Horror 101, Monday

[chosehumanity]

"One of the main cornerstones of horror as a genre has always been demons," Mitchell began, tapping his fingers against the couch. "Inside and out. What we are going to be focusing on over the next few weeks is the 'out' part - or the more visible kind, at least. Some of you may have worlds where these creatures are real, crawling around in the dark or lurking elegantly in the shadows. Some of you might only know them as stories. But monsters are a thing of every time and every place."

"Most sources will tell you the start of it was Mary Shelley's meta for Frankenstein. The creation of a monster. It's poetic, in a sense, but it might as well have been science fiction. Is it our fear of being monstrous, or our fear of the monster, when the story talks about how much he was misunderstood? How much of it is about fear of the other, and how much is fear of ourselves, of what we're capable of if one day, we wake up as something not quite human? The name of the book is the name of the doctor who came up with the monster to begin with. So who's the center of our story, really?"

He considered the class. "We'll be watching some of that for a film today, just to start you off light," he said, finally, "But afterwards, I'd like to know. What is monstrous to you? What's the scariest monster you can think of, and why does it frighten you? Do you feel like this guy," he tapped the monster on the front of the DVD case, "Or the blokes chasing him around with pitchforks? What's the anatomy of your monster?"

Beat.

"Oh, and it's in black and white. Just to get you Philistines adjusted to real film."

Comments

Sign In

[chosehumanity]

Monsterously.

Re: Sign In

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex Karev

Listen to the Lecture

[chosehumanity]

Blah blah, blah blah...

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex didn't take any notes because there weren't many to take. There were monsters out there, he knew it, and he'd dealt with them. Saying 'his father' as answer to everything wouldn't work and he sure as shit wasn't mentioning that one out loud.

Maybe copious back hair and an unhealthy love of Celine Dion would work as an answer.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

Jennifer definitely was taking notes. And hoping the teacher wasn't about to freak out that, well, one of his students was now kinda huge and green.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[vanillajello]

It felt like more than a week since Kate had been in Mitchell's class. Stuff had been happening.

She was happy to be here, but she would have wanted him to talk longer so she could've stayed distracted from her thoughts.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[lickyourmind.livejournal.com]

Jason was hungover. Didn't mean he didn't think about his own monster.

For all of two seconds.

He didn't like to think much.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Emma loved the tale of Frankenstein, and was happy to curl up on one of the couches to listen to the lecture.

...sharing her personal monsters? Not so much.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[furnaceface]

Jono took idle notes through most of the lecture, but found that there were parts of it that were hitting far too close to home.

He put down his pen and listened quietly at the 'waking up as something not quite human' part, his eyes on his desk.

Watch the Movie

[chosehumanity]

Meta for Frankenstein (1931) is on show today, kids.

Re: Watch the Movie

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Too much thinking or not, Alex couldn't fault a class where they got to watch movies. This one wasn't his favorite (too boring, too old) but he paid attention nonetheless.

Re: Watch the Movie

[bitten_notshy]

Jack had seen this before -- it had been part of one of his binges on modern(ish) culture -- and read the book besides, but he didn't mind watching it again.

The part with the little girl was heartbreaking.

Re: Watch the Movie

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

Jennifer watched with rapt attention. She'd seen it before, but this time, she was really paying attention to the themes and how the director accentuated them through the mise-en-scene.

Re: Watch the Movie

[vanillajello]

Kate, too, had seen this one before. Having a film geek brother and being too lazy to get up from the couch when he came to hog the biggest TV in the house could result in having seen many movies you weren't actually intending too watch.

Still, she paid attention, sometimes cracking a little smile when she noticed details Marshall had pointed out to her.

Re: Watch the Movie

[lickyourmind.livejournal.com]

He wasn't sleeping. He was just resting his eyes a little during the show.

Discuss

[chosehumanity]

So what makes your monster?

Re: Discuss

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Someone with an unhealthy love of Celine Dion. That'd be the scariest monster ever," he joked at first, grinning. "Or, barring that, I've always thought someone who would pretend to love you or like you or something like that and then use that as a weapon was pretty frigging monstrous. That sort of trait could be applied to a lot of people yet almost everyone can grow that talent if they want to."

Re: Discuss

[awakestheghosts]

Chloe wasn't sure how to answer this question, because really, wasn't the creator the monster... because what he did was unnatural. Then again, didn't that make her a monster, too, then? She brought things back from the dead -- although it wasn't something she ever wanted or tried to do. It just happened thanks to experiments when her mom --

Anyway. She wasn't really sure how to answer this question.

Re: Discuss

[bitten_notshy]

"I don't think the doctor is a monster for building the creature," Jack answered thoughtfully, "but I think getting the peasants to hunt for him was a bit more monstrous. It makes some sense in the movie, but I'd call whoever brings an angry mob together to go after something the real monster, especially if the target can't defend itself."

Re: Discuss

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Monstrous to me is a lack of remorse or conscience," Jennifer said. Not thinking of anyone in particular, no. "Being able to hurt others without batting an eye, and having the intelligence to know it's wrong but doing it anyway."

"As for who I empathize with, well... it's the creature. I'm not calling him a monster, because he's not."

He's a lot like her cousin Bruce, when she thinks about it.

Re: Discuss

[vanillajello]

"I think I'm with Jennifer on the whole 'lack of remorse as monstrous' thing," Kate said, leaning back in her chair. "I don't really think in terms of actual, physical monsters, probably because where I come from all the real monsters are people. And that's why I don't think the 'monster' in the film is a monster at all."

Re: Discuss

[lickyourmind.livejournal.com]

"I ain't got no monster," he spoke up, somewhat groggily. He also lied. But no way was he talking about his personal shit in front of others in a classroom setting.

Talk to the TAs

[chosehumanity]

When the lovely ladies ping in.

Re: Talk to the TAs

[awakestheghosts]

Chloe was here and ready to help.

Talk to Mitchell

[chosehumanity]

He's here. And accounted for. And chewing idly on some popcorn.

OOC

[chosehumanity]

And now it's time to go watch the new Being Human. OM NOM YAY.

ETA: "The disembodied spirit of a dead woman is about to get a job in the service industry, what could possibly go wrong?" Oh, Mitchell. Oh, Annie. ♥, show. I've missed you.

Re: OOC

[onlysmokesnics.livejournal.com]

*glances back up at Jen's 'watch the movie' comment*

Yeeeeah, I was a film major, how'd you guess? *facepalm*