After reading the article, I gathered that the feeling of
vulnerability drives humans to explore unrealistic circumstances. When
approached with a hypothetical situation, humans want to sincerely believe that
they can handle what life throws at them. With this being said, everyone pictures
themselves in a situation, such as being abducted by a raging psychopath or in
contact with a figure of our own imagination. Is this thought process really
about an outlet for people to deal with their vulnerability about scary
situations?
In a way I do believe it serves as an outlet for our fears
but at the same time I am not fully convinced it is a way for us to deal with
them.
“The monster concept is still extremely useful, and it's a
permanent player in the moral imagination because human vulnerability is
permanent. The monster is a beneficial foe, helping us to virtually represent
the obstacles that real life will surely send our way” Asma (6).
I understand situations in which people create such as
abduction and what they would do in that situation but what are the odds of the
particular situation really happening to you? I’ll have sudden thoughts about
these types of situations but I wouldn’t necessarily say that they are “beneficial”
to me. That’s a little farfetched of a scenario. I do
agree with the idea that people use monsters as a way to explore the most
unpredictable situations through observing others that are experiencing the
situation. People observe this happening in the form of a horror movie or
novel. We like to see how OTHERS will handle the situation…. not ourselves.
In the article Asma relates the sudden fascination humans
have for monsters such as zombies and vampires as a result of terrorist attacks,
specifically 9/11. Do we want to imagine situations that are possibly more
unimaginable than what has happen to us in the past? These two differing
situations are definitely not on the same level whatsoever. This is why I am
not fully convinced that our imagination of monsters is an outlet for us to
deal with obstacles that life sends our way.
Clearly, I wasn’t sold by this article.
Allison-I like that you took a stab at arguing against Asma's ideas, but I do think what he is saying has some truth to it. Maybe we don't constantly think of what we would do in extreme situations like Asma mentions, but if you can think of extreme situations, then smaller situations are easier to deal with. Maybe (hopefully) you'll never be abducted, but maybe you'll be walking down the street with someone closely following behind you. If you are used to thinking about how you would react in a big situation than it makes a less significant situation less scary and maybe even easier to deal with.
ReplyDeleteAllison, you make some really interesting points about the validity of monsters as an outlet in situations that are unlikely to occur. It reminds me of the old adage, “it's better to be safe than sorry”. I think that imagining horrific or worst case scenarios and subsequently what you would do in them is a way for us to feel prepared. If we feel prepared then we don't have to spend as much time obsessing over and worrying about it because, hey, we've got a plan! Granted, the plan may not work in reality, we may freeze, run away, or a more devastating end may occur but if we feel prepared it's a bit like a security blanket which helps us sleep better at night.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that monsters can reveal our moral imagination and but I agree with you in that it really isn't that beneficial. To say that monsters virtually help is somewhat unrealistic. A lot of the monsters that we have made up have no way in hell of existing so how would that prepare us against the unknown? Just because we imagine ourselves handling a situation in our head a certain way doesn't mean we'll do it when an actual monster comes into our lives. I could practice something a million times at practice correctly and simply mess up when it comes down for me to score.
ReplyDeleteGood points, I agree. I think monsters are a beneficial form of escapism. Monster stories allows us to imagine being in such situation without actually being in any form of danger. Like a roller coaster, we can experience the thrill while be confident in the fact that we safe and everything will be over soon. Vanquishing monsters in our imagination are power fantasies that allow us to explore and express our own morality.
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