The Monster Show

Author: David J. Skal
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 9780571199969
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Book Description
Illuminating the dark side of the American century, The Monster Show uncovers the surprising links between horror entertainment and the great social crises of our time, as well as horror's function as a pop analogue to surrealism and other artistic movements. With penetrating analyses and revealing anecdotes, David J. Skal chronicles one of our most popular and pervasive modes of cultural expression. He explores the disguised form in which Hollywood's classic horror movies played out the traumas of two world wars and the Depression; the nightmare visions of invasion and mind control catalyzed by the Cold War; the preoccupation with demon children that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion changed the reproductive landscape; the vogue in visceral, transformative special effects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link between the AIDS epidemic and the current fascination with vampires; and much more. Now with a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renaissance in the last decade, The Monster Show is a compulsively readable, thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.

The Monster Show

Author: David J. Skal
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780859652117
Category : Horror films
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Book Description
Illuminating the dark side of the American century, "The Monster Show" uncovers the surprising links between horror entertainment and the great social crises of our time, as well as horror's function as a pop analogue to surrealism and other artistic movements. With penetrating analyses and revealing anecdotes, David J. Skal chronicles one of our most popular and pervasive modes of cultural expression. He explores the disguised form in which Hollywood's classic horror movies played out the traumas of two world wars and the Depression; the nightmare visions of invasion and mind control catalyzed by the Cold War; the preoccupation with demon children that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion changed the reproductive landscape; the vogue in visceral, transformative special effects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link between the AIDS epidemic and the current fascination with vampires; and much more. Now with a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renaissance in the last decade, "The Monster Show" is a compulsively readable, thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.

The Monster Show

Author: David J. Skal
Publisher: First Glance Books
ISBN: 9780393034196
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Book Description
Traces the history of horror films, discusses the social themes that are reflected in their stories, and looks at the leading directors, writers, and actors

Hollywood Gothic

Author: David J. Skal
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1429998458
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 637

Book Description
A fully updated edition of David J. Skal's Hollywood Gothic, "The ultimate book on Dracula" (Newsweek). The primal image of the black-caped vampire Dracula has become an indelible fixture of the modern imagination. It's recognition factor rivals, in its own perverse way, the familiarity of Santa Claus. Most of us can recite without prompting the salient characteristics of the vampire: sleeping by day in its coffin, rising at dusk to feed on the blood of the living; the ability to shapeshift into a bat, wolf, or mist; a mortal vulnerability to a wooden stake through the heart or a shaft of sunlight. In this critically acclaimed excursion through the life of a cultural icon, David J. Skal maps out the archetypal vampire's relentless trajectory from Victorian literary oddity to movie idol to cultural commodity, digging through the populist veneer to reveal what the prince of darkness says about us all. includes black-and-white Illustrations throughout, plus a new Introduction.

The Monster Show

Author:
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618387977
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
Describes the various characteristics of monsters, such as how much they need to eat to feel full and how some of them can juggle.

A Monster Calls

Author: Patrick Ness
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763669091
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
NOW A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor. At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting-- he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

The Monster Book

Author: Christopher Golden
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0671042599
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Book Description
An official guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer describes the mythology and influences behind the monsters, ghouls, and characters through interviews with the creators and details of the episodes.

Hey, That's MY Monster!

Author: Amanda Noll
Publisher: Flashlight Press
ISBN: 1947277081
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 37

Book Description
This enhanced eBook features read-along narration. Winner: CLC Seal of Approval 2017 Literary Classics Book Awards, Silver, Preschool/Early Reader Fantasy Finalist: 2017 Literary Classics Book Awards 2017 PNBA Long-List When Ethan looks under the bed for his monster, he finds this note instead: "So long, kid. Gotta go. Someone needs me more than you do. –Gabe" How will Ethan ever get to sleep without his monster's familiar, comforting snorts? And who could need Gabe more than Ethan does? Gabe must have gone to Ethan's little sister's room! She has been climbing out of bed every night to play, and obviously needs a monster to help her get to sleep – but not HIS monster! Ethan tries to help his sister find her own monster, but none are the perfect blend of cute and creepy. Just when it seems that Ethan will lose his monster forever, an uninvited, tutu-toting little monster full of frightening fun appears. Following in the spooky-silly tradition of I Need My Monster, here's another irresistible monster-under-the-bed story with the perfect balance of giggles and shivers.

Skin Shows

Author: Judith Halberstam
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822316633
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
Parasites and perverts: an introduction to gothic monstrosity -- Making monsters: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -- Gothic surface, gothic depth: the subject of secrecy in Stevenson and Wilde -- Technologies of monstrosity: Bram Stoker's Dracula -- Reading counterclockwise: paranoid gothic or gothic paranoia? -- Bodies that splatter: queers and chain saws -- Skinflick: posthuman genderin Jonathan Demme's The silence of the lambs -- Conclusion: serial killing.

Monster Movies

Author: Emma Westwood
Publisher: Pocket Essentials (Paperback)
ISBN: 9781842432518
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Monsters are the manifestation of our fears and social paranoias, and an effective watchdog for making sure we all toe the line. Through literature, the monster has found a lasting legacy but, through cinema, it has developed from black & white into full Technicolor glory, making the Monster Movie an enduring document of social times, movements, fears and desires. This book peels back the flesh on a few of the monsters that have tingled our spines and caused more than a nightmare over the past 100 years.