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Epic Monsters: Grendel's Mother
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<blockquote data-quote="Aaron L" data-source="post: 8123253" data-attributes="member: 926"><p>Unfortunately I have never liked any of the movie versions of Grendel's Mother. They have all seemed either underdone, or extremely gaudy and <em>over</em>-done. The Angelina Jolie version was particularly gross, and just <em>incredibly tacky</em> in my opinion (not to mention those awful <em>Scorpion King</em> levels of bad CGI.) There was <em>nothing at all</em> sexy about Grendel's Mother in the poem <em>Beowulf </em>(but then, that entire movie was in poor taste, in my opinion. That utterly bizarre interpretation of Crispin Glover as Grendel was just insufferably bad.)</p><p></p><p>I <strong>really </strong>dislike this tendency in modern retellings of <em>Beowulf </em>for the writers to believe they are being clever and original by portraying Grendel <em>sympathetically</em>... even though this clever "original" idea has actually been done to death (seriously Neil, you are <em>so much better</em> than that, and should have known that idea was already a cutesy cliche since back in the '70s.) The whole idea of Grendel being a poor, downtrodden, sympathetic monster just sticks in my craw, and entirely misses the point of even <em>having </em>monsters in fiction in the first place. Monsters are intended as representations of actual Evil, and <em>aren't meant</em> to be understood; in fact, the mere <em>attempt </em>to understand monsters <em>robs them of most of their power and impact</em>. Monsters are the the ultimate bad guys, and there to be eliminated without any qualms. </p><p></p><p>That's why they exist in stories, because such things <em>don't </em>exist in real life, and therefore they are used as cathartic symbolic representations restricted to the realm of fiction and fantasy. </p><p></p><p>And when we have our <em>fictional </em>monsters taken away from us in our stories as representations of Evil to be freely vanquished without any pesky questions of morality (because only <em>fictional </em>monsters can be completely, irredeemably Evil) then we as human beings have a <em>very bad tendency</em> for our search for such monsters for us to slay to spill out over into the <em>real world</em>, onto living human targets who don't deserve it...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aaron L, post: 8123253, member: 926"] Unfortunately I have never liked any of the movie versions of Grendel's Mother. They have all seemed either underdone, or extremely gaudy and [I]over[/I]-done. The Angelina Jolie version was particularly gross, and just [I]incredibly tacky[/I] in my opinion (not to mention those awful [I]Scorpion King[/I] levels of bad CGI.) There was [I]nothing at all[/I] sexy about Grendel's Mother in the poem [I]Beowulf [/I](but then, that entire movie was in poor taste, in my opinion. That utterly bizarre interpretation of Crispin Glover as Grendel was just insufferably bad.) I [B]really [/B]dislike this tendency in modern retellings of [I]Beowulf [/I]for the writers to believe they are being clever and original by portraying Grendel [I]sympathetically[/I]... even though this clever "original" idea has actually been done to death (seriously Neil, you are [I]so much better[/I] than that, and should have known that idea was already a cutesy cliche since back in the '70s.) The whole idea of Grendel being a poor, downtrodden, sympathetic monster just sticks in my craw, and entirely misses the point of even [I]having [/I]monsters in fiction in the first place. Monsters are intended as representations of actual Evil, and [I]aren't meant[/I] to be understood; in fact, the mere [I]attempt [/I]to understand monsters [I]robs them of most of their power and impact[/I]. Monsters are the the ultimate bad guys, and there to be eliminated without any qualms. That's why they exist in stories, because such things [I]don't [/I]exist in real life, and therefore they are used as cathartic symbolic representations restricted to the realm of fiction and fantasy. And when we have our [I]fictional [/I]monsters taken away from us in our stories as representations of Evil to be freely vanquished without any pesky questions of morality (because only [I]fictional [/I]monsters can be completely, irredeemably Evil) then we as human beings have a [I]very bad tendency[/I] for our search for such monsters for us to slay to spill out over into the [I]real world[/I], onto living human targets who don't deserve it... [/QUOTE]
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