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Preface: With a Warning to the Unsuspecting Reader
- Baylor University Press
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xiii Preface WITH A WARNING TO THE UNSUSPECTING READER Come now, My Child If we were planning To harm you, do you think We’d be lurking here Beside the path In the very darkEst part of The forest? —Kenneth Patchen Entertaining Comics (usually known simply as “EC”) created some of the most subversive images of the 1950s in titles like Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror. These macabre tales of mayhem, taking place in the midst of middle-class American life, used the conceit of a host known as the “Crypt Keeper” to introduce the horror and mix in some black humor. Late night showings of horror films on local TV used the same convention. In 1954 the world met Vampira, a campy and seductive woman in black, who introduced each film with a bloodcurdling scream. Here is a favorite introduction to a tale of terror from the Crypt Keeper that seems germane to this book’s purpose: Welcome dear fiends! Come in! Come into the Crypt of Terror! I am your host the crypt-keeper . . . This one is sure to freeze the blood in Preface / xiv your veins . . . Guaranteed to make little shivers run up and down your crawling spine! This little adventure in terror is about to happen to you! You are the main character. Right now, I am your crypt keeper and your Vampira. I am going to introduce you to monsters. I aim to give you unpleasant dreams. Since this is a book about monsters, you probably want to hear how I define the monster. Defining one’s terms, I am sure you have been told, is essential to any discussion. Setting out on our nighttime journey with a clear meaning of our terms might help us survive the night. A book about monsters should define its monsters. But I am not going to do it. At least, I am not going to give you a straightforward definition to underline or highlight. I prefer to take you on a wild ride through the darkness of the American past, galloping hard and fast like Ichabod Crane (and not making any ill-considered stops like poor Marion Crane) in hopes we can reach the bridge in time. Maybe if we do, we will have worked out our definition of the monster. Scholars like clear analytical mandates, that is, direct assertions of argument followed by supporting evidence. Since I hope at least some scholars of American history and culture will read this book, let me throw them a bone or two. I will even give them a scholarly citation to munch on like zombies with a nice meaty thighbone. I buy fully into Judith Halberstam’s argument that monsters are “meaning machines,” exuviating all manner of cultural productions depending on their context and their historical moment. In American history they have been symbols of deviance, objects of sympathy, and even images of erotic desire. They structured the enslavement of African Americans, constructed notions of crime and deviance, and provided mental fodder for the culture wars of the contemporary period.1 You see why I did not want to give you a definition? Monsters have been manufacturing complex meanings for four hundred years of American history. They do not mean one thing but a thousand. Only by looking at a multitude of monsters can we come to understand something about them and, in turn, something about American history. This book proposes to examine American history through its monsters. So do not expect neat definitions when it comes to a messy subject like monsters. A monster is a beast of excess, and monster stories are tales of excess. Part of what makes the horror film so much fun is that it refuses to follow the narrative plot of a simple melodrama. It does not contain conflict and ignore contradictions in order to produce a happy ending. It blows conventions into a million pieces and makes a fetish [3.229.123.80] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 15:24 GMT) Preface / xv out of excess. In this the horror film takes on the nature of its subject and its agent: the monster.2 The subject of monsters contains too much meaning. It is the House That Drips Blood and the thing with 20,000 eyes. It is bigger than it should be, more insatiable than anything in nature; it desires more and frightens you with its yawning monstrous maw. The very messiness of the monster makes it the perfect...