Monsters

The concept of monsters is fascinating to me. Monsters are creatures of pure evil who exist only to cause harm, destruction, and chaos.

Even wild animals would sooner be called beasts. Beasts, no matter how savage, can be soothed. They can be understood. They have feelings and struggle to survive. People may not like beasts, but at least if you leave them alone, they tend to leave you alone.

Monsters, though, have no emotions. The only ones they may feel are hate, spite, and malice. They are governed only by their desire to ruin things. They kill not to survive, but merely to end life. They attack things not because they feel threatened, but because a target to attack was noticed.

When you look at the way that the word 'monster' is used, you will see that it is for things which have no humanity and warrant no empathy or compassion. They are black holes, soulless demons.

Monsters exist in fairy tales because that is about the only place they can survive. Anywhere else, some one or something may seem monstrous (and some people may truly deserve that title), but they always maintain some shred of humanity. Things are alive. They struggle to survive. They have feelings and desires. These are characteristics that we should not ignore (otherwise you may be accused of being monstrous).

Of course, since writing is always about challenging authority, I would love to see somebody tell the story of a true, living monster.