WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940 Welcome in. If you are joining us today, you, 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:06.839 the learner, are ready for a custom curated deep 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:09.140 dive. We have a really fantastic one lined up. 00:00:09.220 --> 00:00:11.599 We really do. We are taking a comprehensive look 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:14.960 at a widely circulated and honestly heavily researched 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:18.379 Wikipedia article simply titled Monster. It is 00:00:18.379 --> 00:00:21.300 a deceptively simple title for a massive concept. 00:00:21.579 --> 00:00:24.780 Right. The mission of this deep dive is to figure 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:28.199 out what monsters actually are. We want to trace 00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:30.890 them from terrifying ancient omens all the way 00:00:30.890 --> 00:00:33.670 down to the cuddly modern icons we have today. 00:00:33.909 --> 00:00:35.729 Figure out what our obsession with them says 00:00:35.729 --> 00:00:38.469 about humanity. Exactly. And I have to say, looking 00:00:38.469 --> 00:00:40.630 at your virtual background, you have set the 00:00:40.630 --> 00:00:42.990 absolute perfect tone for this exploration. Oh, 00:00:43.009 --> 00:00:45.289 thank you. Yeah, the dimly lit, cozy library 00:00:45.289 --> 00:00:47.649 aesthetic, you know, the ancient mythos texts 00:00:47.649 --> 00:00:49.789 on the shelves and those classic movie posters. 00:00:49.929 --> 00:00:52.490 It is the ideal environment for the discussion 00:00:52.490 --> 00:00:54.310 we are about to have. I mean, it felt appropriate 00:00:54.310 --> 00:00:56.609 for the subject. To truly understand the concept 00:00:56.609 --> 00:00:59.429 of a monster, we have to recognize these beings 00:00:59.429 --> 00:01:01.710 are foundational to our storytelling. They really 00:01:01.710 --> 00:01:05.120 are. They predate written history. We are looking 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:07.959 at a concept that has evolved right alongside 00:01:07.959 --> 00:01:10.939 human civilization itself. So to kick things 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:13.239 off, I want to share a quote from Tina Marie 00:01:13.239 --> 00:01:16.079 Boyer. She's an assistant professor of medieval 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:19.560 German literature. And this quote really grounds 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:21.859 our whole deep dive. Oh, I know the one you're 00:01:21.859 --> 00:01:24.000 talking about. Yeah. She says, monsters do not 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:26.980 emerge out of a cultural void. They have a literary 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:29.280 and cultural heritage. Which is such an important 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:31.439 distinction to make early on. Right. We aren't 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:33.840 just... talking about cheap campfire tales meant 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:37.500 to scare kids, there is an actual academic discipline 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:40.340 dedicated to the study of monsters. Yes. It is 00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:42.719 called monstrophy, which is just a great word. 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:44.920 But to really understand monstrophy, I think 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:47.319 we need to look at the etymology. So break down 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:49.599 where the word monster even comes from for us. 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:52.359 Well, the linguistic roots reveal a whole lot 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:55.400 about how ancient societies view the world. The 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:58.219 word monster derives from the Latin root monstrum. 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:01.489 Okay. And that stems from the verb monio. The 00:02:01.489 --> 00:02:04.290 definition of monio is to remind, warn, instruct, 00:02:04.450 --> 00:02:07.290 or foretell. To warn. So a monster wasn't originally 00:02:07.290 --> 00:02:10.610 just a scary beast. Not at all. A monster was 00:02:10.610 --> 00:02:13.469 viewed as a divine notice. It denoted anything 00:02:13.469 --> 00:02:16.310 strange or singular that ran contrary to the 00:02:16.310 --> 00:02:18.590 accepted course of nature. Like a message from 00:02:18.590 --> 00:02:22.060 the gods. Exactly. By sending a monster... the 00:02:22.060 --> 00:02:24.340 gods were essentially issuing a warning of an 00:02:24.340 --> 00:02:28.039 unnatural or hideous circumstance what's fascinating 00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:30.360 here is how the roman playwright and philosopher 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:34.340 seneca defined a monster what did he say he referred 00:02:34.340 --> 00:02:37.060 to it as a visual and horrific revelation of 00:02:37.060 --> 00:02:40.189 the truth a revelation of the truth That specific 00:02:40.189 --> 00:02:42.849 phrasing seems to imply that the monster itself 00:02:42.849 --> 00:02:46.210 isn't the lie or the aberration. It implies that 00:02:46.210 --> 00:02:48.270 society's current state of affairs is flawed, 00:02:48.430 --> 00:02:51.009 and the monster is simply the mirror reflecting 00:02:51.009 --> 00:02:53.729 that flaw back at them. That is a highly accurate 00:02:53.729 --> 00:02:56.189 way to look at it. In the ancient Greek and Roman 00:02:56.189 --> 00:02:58.729 religious contexts, monsters and birth defects 00:02:58.729 --> 00:03:01.030 were seen as signs of divine displeasure. Like 00:03:01.030 --> 00:03:03.810 a malfunctioning of the natural order. Yes. Therefore, 00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:06.250 a monster served as the physical embodiment of 00:03:06.250 --> 00:03:09.000 a society's anxieties and shifting. moral boundaries 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.539 it was a breathing warning sign i do wonder though 00:03:11.539 --> 00:03:14.240 who gets to define what constitutes a malfunctioning 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:16.860 of nature It is definitely subjective. Because 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:19.699 there is a bizarre historical detail regarding 00:03:19.699 --> 00:03:22.180 the Roman historian Suetonius that I just have 00:03:22.180 --> 00:03:24.560 to bring up. Oh, the snake thing? Yes. He described 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:27.699 completely normal things as monstrous, like a 00:03:27.699 --> 00:03:30.300 snake's absence of legs or a bird's ability to 00:03:30.300 --> 00:03:32.780 fly. Just because it broke his mental category. 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:35.979 Exactly. He viewed those traits as being against 00:03:35.979 --> 00:03:38.539 nature. It sounds like he was just observing 00:03:38.539 --> 00:03:41.120 standard biological variants and labeling it 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:43.620 evil simply because it threatened his rigid view 00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:46.419 of the world. It perfectly illustrates how highly 00:03:46.419 --> 00:03:49.180 politicized the label of monster can be. It's 00:03:49.180 --> 00:03:51.280 like being freaked out by modern technology doing 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:53.159 exactly what it was designed to do just because 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:55.520 you don't understand it. Exactly. If something 00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:58.960 operates outside an accepted paradigm, the establishment 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:02.340 often labels it monstrous to justify fear or 00:04:02.340 --> 00:04:05.039 suppression. Okay, let's unpack this. Because 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:08.020 the sources draw a pretty hard line between two 00:04:08.020 --> 00:04:10.919 types of monsters, animal monsters and human 00:04:10.919 --> 00:04:13.719 monsters. Right. And the distinction hinges entirely 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:17.279 on the concept of morality. Okay. So animal monsters 00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:20.399 exist completely outside the moral order. They 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:23.660 don't possess human ethics. But let me play devil's 00:04:23.660 --> 00:04:26.480 advocate for a second. If an animal monster is 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:29.779 acting on pure instinct, say a massive beast 00:04:29.779 --> 00:04:33.360 hunting for food, how can its actions be a moral 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:36.040 failing? Well, the beast itself isn't committing 00:04:36.040 --> 00:04:39.319 a moral failing. Okay. Rather, its very existence 00:04:39.319 --> 00:04:41.939 is the consequence of a human moral failing. 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:44.920 The animal monster is a punishment. Oh, I see. 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:47.800 Consider the manator from Greek mythology. Most 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:49.740 people know the basic plot, right? A half -man, 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:52.160 half -bull trapped in a labyrinth. Yeah, it's 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:54.519 a classic. But the sociopolitical implications 00:04:54.519 --> 00:04:57.240 of its origin are what really matter. King Minos 00:04:57.240 --> 00:04:59.399 was supposed to sacrifice a magnificent white 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:02.019 bull to Poseidon. And he didn't do it. No, he 00:05:02.019 --> 00:05:04.430 hoarded the wealth. He kept the prime specimen 00:05:04.430 --> 00:05:06.910 for himself. So he violated the religious tithe. 00:05:07.069 --> 00:05:10.170 He chose economic greed over his duty. Precisely. 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:13.819 In revenge, Poseidon cursed Menos' wife, Pasiphae, 00:05:13.939 --> 00:05:15.860 compelling her to fall in love with the bull. 00:05:16.019 --> 00:05:17.879 Which resulted in the birth of the Minotaur. 00:05:18.040 --> 00:05:20.540 Right. The creature operates entirely outside 00:05:20.540 --> 00:05:23.500 human morality, but it was born as a direct punishment 00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:27.079 for Menos' human sin. So Greek society used this 00:05:27.079 --> 00:05:29.839 myth not just to scare people, but to enforce 00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:33.139 compliance. Yes, economic compliance and political 00:05:33.139 --> 00:05:35.379 humility among its rulers. That makes perfect 00:05:35.379 --> 00:05:38.639 sense. And then you have human monsters. These 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:41.579 are beings who are either never fully human by 00:05:41.579 --> 00:05:44.220 birth, like Medusa and the Gorgons. Or they're 00:05:44.220 --> 00:05:47.160 beings who actively lost their humanity through 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:50.699 an unnatural act. Like werewolves. Or later literary 00:05:50.699 --> 00:05:53.660 creations like Frankenstein's monster. Because 00:05:53.660 --> 00:05:56.220 they have undergone this transformation, they 00:05:56.220 --> 00:05:58.240 are permanently locked out of the human moral 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:00.540 code. They literally can't participate in human 00:06:00.540 --> 00:06:03.399 society anymore. And we should also note a holdover 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:06.120 from Proto -Indo -European religion. In those 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:08.439 early belief systems, the boundaries were incredibly 00:06:08.439 --> 00:06:11.240 blurred. Between what? Between a spirit, a monster 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:14.500 and a god. Mythological beasts like the Hydra 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:16.779 and Medusa weren't just natural animals. They 00:06:16.779 --> 00:06:19.720 were actual divine entities. That blurring of 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:22.500 lines bridges us nicely into how these ancient 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:25.540 fears evolved in media, because the history of 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:28.160 monsters in prose fiction reveals a clear evolution 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:30.699 of our collective anxieties. It absolutely does. 00:06:30.939 --> 00:06:34.319 You have Grendel in the epic poem Beowulf, representing 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:37.850 the fear of the harsh wilderness. But the foundations 00:06:37.850 --> 00:06:40.069 of the modern literary monster were essentially 00:06:40.069 --> 00:06:42.930 built in the 19th century. By Mary Shelley and 00:06:42.930 --> 00:06:45.670 Bram Stoker. Right, with Frankenstein and Dracula. 00:06:46.129 --> 00:06:48.949 And just to keep you on your toes, Lerner, I 00:06:48.949 --> 00:06:51.550 will briefly note that monster erotica is a surprisingly 00:06:51.550 --> 00:06:55.610 robust, factual subgenre here. Human imagination 00:06:55.610 --> 00:06:59.050 clearly utilizes the grotesque to explore a wide 00:06:59.050 --> 00:07:01.470 variety of taboos. It proves our relationship 00:07:01.470 --> 00:07:04.209 with the grotesque is deeply multifaceted. Definitely. 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:07.220 But focusing back on the literature, Mary Shelley 00:07:07.220 --> 00:07:09.939 and Bram Stoker created a massive shift from 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:12.959 ancient beasts to highly complex threats. The 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:15.680 Victorian era birthed very specific anxieties. 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:17.879 With Frankenstein, Mary Shelley was responding 00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:19.860 directly to the rapid pace of the Industrial 00:07:19.860 --> 00:07:22.699 Revolution. And early experiments in galvanism. 00:07:22.899 --> 00:07:24.920 Right. The fear was no longer a beast in the 00:07:24.920 --> 00:07:27.279 woods. It was the fear of man playing God. That 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:29.800 our scientific ambition would outpace our morals. 00:07:29.939 --> 00:07:32.600 Exactly. And Dracula targets an entirely different 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:35.160 set of Victorian fears. It wasn't about science. 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:37.620 It was about infection and foreignness. You have 00:07:37.620 --> 00:07:40.319 this ancient predator moving to London, the heart 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:43.180 of the modern empire. It plays heavily on the 00:07:43.180 --> 00:07:46.680 fear of reverse colonization, as well as anxieties 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:49.449 surrounding blood -borne diseases. But to see 00:07:49.449 --> 00:07:51.790 how our visual representation of these anxieties 00:07:51.790 --> 00:07:54.110 evolved, we really have to look at the history 00:07:54.110 --> 00:07:58.149 of cinema. Pre -World War II, silent films mostly 00:07:58.149 --> 00:08:01.009 featured human -sized monsters. Vampires, the 00:08:01.009 --> 00:08:03.189 golem, things like that. Yeah, partly due to 00:08:03.189 --> 00:08:05.990 the limitations of practical effects. But that 00:08:05.990 --> 00:08:08.949 human scale also created a psychological intimacy. 00:08:09.350 --> 00:08:11.589 The monster wasn't destroying a city, it was 00:08:11.589 --> 00:08:13.930 standing at the foot of your bed. Although filmmakers 00:08:13.930 --> 00:08:16.660 were experimenting with scale. King Kong was 00:08:16.660 --> 00:08:19.360 the first giant monster film of the sound era. 00:08:19.459 --> 00:08:23.100 Oh, and in 1936, the Flash Gordon serial literally 00:08:23.100 --> 00:08:26.180 used real -life lizards filmed with forced camera 00:08:26.180 --> 00:08:28.639 perspective to look like dragons. Before they 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:30.480 eventually switched to a guy in a rubber suit 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:32.659 for the fire dragon. Right, and Universal Studios 00:08:32.659 --> 00:08:35.820 reigned supreme with Bela Lugosi as Dracula and 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:38.379 Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster. They 00:08:38.379 --> 00:08:40.500 also produced oddities like Man -Made Monster. 00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:43.919 Where a man kills by electric touch. And mad 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:47.120 love exploring the terror of a surgeon transplanting 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:50.440 reanimated malevolent hands. It continued the 00:08:50.440 --> 00:08:52.580 theme of science pushing past ethical boundaries. 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:55.100 Here's where it gets really interesting, though. 00:08:55.419 --> 00:08:58.299 Because everything changes after World War II. 00:08:58.620 --> 00:09:01.559 We pivot sharply away from these spooky gothic 00:09:01.559 --> 00:09:03.700 creatures haunting castles. The psychological 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:06.320 landscape of the world fundamentally fractured. 00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:09.279 And the monsters mutated to reflect that. The 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:12.500 post -World War II era. Saw giant monsters return 00:09:12.500 --> 00:09:15.759 with a vengeance. This shift is directly linked 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:17.980 to the development of nuclear weapons. The capacity 00:09:17.980 --> 00:09:20.480 for human destruction increased overnight. A 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:23.299 vampire in a castle no longer captured the zeitgeist 00:09:23.299 --> 00:09:25.320 when the real world fear was the sudden total 00:09:25.320 --> 00:09:28.460 annihilation of entire cities. Our monsters had 00:09:28.460 --> 00:09:30.799 to increase in scale. To match the reality of 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:33.419 the atomic bomb. Which brings us to Godzilla 00:09:33.419 --> 00:09:36.960 in 1954. It wasn't just a movie about a giant 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:40.159 lizard. It was a nation processing profound trauma. 00:09:40.379 --> 00:09:42.980 Japan meted a way to externalize the horrors 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:45.320 of the atomic bombings. And the hydrogen bomb 00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:49.139 tests in the Pacific. By turning nuclear devastation 00:09:49.139 --> 00:09:51.200 into a physical creature that could be sought 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:53.899 on screen, it gave audiences a psychological 00:09:53.899 --> 00:09:57.159 sense of control. A control they entirely lacked 00:09:57.159 --> 00:10:00.899 in real life. That need sparked a global cinematic 00:10:00.899 --> 00:10:05.889 trend. America had the beast from 20 ,000 fathoms. 00:10:05.950 --> 00:10:09.009 A dinosaur awakened by atomic bomb test. Britain 00:10:09.009 --> 00:10:12.090 produced Gorgo. Denmark had a giant reptilian 00:10:12.090 --> 00:10:15.269 monster called Reptilicus. We superseded our 00:10:15.269 --> 00:10:17.289 fear of the mad scientist with the fear of the 00:10:17.289 --> 00:10:19.659 unleashed atom. And alongside the atomic age 00:10:19.659 --> 00:10:22.299 came the space race. Which brought extraterrestrial 00:10:22.299 --> 00:10:24.559 monsters to the screen. You have King Ghidorah 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:27.179 and Gagan. And the Cold War era also gave us 00:10:27.179 --> 00:10:28.820 Creature from the Black Lagoon playing on that 00:10:28.820 --> 00:10:31.620 intense paranoia about infiltration. But monsters 00:10:31.620 --> 00:10:34.100 didn't stay purely evil or destructive forever. 00:10:34.460 --> 00:10:36.519 Right. We start to see another massive shift. 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:39.179 Foundational figures like King Kong and Frankenstein's 00:10:39.179 --> 00:10:41.039 monster eventually became viewed as misunderstood. 00:10:41.580 --> 00:10:44.240 The narrative begins to soften. We saw the emergence 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:47.139 of the monster as hero archetype. Like the Hulk. 00:10:47.379 --> 00:10:51.200 Exactly. Essentially, a modern radiation -fueled 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:53.940 werewolf story. Right. But he uses his destructive 00:10:53.940 --> 00:10:57.120 rage to protect humanity. And that empathy leads 00:10:57.120 --> 00:10:59.299 us to the complete domestication of the beast. 00:10:59.539 --> 00:11:02.000 The theme of the friendly, cuddly monster is 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.279 everywhere now. If we connect this to the bigger 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:08.450 picture, modern pop culture... Largely bureaucratized 00:11:08.450 --> 00:11:10.710 and tamed are historical fears. Just look at 00:11:10.710 --> 00:11:14.490 Pixar's Monsters, Inc. Perfect example. The narrative 00:11:14.490 --> 00:11:17.090 acknowledges that monsters scare children, but 00:11:17.090 --> 00:11:19.789 it strips away the divine malice. They are just 00:11:19.789 --> 00:11:21.870 blue -collar workers powering their economy. 00:11:22.090 --> 00:11:24.190 It completely demystifies the fear. Then you 00:11:24.190 --> 00:11:26.850 have the furry cohabitants of Sesame Street and 00:11:26.850 --> 00:11:29.830 the Muppets. Or Shrek. We also have to acknowledge 00:11:29.830 --> 00:11:32.509 the massive Japanese influence here. Oh, absolutely. 00:11:32.590 --> 00:11:35.610 Japanese animism specifically. The Shinto belief 00:11:35.610 --> 00:11:38.129 that all things possess a spirit creates a framework 00:11:38.129 --> 00:11:40.350 where monsters aren't inherently evil. They're 00:11:40.350 --> 00:11:42.370 just different manifestations of nature. You 00:11:42.370 --> 00:11:44.809 see this in My Neighbor Totoro, where the massive 00:11:44.809 --> 00:11:47.230 forest spirit is gentle. And, of course, the 00:11:47.230 --> 00:11:49.309 Pokemon franchise. The word monster is right 00:11:49.309 --> 00:11:51.909 there in the name, Pocket Monsters. But it carries 00:11:51.909 --> 00:11:55.190 a cute neutral connotation. That neutral connotation 00:11:55.190 --> 00:11:57.970 extends into gaming, too. In early Dungeons & 00:11:57.970 --> 00:12:00.909 Dragons, monster was just a catch -all term for 00:12:00.909 --> 00:12:04.019 hostile enemies. The morality was binary. You 00:12:04.019 --> 00:12:06.000 are the hero, they are the monster, you defeat 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.820 them. But as gaming narratives matured, the lines 00:12:09.820 --> 00:12:12.720 blurred again. Yeah, and newer games like Undertale 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:15.919 and Deltarune Monsters are actually complex humanoid 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:19.460 NPCs. They experience grief and joy just like 00:12:19.460 --> 00:12:22.480 humans. The entire premise of those games challenges 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:24.879 the player's assumption that a monster must be 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:27.740 destroyed. You are forced to interact with them 00:12:27.740 --> 00:12:30.659 and navigate peaceful coexistence. It completely 00:12:30.659 --> 00:12:33.460 deconstructs the old binary morality. It shows 00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:35.919 a significant maturation in how modern society 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:38.379 processes the concept of the other. So what does 00:12:38.379 --> 00:12:40.450 this all mean for you, the learner? Think about 00:12:40.450 --> 00:12:43.029 the timeline we just mapped out today. Monsters 00:12:43.029 --> 00:12:45.490 began as the Latin onstrom. A divine warning 00:12:45.490 --> 00:12:48.370 sent by the gods. To punish human greed. Then 00:12:48.370 --> 00:12:50.629 they evolved into Victorian literary reflections 00:12:50.629 --> 00:12:53.230 of our anxieties regarding runaway science. After 00:12:53.230 --> 00:12:55.549 World War II, they mutated into towering nuclear 00:12:55.549 --> 00:12:57.730 -fueled manifestations of our atomic trauma. 00:12:58.129 --> 00:13:01.210 And today we capture cuddly monsters on our phones 00:13:01.210 --> 00:13:04.590 and use them in games to explore empathy. I encourage 00:13:04.590 --> 00:13:06.629 you to reflect on your own perspective of the 00:13:06.629 --> 00:13:09.509 monsters in the stories you consume. It changes 00:13:09.509 --> 00:13:12.190 how you see things. When you recognize that every 00:13:12.190 --> 00:13:14.710 creature on the screen is actually just a mirror 00:13:14.710 --> 00:13:17.549 reflecting human nature, how does that alter 00:13:17.549 --> 00:13:19.889 your understanding of the story? This raises 00:13:19.889 --> 00:13:21.830 an important question to leave our listener with. 00:13:21.990 --> 00:13:25.730 Go for it. If the Latin root monio literally 00:13:25.730 --> 00:13:29.409 means to warn, and if monsters historically reflect 00:13:29.409 --> 00:13:32.889 a society's deepest moral failures and technological 00:13:32.889 --> 00:13:36.429 terrors, what do the new monsters we were inventing 00:13:36.429 --> 00:13:39.210 in today's stories foretell? When you examine 00:13:39.210 --> 00:13:41.309 the creatures being conceptualized by modern 00:13:41.309 --> 00:13:43.649 storytellers dealing with artificial intelligence 00:13:43.649 --> 00:13:46.669 or ecological collapse, what hidden fears of 00:13:46.669 --> 00:13:49.610 our current generation are they reflecting? What 00:13:49.610 --> 00:13:51.809 exactly are our modern monsters trying to warn 00:13:51.809 --> 00:13:53.710 us about? Oh, that is such a powerful thought 00:13:53.710 --> 00:13:56.070 to leave on. That is precisely the kind of analytical 00:13:56.070 --> 00:13:58.409 framework that makes these deep dives so valuable. 00:13:58.710 --> 00:14:00.870 Thank you for joining us today, Lerner. It was 00:14:00.870 --> 00:14:02.850 a pleasure to go through this material. I hope 00:14:02.850 --> 00:14:05.370 this exploration adds a new layer of depth the 00:14:05.370 --> 00:14:07.669 next time you open a fantasy novel or watch a 00:14:07.669 --> 00:14:10.509 horror film. Keep exploring, stay curious, and 00:14:10.509 --> 00:14:12.350 maybe look a little closer the next time you 00:14:12.350 --> 00:14:14.750 encounter a monster in the dark. We will catch 00:14:14.750 --> 00:14:16.230 you on the next deep dive.