On Monsters by Asma, Stephen T. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction: Extraordinary Beings

Phobias Repulsion and Attraction Inhuman Unthinkable Unmanageable The Literal and the Symbolic

PART 1 — ANCIENT MONSTERS

1 Alexander Fights Monsters in India

Embellishing Manliness

2 Monsters Are Nature’s Playthings

Griffins Monstrous Bones Natural History and Credulity Monstrous Races

3 Hermaphrodites and Man-headed Oxen

In-between Beings Reason and Superstition Aristotle’s Monsters Phantom Images

4 Monstrous Desire

Plato’s Monster Monstrous Mother

PART 2 — MEDIEVAL MONSTERS: MESSAGES FROM GOD

5 Biblical Monsters

God’s Lackeys The Apocalypse Giants

6 Do Monsters Have Souls?

Monsters and a Creator God Baptizing the Monstrous Races The Descent of Monsters Alexander’s Gates

7 The Monster Killer

“I Have Known Much Peril” Tolkien’s Tragic Beowulf

8 Possessing Demons and Witches

St. Anthony Fights the Demons Witches The Witch Hunter Illusion or Reality? Monstrous Desires Revisited Driving Out the Demons

PART 3 — SCIENTIFIC MONSTERS: THE BOOK OF NATURE IS RIDDLED WITH TYPOS

9 Natural History, Freaks, and Nondescripts

The Hydra Eradicating the Fantastic Responding to the Marvelous A Mischievous Taxidermist Freaks

10 The Medicalization of Monsters

Monstrous Births Pregnant Women Should Not Look upon Monsters Monsters and the Mechanization of Nature Frankenstein John Hunter’s Monsters Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s Teratology William Lawrence and the Headless Children

11 Darwin’s Mutants

Monsters and Transmutation No Monstrous Jumps in Nature Mutationism and Hopeful Monsters Alberch, Gould, and the Return of the Monsters Evo-Devo

PART 4 — INNER MONSTERS: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS

12 The Art of Human Vulnerability: Angst and Horror

Fear and Cognitive Mismatch Angst and Fear Freud Torture Porn Creeping Flesh

13 Criminal Monsters: Psychopathology, Aggression, and the Malignant Heart

Monsters in the Headlines Leopold and Loeb Rage and Aggression Monstrous Desire Revisited Cold Detachment The Causes of Psychopathology Judging and Managing the Monsters

PART V — MONSTERS TODAY AND TOMORROW

Xenophobia and Race Theoretical Xenophobia Instinctual Xenophobia Monstrous Civilizations Pathological Societies Monsters from the Oppressed Classes Monsters of Ideology Deconstructing Monsters

15 Future Monsters: Robots, Mutants, and Posthuman Cyborgs

Mutants and Robots Cyborgs Disembodied Minds Playing God: Biotechnology Are Monsters in the Eye of the Beholder?

Epilogue Notes Index