Monsters have been dismissed from reality and excluded from scientific taxonomies, yet they manage to inhabit our human hearts, minds and imaginations. Giants, robots, dragons, jinn and other shapeshifters, vampires, zombies, ghosts, werewolves and Godzilla – the king of the monsters – draw their power from human fears, doubts and anxieties. As monsters, they embody what unsettles us and bring our deepest, ancient terrors to the surface.
Humans are at the heart of Monsterland, and Nicholas Jubber travelled the world to chat with the locals about their stories and folklore. The monsters themselves usually emerge from particular social, geographical and historical contexts: Godzilla was born from fear of nuclear annihilation, Frankenstein a response to the advances in technology that came with the Industrial Revolution, and robots emerging from the political and technological tumult of the 1920s. In the clear light of day – in the form of a story, film, or oral tale – monsters have a profound purpose of bringing people together.
Have we in our ‘brave new world’ lost our fear of monsters? Our current era, with its digital overwhelm, misinformation and uncertainty of ‘deep fakes’, is pregnant with terrifying possibilities – who can tell what fresh hell awaits. Our collective human unconscious needs a new generation of storytellers and midwives to bring forth the latest spawn of monsters.
Monsterland is an entertaining, reassuring and timely reminder that ‘imagining monsters is one of the things that makes us human.’
ΗΗΗΗΗ Scribe Publications $37.99
Reviewed by Mark Parry
Read an extract from Monsterland
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I’m a writer and traveller, with a passion for history and a pair of itchy feet. I’m fascinated by storytelling and the connections (or misconnections!) between past and present.
The Prester Quest, my first book, sets out from the canals of Venice to the highlands of Ethiopia, following the mission of a medieval physician sent in search of a mythical priest-king. It won the Dolman Travel Book Award.
My second book, Drinking Arak off an Ayatollah’s Beard, explores the Persian-speaking world through the lens of an 11th century epic poem, travelling from Tehran to the tomb of a medieval Sultan in Afghanistan.
The Timbuktu School for Nomads is about my experiences amongst nomads in North Africa. Epic Continent is about some of Europe’s iconic tales and my adventures amongst them. The Fairy Tellers is a history of fairy tales told through the lives of seven tellers of fairy tales.
I have written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, the Irish Times, Globe and Mail and BBC Online, amongst other publications; spoken on BBC Radio 4 and NPR in the US; given talks at numerous festivals, including Hay-on-Wye, Edinburgh and Rome; and have written plays performed at the Edinburgh Festival and the Finborough Theatre.
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