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hey-its-sybarite · 4 months ago

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Remember: You Are Prey

[In mythology the ancient and wild Gods were recast] in a more bloodless and pro-human-society light. I’d argue that this parallels a major shift in how popular storytelling has changed the story of the vampire: increasingly humanising them and showing them working inside of human society and its rules, instead of being a destructive force that hurts us.

How many vampire stories now feature characters who only target the evildoer? Who channel their monstrous natures in ways that benefit humans? Who are inspiring and even loveable to humans?

I’d say too many. We neutered horror in our story telling. Pulled its fangs or worse, made those fangs sexy. Something about the way this incarnation of Interview With the Vampire is unfolding suggests that this has been our mistake. They aim to remind us not simply of our empathy and love for the monstrous, but of our fear of it.

The trial, too, is a recurring feature in stories where humans grapple with the supernatural and horrific. It’s an overlay of human reason, fairness, judgement and control, human morality, on the random, cruel and violent nature of forces previously believed beyond our sphere of influence, outside of prayer, sacrifice and ordeal. The trial is our triumph of reason over the terror of millennia of Gods and Monsters. Of our ability to protect ourselves, we who were once merely another prey animal.

Trials are so modern and so human, even when the trial itself is a sham or when the punishment is barbaric, the fact that a trial exists at all is narrative evidence that humans have some control over their world. But Interview With the Vampire is a horror story and I think it’s going to pose the question of whether humans can actually hold the horrors at bay, especially when we’ve recast our old supernatural foes as romantic heroes in our new mythology.

This criticism of the audience is of the audience in the theatre for The Trial, yes. But also of us viewers, and even of the people making the show. We’re all complicit because we all enjoy telling stories this way. We’ve trapped ourselves here, come willing to our doom and doomed others along the way.

((This is from a more detailed post, one of two on Francis Bacon and the Greek Furies, hence the abrupt beginning, apologies.))

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burgleyourturtwigs · 2 years ago

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Finally finished reading the book I checked out MONTHS ago but never got around to

I maybe need to stop reading conservation ecology adjacent books tho. Bc… sad….

#anyway this one was Monster of God by David Quammen from like 2003 #featured lions tigers and bears oh my!#and also crocodiles

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reviews-sky-1 · 2 years ago

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New book review!

Monster of God by David Quammen

Link

#book review #amreading #non fiction #david quammen #monster of god

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adventuresinbiologysection · 8 months ago

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Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in... by David Quammen ISBN: 0393051404

#books #biology #lion #gir #india

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krusebruce · 5 months ago

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"Its one thing to be dead. Its enougher thing to be meat."

- David Quammen "Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind"

#braindump

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maphatingcharacteroftheday · 4 years ago

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About your Fiction and reality list:

The first Twilight link doesn’t work, it goes to a random section of the Washington Post

Jaws didn’t start the myth. Jaws was based on a true albeit incredibly unlikely incident. Jaws EXACERBATED the myth

For more on that I recommend Monster of God by David Quammen

To be clear I agree that fiction affects reality but a lot of your master list doesn’t hold up to scrutiny

The first Twilight link doesn’t work, it goes to a random section of the Washington Post

It does work

Jaws didn’t start the myth. Jaws was based on a true albeit incredibly unlikely incident. Jaws EXACERBATED the myth

I say tomato you say tom-ay-toe

For more on that I recommend Monster of God by David Quammen

Thank u

#if i may criticise your criticism these weren't valid criticisms #mod pudge #Anonymous

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redbelles · 4 years ago

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yet another tag meme

rules: tag 9 people you'd like to know better/catch up with

tagged by: @mamsellefreeman ✨

last song: that’s alright by fleetwood mac

last movie: pacific rim (2014); such a shame it never got a sequel

currently watching: (re)watching season one of the punisher and getting ready to binge bridgerton

currently reading: monster of god by david quammen, wake, siren by nina mclaughlin, american wolf by nate blakeslee, haunted ground by erin hart, and pine by francine toon. a desperate attempt to catch up on my reading challenge, you say? shhhh it’s fine.

currently craving: fully ready to knife someone for some shrimp scampi

tagging: @timothyolyphant @alessandroborghee @chris-evans @witch @carry-the-sky @majicmarker @ninzied @neversleepingever @woodswit and anyone else who wants a go 💫

#dash games

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aconissa · 4 years ago

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do you have any adventure novel recommendations? especially but not exclusively of the seafaring/age of sail variety?

Hell yeah I do! Although fair warning, since I read lots of survival/exploration and horror, many (though not all) of these involve adventures going wrong:

Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series, starting with Master and Commander (my favourite age of sail novels by far!)

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (historical novel with a black protag)

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff (set in Roman Britain)

A Land So Wild by Elyssa Warkentin (polar exploration, gay & perfect)

William Golding's Sea Trilogy, starting with Rites of Passage (age of sail journey to Australia)

C. S. Forester’s Hornblower series, starting with The Happy Return (or can be read in chronological order starting with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, thus following the main character’s progress from midshipman to ship’s captain)

This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson (about the Beagle voyage)

The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge (about the Scott expedition)

Dark Matter and Thin Air by Michelle Paver (both involve ghosts; the first is set in the Arctic and the second is about mountaineering)

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant (sci-fi horror with mermaids and deep sea exploration - super fun and diverse!)

The Hunger by Alma Katsu (a horror retelling of the Donner-Reed Party)

The Terror by Dan Simmons (a horror retelling of the Franklin Expedition)

The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky (historical fantasy about Inuit and Viking characters)

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle (the second Jurassic Park novel has the same title and I’d also recommend it - it’s more of an adventure story than it is in the movie, and it’s awesome!)

I know you said novels but there’s a lot of very compelling non-fiction books too which I’d highly recommend:

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (about the 1996 Everest disaster)

Last Hours on Everest by Graham Hoyland (about Mallory & Irving)

Boundless by Kathleen Winter (about her exploration of the Northwest Passage)

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick (about the Whaleship Essex)

Monster of God by David Quammen (about large predators)

Dead Mountain by Donnie Eichar (about the Dyatlov Pass incident)

Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash (about the Batavia mutiny)

#recs #history #anon #ask

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gadarenes-blog · 8 years ago

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what's one book that changed your life?? (or more than one if you want hksjfhfk)

Definitely the handmaid’s tale. I first read it when I was 14, and it was my first real introduction to feminism. The whole time I was reading it I thought it was a great book and a really cool story, but I didn’t think it was particularly relevant. I thought it was really out there and kind of baseless, and most certainly not feasible. But once I finished reading it I couldn’t get it out of my head, and I started to wonder if maybe sexism was still a problem for present day North American women. (Please don’t judge me omg I was Not raised a feminist.) So I sat down and read the whole thing again, and realised that so much of it was really relatable to me. That at 14 I’d already experienced a lot of slut shaming from men and women both, that I’d been belittled and mocked and humoured and stunted by literally every man in my life. So I went to the school library at lunch and googled feminism, and boy howdy I have not been the same since. It completely changed me as a person and opened my eyes to the world around me and thank gOD for that

#also honourable mention to monster of god by David quammen #that book is the reason I became vegan #the handmaid's tale #ask

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theriomantic · 5 years ago

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People have been blowing up my DMs and texts, so this needed saying to save y’all some time: no, I haven’t seen ‘Tiger King’ and no, I have no intention on doing so.

But see, this has me musing a bit. Settle in. Here we go.

I’ve known about the drama and controversy surrounding Carol Baskin and Joe exotic long before the Netflix show ever came out. The thing I picked up on from the very start is their commonalities, though they seem to be on opposing sides. That need for attention, the use and exploitation of big cats as a crutch for the ego. Flamboyancy, though the flavors may vary in the person. And see, I’ve seen this all before in the occult and conjure communities: attention-seeking and fragile masculinity being buttressed by the use of great cat imagery, or great cats themselves. Many wouldn’t be able to tell the animals apart in the flesh—cheetahs mistaken for leopards, leopards mistaken for jaguars. There is a constant contest to be edgy or tough, or spooky and mysterious. Lion skin belts and skulls and claws are highly desirable objects to some, though many seeking them would be hard-pressed to provide an accurate account or depiction of the animal's behavior or natural history.

See, it’s an all-too human thing to focus on the strength and the fangs and the roaring. We focus on all the aspects of the animal that brought death or awe to our ancestors. What we don’t often consider is that great cats don’t often like to fight. For the most part they walk silently through their forests, and fight only if absolutely necessary; they have way too much to lose otherwise. I’ve heard one naturalist use the example of two men facing each other ready to fight, but each one is armed with a hand grenade. There are huge prices to pay to be a great cat (or a related predator such as a bear). One single scratch can cripple and turn septic, resulting in a lingering death by infection or starvation, or perhaps by a rival making his move on mates or territory. Cats know how to be conservative, they are masters of caution. Ultimately it would be safe to say that the human animal is a far more aggressive and war-like beast. Animals are often mirrors by which we come to view ourselves. They are also often receptacles for our projections and images, whether intentional or not. Shows like 'Tiger King' are only further manifestations of these all-too-human impulses and desires. I would say it's time to turn the mirror onto ourselves, and take a good hard look at exactly why shows like Tiger King attract or disgust us (or both at the same time).