Read On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears Online
Authors: Stephen T. Asma
Nous
(Mind),
43
nuclear weapons,
256
–257
Nussbaum, Martha,
8
oarfish,
1
–2
Obama, Barack,
247
Odontotyrannus,
31
Oliver Twist,
235
omens, portents and prophetic arts,
13
Aristotle on,
48
–49
reliance on,
39
toad-fish monster as,
141
–142
one-legged men (Sciopodes),
77
–78,
78
,
129
On Monsters and Marvels
(Pare),
144
“On the Proper Time to Slip the Cable” (Seneca),
60
ontogeny,
164
oppression,
246
–249
orbitofrontal cortex,
223
Orchard, Andy,
100
The Organ of the Devil
(Rops),
118
Origin of Species
(Darwin),
138
,
168
O’Sullivan, Deborah,
204
Othello
(Shakespeare),
131
–132
Our Posthuman Future
(Fukuyama),
273
outcast archetype,
11
–12,
100
–101
pain, sympathetic,
224
paleontology,
164
Palestine,
69
Palmer, John,
109
–110
paralimbic system,
223
parasitic relationships,
198
–199,
201
,
251
Paré, Ambroise,
129
,
141
,
144
–148,
155
,
156
parents,
209
–210,
269
–270,
273
–274.
See
also
mothers Paris, Mathew,
87
Parmenides,
37
Pascal, Blaise,
xv
Passion of St. Christopher
,
81
Patriot Act,
241
Pax genes,
178
Peale, Charles Wilson,
135
pedophiles,
223
perception,
49
–50
Pericles,
42
–43
Pew Research Center,
249
Phaedrus,
51
phenotypes,
171
Philadelphia Public Ledger
,
136
Phorcides,
28
Physiologus
,
126
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
,
194
“Ping Body” performance art,
264
–265
plastic surgeries,
262
,
265
–266,
276
–277
platypuses,
125
playthings of Nature, monsters as,
38
pleasure principle,
188
pleiotropy
,
273
Pliny the Elder
book of (
see Natural History
)
on Chinese,
37
and credulity,
33
on fossils,
30
on giant octopi,
35
on griffins,
28
on hermaphrodites,
42
on India and Ethiopia,
22
on Nature’s playthings,
38
on physiognomy,
283
on Scythian tribes,
36
on toad-fish monster,
142
on umbrella-footed humans,
36
on unicorns,
129
on werewolves,
33
–35
Pliny the Younger,
75
pliosaurs,
279
Poetics
(Aristotle),
34
–35
poetry,
27
Polidori, John,
183
pope-ass monster,
142
population reduction theory,
168
pornography,
245
possession
and exorcisms,
106
–107,
119
–120,
278
,
279
and loss of agency,
284
modern accounts of,
278
–279
and psychopathology,
225
–226
and sexual repression,
117
posthumanism,
261
–262,
266
–267,
273
–274,
275
power, human drive for,
187
,
217
,
244
,
265
–266
Power, Samantha,
281
preformationism,
45
–46
“Prester John’s Land” (Driesbach),
78
primates,
239
–240
primitivism,
216
–217
Prince Randian,
139
–140
prison experiment at Stanford University,
244
–245
prodigies,
146
Proffitt, Dennis R.,
22
Prometheus Bound
(Aeschylus),
27
,
28
Protestants,
142
prototype theory,
282
–283
Prysner, Mike,
235
Pseudodoxia epidemica
(Browne),
127
–128
pseudoprophetes (false prophets),
68
psittacosaurus,
29
psychopaths,
193
,
212
,
223
–226,
228
.
See
also
criminal monsters Psychopathy Checklist diagnostic tool,
220
psychosomatic theories,
148
purpose of monsters,
43
–44,
48
–49,
275
–276
Pygmies,
77
Pynchon, Thomas R.,
284
Pyrrhus, King of Epirus,
33
Al-Qaida,
249
Al-Qaida Reader
,
248
Quay, Stephen,
194
Quay, Timothy,
194
Qur’an,
92
race
attitudes toward,
235
and lynchings,
232
–233
and natural selection,
237
See also
xenophobia
racism,
138
Raimi, Sam,
183
Ramayana
,
37
Ramirez, Richard,
280
reality principle,
188
–189,
191
,
192
reason and rationality
of the ancients,
42
–45,
52
–54,
57
,
58
,
60
and concept of monsters,
10
Freudian theory on,
188
of medieval intellectuals,
80
–81
Reformation,
142
religion,
188
,
192
,
216
.
See also specific faiths
repression
and adulthood,
190
and conscience development,
210
and narcissism,
189
and sexuality,
116
–117,
195
–196,
215
–216
and torture porn,
197
and uncanniness,
192
reproduction
ambivalent reactions to,
184
and bio-horror,
201
and demons,
144
–145
and hybridism,
167
–168
and witches,
112
-113
Republic
(Plato),
52
–54,
194
–195,
212
repulsion,
5
–7
Resident Evil video game,
198
Resnick, Mitchel,
259
–260
responding to the marvelous, Doran’s model of,
130
–132,
140
Rhizocephala
(“root-headed” barnacle),
198
–199
Ringling Brothers Circus,
139
,
139
Ritvo, Harriet,
129
Robinson, Margaret,
33
robo-roach technology,
263
Roman Catholic Church
and Inquisition,
107
–108,
112
,
113
and omens,
142
and witches,
278
Romans, ancient
and biblical prophecy,
67
ethnocentrism of,
36
and hermaphrodites,
39
–42
and prophetic arts,
39
Romantic criticisms of science,
152
–153
Romero, George,
183
Romulus,
40
Rops, Felicien,
118
Roth, Eli,
196
–197
Rove, Karl,
281
Royal College of Surgeons,
156
,
166
Rush, Benjamin,
236
–237
Russell, Bertrand,
250
Rutilius Lupus,
39
Rwanda,
240
Sadler, John,
143
Salem witch trials,
109
saltational jumps in nature,
165
–166,
166
–169,
170
–171
Satan,
64
,
68
.
See also
demons and devils
scapegoats, monsters as,
11
Scaurus, Marcus,
30
school massacres,
203
–204,
205
,
216
Schopenhauer, Arthur,
187
,
191
,
192
Schubert, Laura,
279
Schwarzenegger, Arnold,
257
science fiction films,
199
,
212
–215
Sciopodes (one-legged men),
77
–78,
78
,
129
Scopes monkey trial,
139
Scythia,
88
sea monsters,
126
in Book of Revelation,
68
in literature,
185
Loch Ness Monster,
279
phobias about,
1
–3
Seba, Albertus,
123
secular ideology,
196
Seductions of Crime
(Katz),
211
segmentation process (somitogenesis),
171
,
176
–177
Sein und Zeit
(Heidegger),
185
Semu-Banda, Pilirani,
278
September 11th terrorist attacks,
197
,
201
,
241
,
249
serial killers
and aggression,
210
in film,
241
media coverage of,
195