Today was very metaphysical and I liked that. It actually got me thinking quite a bit, and as was said today in class, thinking is placing. The human mind loves to categorize, to place, to find patterns that aren’t even really there. And when something doesn’t fit a pattern, when it can’t be placed or is out of place, that’s unnerving to most people. The example in class was an excellent one: we’re surrounded by dirt. Why is dirt in the home considered so offensive? Because it’s out of place.

So going by that simple emotional trigger, a monster, so to speak, is a thing that crosses the cognitive boundaries you have in place. A monster is a “boundary transgressor.” To explain it in the fashion of classic movie monsters, they arouse both fear and curiosity because they cross boundaries. Werewolves cross the boundary of man and animal. And everything from vampires, to zombies, to Frankenstein’s monster, to mummies, cross the boundary between living and dead. It’s a very innovative and captivating way to define “monster.”

Drawing from this, we moved onto the mental categories humans place on themselves, specifically on race. While race at its base is real and racial differences a biological fact, the exact placement and definitions of those races are very culturally and socially constructed. To use a metaphor, white and black as racial groups exist, just like water. People can be placed, biologically, into those categories. Just like water can be placed in something with a discernible definition like puddles and ponds. But when does a puddle become too big, that it becomes a pond, or something in the middle? Likewise, what is white? Those answers are much more subjective and perception based than scientific.

From there we discussed the changing racial categories in U.S. history e.g. Walter Plecker and the one-drop rule. And we ended by pointing how carnivalesque crosses traditional racial boundaries and theorize that that’s why they’re so captivating to people both then and now.