A more knowable Other

In this week’s class we discussed the role monsters play in media to define both humanity and God. By suggesting something entirely unlike ourselves, we negotiate the characteristics that make us human. Similarly, according to negative theology, by portraying what God is not, we come to a better understanding of what he is. In particular, we discussed zombies and vampires in class, while the readings also alluded to ghosts and mummies. I would like to suggest, however, that representations of human beings with grotesque tendencies, who are monster like in action, are much more powerful than monsters that are clearly not (or no longer) human. These monsters fulfill a unique role in art by trying to understand the darkness of humanity in a much less metaphorical fashion.

The perfect example for what I am getting at is Hannibal Lecter, the fictional character from Silence of the Lambs, who is the perfect representative of the sociopathic serial killer. This character is very much a human biologically, however something blocks him from feeling a normal sense of social boundaries or moral sentiment. As a monster, he is quite distinct from mummies, zombies and vampires in that he’s alive, corporeal, and intelligent. Yet, Lecter’s inhumanity, his lack of feeling, his unrecognisable notion of “justice” are arguably more abhorrent and terrifying than the mindless hunger for destruction embodied by zombies.

The thing about Lecter is that he is ostensibly like us: human, alive, intelligent, and yet, so dissimilar. He represents moreso than any other genre what is perhaps the monstrous capacity residing with all, supernaturally/scientifically unaltered human beings. Indeed, in cases such as those of serial killers, and representations of the inhumane human, the boundaries between the monster as Other and us are incredibly blurred. It is for that reason that I think films like that resonate so much with us.