the bird on fire

The Bird is the Word: Sophisticated Schoolyard Shenanigans

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Be scared of what you can’t see

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We’re building our own monsters in Blog class. Roman Rickwood’s choice creation is an invisible monster who wreaks havoc . . . even on the freeways.

By Roman Rickwood

When I first received the assignment “build your own monster,” I was confused. At first I only thought about physical traits, like being big and scary–you know like a traditional monster. I thought about the task more, and I realized that big and scary monsters are a little dated, and some would even say less scary. Personally, I am not scared of things that I can see; however, it is the things that are invisible that are most scary. 

You can think of my monster as a shapeshifter that was produced to cause panic. My monster is a transformer and a professional tormentor all in one. My monster finds what your fears are and takes advantage. If you fear spiders, he’s the spider under your bed. If you’re afraid of the future, he’s the doubts in your head. If you dread embarrassment, he’ll place you in the most mortifying situations. If you don’t have any fears, he will create them. He has a mind of his own. He causes panic when there is no need to panic. He leaves entire communities grieving. 

He was responsible for the world’s largest and longest-lasting highway pileup. It was an icy day on a busy interstate highway; he had clearly woken up on the wrong side of the bed. He decided to use his shapeshifting ability to morph into a giant invisible and impenetrable road block. He positioned himself at a very very slow part in the day, a time where there was very little traffic. The first vehicle that hit his transparent roadblock was a semi truck, no match for the force of the indestructible monster. For the next two hours, cars, trucks, motorcycles piled up. At this point, the monster had enough; he was bored and had done the deed. He had accomplished his goal of horrifying and dismantling. When all the dust settled, literally, he slouched on to the next haunting. But, he found little that would satisfy his hunger. He looked to feel something different, but found nothing titillating. The problems he was inflicting on others, he conjectured, were problems he had in himself.

So, he ran away to the mountains of Uzbekistan and morphed into a rock. There you will find him.

At least 6 dead in 133-car pileup in Fort Worth after freezing rain coats roads

Build-Your-Own-Monster Editor: Erik Bearman

Devil Dolls

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Taking inspiration from horror classics and everyday objects, in our Build-Your-Own-Monster series, Blogger Elizabeth envisions a horrifying monster that is certain to keep you up at night.

By Elizabeth Shay

Dolls. The common children’s toys tainted by pop culture and horror movies. From Chucky to Anabelle…these names cause us to conjure up creepy images in our minds. The fear of dolls is so common that a word has been created to describe this affliction: pediophobia. “Pediophobia is a type of phobia . . . or an irrational fear of something that poses no actual threat” and affects more than 9% of adults in the US (Healthline). 

When Editor Erik tasked us with building our own monster, I drew inspiration from movies as well as from the work of artist Shawn Coss to create my monster, a personification of pediophobia. 

Appearance


The monster appears to be simply a giant doll that stands at an imposing eight feet tall. However, much like Russian nesting dolls or Oogie Boogie from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, the large doll nests smaller creatures inside. The outermost doll is a sentient being, but like parasites, the small dolls exist within the body cavity of the big doll, controlling its actions. The doll on the outside is a classic porcelain doll, much like Chucky or Annabelle, as the hard material provides protection to the dolls on the interior. The miniature dolls are of various styles. Artist Shawn Coss illustrated 31 phobias, including pediophobia, and the drawing provided inspiration for my monster and what I imagine to be some of the internal dolls.

Characteristics

My monster only comes out in the cover of darkness. Like the people inside the Trojan Horse, the little dolls emerge from their host doll in order to cause mischief and mayhem amongst unsuspecting people. Inside the homes of innocent families, the dolls are responsible for the mysterious and unexplained noises that seem to come from within the walls or in the unexplored attic above. They move around in the pitch black night, stealing and destroying whatever they can find. These animated dolls capture lifeless dolls and bring them back to the host where they are instilled with evil magic that turns them conscious so that the cycle of fear and destruction can repeat.

Thankfully this monster is just a figment of my imagination, but the phobia that it is based on is all too real, frightening adults and children alike. If you have dolls around, you might want to sleep with one eye open after reading this post. There are hundreds of different phobias that describe and encompass an infinite number of specific objects and situations (Healthline). Do you have any phobias? What might a monster that personifies that fear look like?

Build-Your-Own-Monster Editor: Erik Bearman

Sources:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/pediophobia#:~:text=Pediophobia%20is%20a%20type%20of,that%20poses%20no%20actual%20threat.&text=Thinking%20about%20or%20seeing%20a,a%20type%20of%20anxiety%20disorder.

https://www.boredpanda.com/31-phobias-feartober-shawn-coss/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

A Savage Beast

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There’s no need to build a new monster, says Evan Spry. Napoleon Dynamite created the original and best prototype.

To determine the perfect monster, a number of variables have to be aligned. I will express to you my mere opinion as to what the best monster is. For your information, my opinion should be regarded highly as I am fascinated with this topic.

Firstly, let’s get one thing straight; no ideal monster is gonna be a giant fire-breathing dragon or tentacled sea leviathan. And, before you say anything, remember that we live in a very modern world. These giant beasts won’t stand a chance against modern weapons or technology. We do have nukes. No dragon is going to take a nuke to the face and get back up. Secondly, gigantic monsters like dragons and sea creatures will be easily revealed and noticed by the global population. With the technology we have in our cell phones, we could do so much to help destroy the monster. And, for those reasons, you can’t be a dingus and choose a behemoth of a monster. 

Moving on, if I asked you what the two fiercest beasts in the animal kingdom were, what would you say? Well, that’s exactly right, a lion and a tiger! Luckily, there is such a thing as a real life liger or even tigon, but you can’t find those in the wild, and they don’t even look cool. So, I will be discussing the fictional yet fantastical liger that is featured in the hit 2004 film, Napoleon Dynamite. 

Mr. Napoleon does a great job of describing the ability of the liger, yet he is brief enough as to not give away any of its secrets that others could exploit. I really feel Napoleon is trying to protect his favorite animal in that way. In the film, Napoleon is confronted by a girl named Deb who asks him, “What are you drawing?” Napoleon responds by telling her that it is a liger, and when she asks him what a liger is he says, “It’s pretty much my favorite animal. It’s like a lion and a tiger mixed… bred for its skills in magic” (quotes.net). Just imagine how powerful this beast would be. Now, you may be thinking that this magical liger doesn’t count as a monster, but wait till you see Napoleon’s extremely accurate illustration. 

The liger as seen in Napoleon Dynamite

As you can see, this deadly creature could easily blend into the wild as a genetic mutation or just a weird looking lion while also inflicting damage at a major scale. Personally, I don’t need a liger because I don’t want to commit any major crimes. But, if I did, I could use the liger for so many things like robbing zoos, destroying things/people, and just pure intimidation. Anyways, the best monster would be something a bit off the grain, more of a thinking man’s monster, like a liger.

Build-Your-Own Monster Editor: Erik Bearman

Source:

https://www.quotes.net/mquote/66636

The Deep Sea

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When Blog Editor Erik asked the Staff writers to build their own monsters, Jake chose to describe a terrible sea monster in poetic terms.

By Jake Sonderman

Sometimes, the monster that is scariest is 

 the one you can’t see. The one you cannot see, 

but you know is there. It’s waiting for you in

  the depths far below, watching your two limbs flee. 

That’s why sailors, by far, have the most courage.

 There is always the chance the ground disappears.

And if, God forbid, it did, who would notice? 

 No one is watching except the distant pier.

Life requires many leaps into unknown.

 You become the sailor on the blue monster.

 The ground is gone and you find yourself alone

  No land in sight, for miles–only water.

  Frightening, but you have to swim to safety;

There’s no monster but yourself in the deep sea. 

Build-Your-Own-Monster Editor: Erik Bearman

Monsters Based on Societal Fears

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Editor Erik asked the Blog Staff to take inspiration and build their own monsters. Blogger Sara chose to envision what fears our society might have in future, and what sorts of monsters would reflect those fears.

By Sara Habibipour

From vampires to zombies, the monsters that filmmakers have depicted in movies say a lot about universal fears in our society. For example, in the 1980s, there was a surge in vampire films that coincided with the AIDS pandemic. And, fears of nuclear war can be heavily seen throughout Godzilla. 

But, as life goes on, and as we progress as a society, new fears naturally arise. What monsters will we see within the next decade as a result of these new fears? 

Climate Change

Perhaps we will begin to see more monsters in movies related to climate change. I envision this monster not as a physical being, rather more of a dark cloud-like presence that has the ability to wreak havoc through emitting smog, raining acid rain, or simply not rain at all to create droughts. I envision this monster also having the ability to shapeshift into a fire-creature that melts ice caps and sparks wildfires, all things that climate change has led to.  

Disease

After experiencing the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m sure there will be a future monster related to it; we’ve all been affected by the pandemic, and we all perceive it negatively. And, whether we realize it or not, as a society, we have some trauma attached to the COVID situation (which, although unfortunate, movie makers will most likely capitalize on in the future). Although I initially envisioned this “monster of disease” to look more like a plague doctor, I think a monster wearing a mask similar to the ones we all currently wear will be more triggering to us if we were to see it in a movie a decade from now. 

Autonomous AI

A few years ago, Facebook had to shut down an AI system after robots created a language that humans couldn’t understand. Even before then, fears of AI’s capabilities soared. But, since that event, where we realized that robots could communicate without human oversight, those fears heightened. We have already seen AI takeovers happen in several movies, but with this becoming more of a reality, I hypothesize that we’ll see more drastic interpretations of AI in stories. In previous movies, AI is typically represented as your typical metal robot. Although, I think that will be a pretty accurate representation for future movies as well. Because these AI are becoming more of a reality, I think it would be scarier if they were depicted with more human-like features so that you couldn’t distinguish between the real humans and the robots. 


These are just a few future-related fears that could spark the creation of new monsters in the media. But, who knows what other societal fear-based monsters there could be? Something could happen tomorrow that could forever change our perception of scary creatures….

Build-Your-Own-Monster Editor: Erik Bearman