Of Monsters, Myths and Marketing: The Case of the Loch Ness Monster

This paper examines the status of the Loch Ness Monster within a diverse body of literature relating to Scotland. Within cryptozoology this creature is considered as a source of investigation, something to be taken seriously as a scientific or quasi-scientific object to be studied and known, particularly in light of its elusive nature. In terms of mythology the creature is bound up with Scottish cultural identifications through references to a rugged wilderness landscape and to iconic, if stereotypical, images of tartanry, bygone castles, and folklore. Both sets of ideas have been used with great effect to generate a diversity of literature: from books and scientific papers that chronicle the sightings and “hunt” for the creature as well the possible case for it being a line of long-surviving plesiosaurs, through to children’s literature that deals with the mythic element that is so often used to appeal to childhood imagination, and on to a plethora of tourist marketing booklets and brochures

The Journey of the Mute Frankenstein of Thomas Potter Cooke. Towards a language for a new science

In 1923 at the Royal Theatre English Opera House of London started the journey of the mute Frankenstein of Thomas Potter Cook. On that stage the creature born from the encounter between science and romantic genius definitively lost his voice to progressively assume more and more the appearance of a body that speaks for itself, beyond literary fact, and above all beyond verbal language. If in the novel by Mary Shelley the acquisition of a language is the main tool of identity emancipation for the indefinable 'product' of contemporary scientific culture, on stage the actor Cooke, who played that silent character 365 times, laid the foundations of one of the myths of modernity. The article questions the way in which the creature of Dr. Victor Frankenstein came into the midst of 1820s European popular culture, contributing on the one hand to preparing public imagination for the debate on Darwinism that would take place forty years later; revealing on the other a new fundamental aesthetic perception, because the discoveries of the new sciences (chemistry, physics, physiology, etc.) became a common experience that can be found empirically

Playing with monsters: character operators in natural language

In his seminal work on demonstratives, Kaplan (1989) banned monsters from the realm of natural language semantics arguing that the English language does not contain operators that operate on linguistic character and, furthermore, that such operators could not be added to it. The first claim has been disputed since, giving rise to a monster hunt that led to the discovery of alleged monsters in a number of natural languages, and even to monstrous expressions in English. The second claim, however, seems to have been just implicitly answered by some of the responses to the first one. The goal of this brief paper is to offer a counterexample to that second assertion: the thesis that monsters could not be added to English. I claim not only that there are monsters, but that we can introduce monsters into the English language. Therefore, this is an essay about the possibility of implementing character operators into the English language. In order to do so, I first lay out a framework for a monstrous taxonomy. I then point to a very particular monster that terrorises children in Mexico, giving a superficial characterisation of it, and finally replying to some possible objections regarding its status as a real monster. The moral of this paper is that we only need a bit of wicked, child-like imagination in order to bring monsters to life in English.https://www.ester.ee/record=b538269

Power Explorer – a casual game style for encouraging long term behavior change among teenagers

When it comes to motivating teenagers towards energy awareness, new approaches need to be considered. One such is the use of pervasive games connected to the players own energy consumption. Earlier work has confirmed this to be a highly effective approach. The question however remains if post game effects on behavior can be achieved. In this paper we try to answer this by trying out a slightly different design compared to previous work. The hypothesis is that a more casual game play and a richer learning interaction enabled by building the game on a real time sensor system could stimulate more lasting effects. Electric consumption data after the 7 days evaluation on a test group of 15 players shows tentative indications for a persistent post game effect compared to the control group of 20 households. Findings also show a statistically significant positive change in the players’ attitude towards saving energy compared to the same group. Findings, at the same time, also indicate a negative effect on the player’s attitude toward environmental questions in general

Uncanny survivors and the Nazi beast: Monstrous imagination in See under: Love

In the past three decades, as writers have grappled with the legacy of the Holocaust and its aftermath, figures of the uncanny—such as ghosts, monsters, and mythic beings—have consistently appeared as salient metaphors in Holocaust fiction. As symbols of the vexed relationship between Jewish past and present, monstrous creatures demand that readers examine what it means to be human in a post-Holocaust universe, a universe that has exhibited an extreme capacity for inhumanity. This essay examines David Grossman’s See Under: Love—especially its renowned first chapter, “Momik”—as one of the most effective Holocaust narratives to employ a monster motif. The “Nazi Beast” and eerie survivors in the novel self-consciously call into question the strategies writers and readers use when wrestling with ideas about postwar trauma. By exploring the ethical and aesthetic implications of Momik’s “Beast” this essay also asks what is gained or lost by using such an overdetermined symbol as the monster to grapple with the equally problematic constructions of both perpetrators and traumatized survivors

Monstrous Mobility in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula

This thesis explores Late Victorian Gothic texts that are central to theories on monstrosity in terms of mobility by examining Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula. The goal of this project is to survey the ways in which two exemplary monsters, Mr. Hyde and Count Dracula, promote mobility for others and themselves as an inherent part of their monstrosity. The variety of this mobility is demonstrated by examples showing how monsters move and encourage movement in ways that are social and transformative as well as physical. Because social mobility is essential to these movements, this study also considers the societies these monsters enter and interrupt. The gentleman bachelors of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula\u27s Crew of Light and the women they seek to protect are presented as monolithic groups that the monster joins, transforms, and spurs into movement. By identifying mobility as one of the main attributes of monstrosity, this argument seeks to not only add to the copious amount of scholarship already done on these works but also to reconcile some of them since many of the most critically controversial aspects of these texts are rooted in the monster\u27s mobility. A study focused on movement not only adds something that is missing from the existing discussion on these seminal monsters but also provides a new framework through which to discuss constantly evolving theories of monstrosity

Boy Melodrama: Genre Negotiations and Gender-Bending in the Supernatural Series

For years Supernatural (CW, 2005–) has gained the status of a cult series as well as one of the most passionate and devoted fandoms that has ever emerged. Even though the main concept of the series indicates that Supernatural should appeal predominantly to young male viewers, in fact, the fandom is dominated by young women who are the target audience of the CW network. My research is couched in fan studies and audience studies methodological perspectives as it is impossible to understand the phenomenon of Supernatural without referring to its fandom and fan practices. However, it focuses on the series’ structure in order to explain how this structure enables Supernatural’s viewers to challenge and revise prevailing gender roles. Supernatural combines elements of divergent TV genres, traditionally associated with either male or female audiences. It opens up to gender hybridity through genre hybridity: by interweaving melodrama with horror and other “masculine” genres the show provides a fascinating example of Gothic television which questions any simplistic gender identifications