,” is posited as a demon that he constantly battles (Meyer, Midnight Sun 10). In the diegesis of the text, Edward frames hisbloodlust as something monstrous. His body craves human blood and drinking it would be well within the confines of his nature, but heconsciously abstains. However, it’s not enough to abstain; Edward must persistently punish himself for his bloodlust. He drinks animal blood asa substitute and participates in masochistic behaviors like remaining near Bella Swan’s blood. Edward’s behaviors speak to theories KennethBurke presents throughout his oeuvre concerning transubstantiation, guilt, scapegoating, and mortification. These concepts create aconversation about how people symbolically deal with guilt and the various methods for purgation and purification. Burke entreats readers tothink of literature as “equipment for living,” where novels act as extended proverbs (Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form 293). We begin torecognize that literature functions as a prescriptive tool for teaching behavior (Burke, the Philosophy of Literary Form 293, 296). The strugglewith Edward’s bloodlust is the symbolic representation of sin. I analyze Edward’s specific sin – lust – and his guilt cycle as it changes from apurification of general sin to one concerning the denial of sexuality. By tracing Edward’s human and vampire histories, I shed light on thepossibilities for his motivations pertaining to his morality; in turn, I speculate what the potential subtextual prescriptions are for readerspertaining to their own moralities as embedded in the text by Meyer.129. (FTV/SF) Monstrosity and Ideology in Battlestar Galactica CypressChair: J.P. TelotteGeorgia TechGiving a Human Face to Monsters: Violence and Ethics in Battlestar Galactica and VAino-Kaisa KoistinenUniversity of OuluIn my paper I aim to discuss violence and ethics in the TV-series Battlestar Galactica (BSG) and V, mostly concentrating on the re-imaginedversions (BSG USA/UK 2003-2009, V USA 2009-2011). Both series represent a war between humans and their “alien others”. However, as theseries progress the reasons for the war become more and more complex, which blurs the boundaries between “us” (humans) and “the others”(the aliens/enemies). This is especially negotiated in the scenes discussingtorture and violence. My analysis connects the series to theoreticaldebates that consider meeting others ethically, as put forward in the work of Judith Butler and Sara Ahmed. According to Butler, during war,lives are divided into grievable and ungrievable ones (Butler 2006: e.g. 28–39). Drawing on Butler, Ahmed has asked: “What happens whenthose who have been designated as ungrievable are grieved, and when their loss is not only felt as loss, but becomes a symbol of the injusticeof loss?” (Ahmed 2004: 192). I argue that BSG and V both address this question: as the “alien others” – i.e. the monsters– appear human andsometimes even act more ethically – or humanely – than the humans, the“monsters” are truly given a human face and the distinctions betweenungrievable and grievable lives become uncertain. I will discuss the series in relation to contemporary phenomena such as racism andxenophobia. Representations both reflect and construct the world they are produced in (e.g. Kellner 1995: 1–11) and the human-like others inBSG and V take part in the production of the signifying practices that mark what is to be regarded as human and non-human, and as suchprovide tell-tale signposts for identity formation in our collective social imagination. Thus, what gets to count as human, or not, in fiction is alsotelling of lived identities that are made possible in everyday life. (I will probably prepare a PowerPoint presentation.)Monstrosity and Ideology in Battlestar GalacticaVan LeavenworthUmeå University