Download or read book Creating Cultural Monsters written by Julie B. Wiest and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2011-06-06 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Serial murderers generate an abundance of public interest, media coverage, and law enforcement attention, yet after decades of studies, serial murder researchers have been unable to answer the most important question: Why? Providing a unique and comprehensive exploration, Creating Cultural Monsters: Serial Murder in America explains connections bet

Download or read book Quit Feeding the Monsters written by J. Kevin Cobb and published by Hillcrest Publishing Group. This book was released on 2011-05-16 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While defining problems that undermine an organization is usually easy, a far greater challenge is convincing leaders and managers to stop making those problems even worse. Hence the title, "Quit Feeding the Monsters." The resolutions and applications outlined in this book may seem radical. In fact, Cobb's strategies are based on common sense, established human behavior and what were once considered tried and true principles, too long forgotten. In one personal anecdote after another, gained from hundreds of experiences in the workplace, Cobb amply demonstrates that what is considered conservative and safe is in fact often a sure road to ruin and defeat. In engaging and straightforward language, "Quit Feeding the Monsters" contains the wisdom and tools that really work. With this book, you can learn how to stop nourishing the monsters plaguing your company once and for all.

Download or read book Digital Monsters written by Vivian Asimos and published by . This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Monsters Monstrosities and the Monstrous in Culture and Society written by Diego Compagna and published by Vernon Press. This book was released on 2020-01-28 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Existing research on monsters acknowledges the deep impact monsters have especially on Politics, Gender, Life Sciences, Aesthetics and Philosophy. From Sigmund Freud’s essay ‘The Uncanny’ to Scott Poole’s ‘Monsters in America’, previous studies offer detailed insights about uncanny and immoral monsters. However, our anthology wants to overcome these restrictions by bringing together multidisciplinary authors with very different approaches to monsters and setting up variety and increasing diversification of thought as ‘guiding patterns’. Existing research hints that monsters are embedded in social and scientific exclusionary relationships but very seldom copes with them in detail. Erving Goffman’s doesn’t explicitly talk about monsters in his book ‘Stigma’, but his study is an exceptional case which shows that monsters are stigmatized by society because of their deviations from norms, but they can form groups with fellow monsters and develop techniques for handling their stigma. Our book is to be understood as a complement and a ‘further development’ of previous studies: The essays of our anthology pay attention to mechanisms of inequality and exclusion concerning specific historical and present monsters, based on their research materials within their specific frameworks, in order to ‘create’ engaging, constructive, critical and diverse approaches to monsters, even utopian visions of a future of societies shared by monsters. Our book proposes the usual view, that humans look in a horrified way at monsters, but adds that monsters can look in a critical and even likewise frightened way at the very societies which stigmatize them.

Download or read book Writing Monsters written by Philip Athans and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2014-09-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters are more than things that go bump in the night... Monsters are lurking in the woods, beneath the waves, and within our favorite books, films, and games--and there are good reasons why they appear so often. Monsters are manifestations of our fears and symbols of our society--not to mention they're a lot of fun--but each should serve a purpose and enhance the themes and tension in your fiction. In Writing Monsters, best-selling author Philip Athans uses classic examples from books, films, and the world around us to explore what makes monsters memorable--and terrifying. You'll learn what monsters can (and should) represent in your story and how to create monsters from the ground up. Writing Monsters includes: • In-depth discussions of where monsters come from, what they symbolize, and how to best portray them in fiction • Informative overviews of famous monsters, archetypes, and legendary creatures • A Monster Creation Form to help you create your monster from scratch • An annotated version of H.P. Lovecraft's chilling story "The Unnamable" Whether you write fantasy, science fiction, or horror, your vampires, ghouls, aliens, and trolls need to be both compelling and meaningful. With Writing Monsters, you can craft creatures that will wreak havoc in your stories and haunt your readers' imaginations--and nightmares.

Download or read book Religion Culture and the Monstrous written by Joseph P. Laycock and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-02-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion, Culture, and the Monstrous: Of Gods and Monsters explores the intersection of the emerging field of “monster theory” within religious studies. With case studies from ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary valleys of the Himalayas to ghost tours in Savannah, Georgia, the volume examines the variegated nature of the monstrous as well as the cultural functions of monsters in shaping how we see the world and ourselves. In this, the authors constructively assess the state of the two fields of monster theory and religious studies, and propose new directions in how these fields can inform each other. The case studies included illuminate the ways in which monsters reinforce the categories through which a given culture sees the world. At the same time, the volume points to how monsters appear to question, disrupt, or challenge those categories, creating an ‘unsettling’ or surplus of meaning.

Download or read book Monster theory electronic resource written by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1996-11-15 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributors to Monster Theory consider beasts, demons, freaks and fiends as symbolic expressions of cultural unease that pervade a society and shape its collective behavior. Through a historical sampling of monsters, these essays argue that our fascination for the monstrous testifies to our continued desire to explore difference and prohibition.

Download or read book Monster Theory written by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributors to Monster Theory consider beasts, demons, freaks and fiends as symbolic expressions of cultural unease that pervade a society and shape its collective behavior. Through a historical sampling of monsters, these essays argue that our fascination for the monstrous testifies to our continued desire to explore difference and prohibition.

Download or read book Creating Cultural Monsters written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Serial murder and serial murderers have been the subject of considerable attention in fictional crime shows (e.g, the various versions of "Law and Order" and "CSI") and movies (e.g., "The Silence of the Lambs"), as well as in the print media, since the term and profile for "serial killer" were developed by the FBI in the 1970s. White, American men are frequently identified as being over-represented as serial murderers, but no adequate sociological explanation has yet been developed for this. Biological and psychological explanations are deficient, and the cultural context generally has been ignored in previous studies. Informed by a framework drawn from cultural sociology and gender studies, this study employs a qualitative content analysis of biographical narratives, newspaper articles, and legal documents regarding 15 serial murderers -- nine who appear to characterize the "typical" serial murderer and six who each represent a variation of one of the prototypical characteristics -- to identify the ways in which the American cultural milieu fosters serial murder and the creation of white, male serial murderers. A model is offered to illustrate the workings of culture and help explain the development of serial murderers in the United States. People utilize cultural values to construct lines of action according to their cultural competencies. American cultural values -- especially as they emphasize competition and individual achievement; white, male privilege; and hegemonic masculinity -- along with the emotional appeal of crime commission appear to contribute to the development of serial murderers by making serial murder an available and desirable line of action for some men. There appears to be more diversity in characteristics of serial murderers than popular profiles suggest, and implications of the exaggerated and apparently inaccurate representations of serial murder by the media and FBI are considered. In addition, commonly employed definitions appear to describe characteristics most associated with white, male serial murderers in the United States and exclude other cases of multiple murder and serial offending. Representations of serial murder reinforce and perpetuate the power structure in American society and related values, which sustains an environment for extreme violence and creates a cultural blindness to some perpetrators.

Download or read book Constructing Monsters in Shakespeare s Drama and Early Modern Culture written by Mark Thornton Burnett and published by Springer. This book was released on 2002-10-28 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constructing 'Monsters' in Shakespearean Drama and Early Modern Culture argues for the crucial place of the 'monster' in the early modern imagination. Burnett traces the metaphorical significance of 'monstrous' forms across a range of early modern exhibition spaces - fairground displays, 'cabinets of curiosity' and court entertainments - to contend that the 'monster' finds its most intriguing manifestation in the investments and practices of contemporary theatre. The study's new readings of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson make a powerful case for the drama's contribution to debates about the 'extraordinary body'.

Download or read book Tracking Classical Monsters in Popular Culture written by Liz Gloyn and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-31 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it about ancient monsters that popular culture still finds so enthralling? Why do the monsters of antiquity continue to stride across the modern world? In this book, the first in-depth study of how post-classical societies use the creatures from ancient myth, Liz Gloyn reveals the trends behind how we have used monsters since the 1950s to the present day, and considers why they have remained such a powerful presence in our shared cultural imagination. She presents a new model for interpreting the extraordinary vitality that classical monsters have shown, and their enormous adaptability in finding places to dwell in popular culture without sacrificing their connection to the ancient world. Her argument takes her readers through a comprehensive tour of monsters on film and television, from the much-loved creations of Ray Harryhausen in Clash of the Titans to the monster of the week in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before looking in detail at the afterlives of the Medusa and the Minotaur. She develops a broad theory of the ancient monster and its life after antiquity, investigating its relation to gender, genre and space to offer a bold and novel exploration of what keeps drawing us back to these mythical beasts. From the siren to the centaur, all monster lovers will find something to enjoy in this stimulating and accessible book.

Download or read book Monsters Among Us written by Dr Leviak B Kelly D DIV and published by . This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When people think of monsters and creatures of the night, they think supernatural beasts and evil wickedness or they think of television and literary creatures that range from hero through villain. They rarely ever understand the origins of these creatures past the cursory legends, such as Dracula as the historical character of Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler. This book moves beyond this and delves deep into the very core of the legends, It speaks to the very "atoms", "molecules", and delves into the very quanta of the origins. It deals with the actual rise of these creatures in what the general public would view new and novel. In truth, though, it is neither new or novel. The book, through reference to scientific papers, journeys to the "center of the earth" if you will and into the molten core of the legends of these truly sad characters. For as the heat of molten core of the earth melts away flesh, so also the information in this book melts away the error and superstitions. Using only educated and naturalistic thinking, the authors show that supernatural thought processes have shaped theologies of religion and cultural mythologies that were created from viruses and their symptoms. They created monsters. However, this supernatural or religious thinking not only created monsters from their ignorance of the natural world but created it from suffering people. A suffering that was increased because of supernal ideologies that themselves may have been created by a virus. Come with the authors into the past and view the minority report of the origins of monsters, demons, and venerated diseases. See the suffering that the infected suffered without a naturalistic mindset as the ill were cascaded with further suffering by theologies that shaped our global culture for over 6000 years of punishment on the innocent. Enter the microcosmic world of viruses and bacteria that have created, yes created, religious theologies that influenced our cultures with a history of pain for the innocent and guilty alike. When you do this, you will be shocked to find how faith has been injured by beliefs that strive to punish rather than help the suffering. Look at the genuine "Monsters Among Us" if you dare to view the truth.

Download or read book Monsters Law Crime written by Caroline Joan "Kay" S. Picart and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-11-18 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters, Law, Crime, an edited collection composed of essays written by prominent U.S. and international experts in Law, Criminology, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication and Film, constitutes a rigorous attempt to explore fertile interdisciplinary inquiries into “monsters” and “monster-talk,” and law and crime. This edited collection explores and updates contemporary discussions of the emergent and evolving frontiers of monster theory in relation to cutting-edge research on law and crime as extensions of a Gothic Criminology. This theoretical framework was initially developed by Caroline Joan “Kay” S. Picart, a Philosophy and Film professor turned Attorney and Law professor, and Cecil Greek, a Sociologist (Picart and Greek 2008). Picart and Greek proposed a Gothic Criminology to analyze the fertile synapses connecting the “real” and the “reel” in the flow of Gothic metaphors and narratives that abound around criminological phenomena that populate not only popular culture but also academic and public policy discourses. Picart's edited collection adapts the framework to focus predominantly on law and the social sciences.

Download or read book Monsters in America written by W. Scott Poole and published by . This book was released on 2018-07-15 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters are here to stay.--Christopher James Blythe "Journal of Religion and Popular Culture"

Download or read book Man Made Monsters written by Bob Curran and published by Red Wheel/Weiser. This book was released on 2010-11-20 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life exists all around us, in forms that we can readily and easily identify. But what if there were, lurking in the shadows, other forms of life that are not so familiar, creatures created not by Nature, but by Man? We know their names—Frankenstein, the Golem, the homunculi of the ancient alchemists; they exist in our stories and myths. But just what are these mysterious creatures, and do they actually have some basis in reality? In his fascinating and wide-ranging new book, Dr. Bob Curran explores man-made monsters and the truth behind the myths. You’ll learn fascinating details about: The 19th century scientist who tried to bring the dead back to life—the model for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein The Man of Clay who lumbered through the streets of medieval Prague at the command of early rabbis Tales of robots that may have existed in the ancient world and threatened Greek and Roman warriors. Cloning and the artificial creation of life, and what strange and mysterious areas they may be heading into. Man-Made Monsters is essential reading for anyone who wants to explore artificial beings and peer into the dark recesses of the human mind...where they may indeed be hiding.

Download or read book Monsters of Film Fiction and Fable written by Lisa Wenger Bro and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-27 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters are a part of every society, and ours is no exception. They are deeply embedded in our history, our mythos, and our culture. However, treating them as simply a facet of children’s stories or escapist entertainment belittles their importance. When examined closely, we see that monsters have always represented the things we fear: that which is different, which we can’t understand, which is dangerous, which is Other. But in many ways, monsters also represent our growing awareness of ourselves and our changing place in a continually shrinking world. Contemporary portrayals of the monstrous often have less to do with what we fear in others than with what we fear about ourselves, what we fear we might be capable of. The nineteen essays in this volume explore the place and function of the monstrous in a variety of media – stories and novels like Baum’s Oz books or Gibson’s Neuromancer; television series and feature films like The Walking Dead or Edward Scissorhands; and myths and legends like Beowulf and The Loch Ness Monster – in order to provide a closer understanding of not just who we are and who we have been, but also who we believe we can be – for better or worse.

Download or read book Women and Other Monsters written by Jess Zimmerman and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh cultural analysis of female monsters from Greek mythology, and an invitation for all women to reclaim these stories as inspiration for a more wild, more “monstrous” version of feminism The folklore that has shaped our dominant culture teems with frightening female creatures. In our language, in our stories (many written by men), we underline the idea that women who step out of bounds—who are angry or greedy or ambitious, who are overtly sexual or not sexy enough—aren’t just outside the norm. They’re unnatural. Monstrous. But maybe, the traits we’ve been told make us dangerous and undesirable are actually our greatest strengths. Through fresh analysis of 11 female monsters, including Medusa, the Harpies, the Furies, and the Sphinx, Jess Zimmerman takes us on an illuminating feminist journey through mythology. She guides women (and others) to reexamine their relationships with traits like hunger, anger, ugliness, and ambition, teaching readers to embrace a new image of the female hero: one that looks a lot like a monster, with the agency and power to match. Often, women try to avoid the feeling of monstrousness, of being grotesquely alien, by tamping down those qualities that we’re told fall outside the bounds of natural femininity. But monsters also get to do what other female characters—damsels, love interests, and even most heroines—do not. Monsters get to be complete, unrestrained, and larger than life. Today, women are becoming increasingly aware of the ways rules and socially constructed expectations have diminished us. After seeing where compliance gets us—harassed, shut out, and ruled by predators—women have never been more ready to become repellent, fearsome, and ravenous.