monsters
not real monsters, like Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Manson. there may be ways I appreciate them too, but when I wrote down "monsters" I wasn't thinking of them, I was thinking of Godzilla but more particularly of Grendel and his mother. and in particuar I was thinking that a good monster is really only ourselves exposed. Grendel is who we might be if we could tear the roof off a hero's hall, pluck out a sleeping warrior and eat him, armor, weapons, and all. Grendel is who we might be without love or admiration or respect. and Grendel's mother is one of us who had the courage to bear and raise and train Grendel. she fled her place among us, and grew powerful enough to get back at us - we can be pretty awful to the helpless among us. she grew powerful enough to threaten the great hero Beowulf so that in the battle between them, we worry whether Beowulf will win, even though we know he must. he is the hero, after all. so a good monster is one of ourselves exposed, but also one of ourselves grown inordinately powerful, and one of us for whom we will feel a twinge of guilt and of loss when the hero defeats the monster.
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