“Darkness stirs and wakes imagination”

After drawn out reflection brought on by the books read within this class, I have found that I still feel what is most compelling about monsters is how they affect the imaginative. The texts used within this class raise more ideas and questions than they do solidify answers or help us reach conclusions regarding the monstrous and how we relate. In the past I have been quick to dismiss my own relationship with monsters. I often state, “I don’t watch scary movies” because it is easy to associate monsters with what frightens us rather than associating them with what comes to inspire us or recall what they do for the imagination. I have also discovered that with the vast amount of material on monsters, it is easy to forget the meticulous creation behind monsters and how myths, creatures, and legends come to be and live in our memories for a lifetime.

At the beginning of this project my main desire was to get to the heart of what frightens me most about monsters. I feel what sticks with me is how these monstrous creatures relate to the unknown and how as a defense, we attempt to fill the gaps through use of our own imagination, but this often leads to more fear, more adrenaline induced wonderment.

I feel my most immediate example of this situation can be traced back to only a few months ago. I awoke early to go on a run, far too early than was necessary. I awoke abruptly and was goal oriented for it only took me about seven minutes to get out of the house. Upon quietly exiting the house I was shocked to find how my neighborhood looked at five in the morning. I was immediately taken aback by how deeply it contrasted the hazy warmth and familiarity of my afternoon summertime runs. This morning glimpse of my environment that usually ceased to frighten me was resulting in a gradual buildup on an eerie mysterious feeling, and that I for once, was out of place within the nature. Although I was able to see my own breath, I was not cold for I had an adrenaline raging inside of me, adrenaline brought on by how other-worldly this moment in time felt. Having been asleep less than ten minutes ago only added to my feeling of being somewhere between awake and dreaming. Thinking I could shake these emotions off, I began to run and found how wrong I had been. With each stride my pace quickened. This pre-dawn run began to feel like a mistake as I realized how the unknown was affecting me mentally. My imagination ran wild with me while each surrounding bush or waist high  shrubbery fed the fear I had been creating.


 I feel this reflection is compelling due to how helpless I felt to my own imagination and how when frightened it takes immense will power and reasoning to fight off what is produced  within your mind as a result of that fear.

I am now able to truly appreciate the feelings and the fear I experienced on that morning in addition to the other occasions in which my imagination has had the ability to scare the hell out of me, for in a way it is a testament to creativity and suspension of belief. I also feel it is significant for on some level this moment is universal for it mirrors the noted moments of inspiration authors have when they are struck by an idea or something that frightens them and leads to inspiration.