Mathias Clasen is an associate professor of literature and media at Aarhus University in Denmark. He is a scholar of horror fiction and has wrote and edited three books on this subject. In chapter 11 of Darwin’s Bridge: Uniting the Humanities and Sciences, Clasen discusses his take on why we fear monsters in horror films. He believes that our fear of monsters is a product of evolution. Life for our ancestors was very treacherous. Since they were constantly dealing with threats of all proportions, from venomous animals to other aggressive humans, they have to evolve to survive. This resulted in what Clasen describes as a “species-typical cognitive architecture or hardware for danger management” (Clasen, 2016, p. 183). This is also known as …show more content…
Fear is something that has helped keep mankind and other animals alive. I believe that many of our fears have been caused by evolution. Take, for instance, some peoples fear of snakes. Many individuals hold a fear of them. For some their fear could have been triggered by an experience they had as a child, like stepping on a snake while playing in the backyard. However, for most individuals they do not have an actual reason for their fear other than their distaste for how they look and feel. Why could that be? Well at one-time human beings survived mostly outdoors without the protection of heavy duty shelters and were susceptible to snakes and other creatures. Not having scientists around to classify whether a snake was venomous or not, humans just became fearful of them all and either avoided or killed the snakes they came across. This behavior would then be passed on to their offspring and would continue down the line until individuals began to realize that snakes were not the biggest predator out there and their fears began to shrink. Nevertheless, that fear still lingers in the back of many individual’s minds and dictates how they react to snakes whether in real life or on screen. The evolution of fear is what has kept mankind alive and what will continue to keep mankind alive. Without it we would probably jump off that bridge with our friends or pet that cute little shark we see in the water next to
Monsters are the physical embodiment of fear. Monsters are the physical embodiment due to a wide variety of reasons. The most important being: Monsters’ apparent invulnerability/incredible strength, represent the bad part of society, most often look ugly, represent evil/nightmares itself, are intelligent, and some deviate from the norms are the reasons why monsters are the physical embodiment of fear. Monsters’ incredible characteristics are what strike fear into the hearts of others. In many myths, monsters are a weakness to societies. For instance, the heroes of Rome fight these monsters in order to overcome them which is the symbolic overcoming of weakness by the community. The fear monsters represent is primarily human fear as monsters are generally on good terms with animals and human fear is far deeper than animal fear.
When I was young I would always watch “scary movies” with my sister. For this reason, Every night I would have nightmares after each movie. By all means, I’d end up on the other side of the bed or on the floor. Given that, Stephen King claims his short story “ Why We Crave Horror” is to crave horror by facing our fears and, re-establish our feelings normalcy by getting used to the horror towards something that is called the human condition provided that, he is right about his claims. By all means, His three claims are “To show we can,that we are not afraid, that we can ride this roller coaster”. “ We also go to re-establish our feelings of essential normality”. “ If we share a brotherhood of man, then we also share an insanity of man”.
Have you ever experienced that feeling when your heart beat goes into hyper drive, your palms start to perspire, and your muscles tense up? Fear is an emotion that everyone has succumbed to at least once in their lifetime. Our fears are like our shadows, for they follow us around to wherever we may go. They are lingering in the back of our minds from the moment we wake up in the morning until our heads hit the pillow at night. Fears are so powerful, however, that they can even crawl into our dreams and manifest into other beings. We, as humans, like to put names or concepts to either faces or objects; we like to possess the ability to visualize what something or someone looks like. As a result, our fears are personified into monsters. Prolific essayist, Chuck Klosterman, points out how “Frankenstein’s monster illustrated our trepidation about untethered science” and “Godzilla was spawned from the fear of the atomic age.” In Klosterman’s article, “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead,” he tackles the
Asma, Stephen. On Monsters :An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
Fear is perhaps one of the most primal and basic human emotions. In many instances it is because of a reaction to this emotion that humans are able to make crucial decisions to their survival. In the ancestral environment, a proper response to fear or the "fight or flight" reflex often made the difference between life and death. Those humans foolhardy enough to tease the sabretooth tiger to impress the ladies may have made their point a few times, but quite often they ended up as a tasty meal. Clearly, fear is then an useful thing for evolution to pass along to following generations.
Have you ever had something ever get to you or make you you scared? That is called fear and tons an tons of people have different fears. Fear is an emotion that makes you feel afraid or something is frighten. Some fears many include spiders, clowns and even death. ‘’Fear Prompts Teens To Act Impulsively’’ by Laura Sanders, ‘’Stress for Success’’ by Alison Pearce, and ‘’And Uncomfortable Bed’’ By Guy Maupassant all explain the idea of fear.
Fear is an emotion that can control our everyday thoughts and actions. Fear keeps people from
Human's fears should not be taken lightly. Fear could do anything to one's minds, though without fear, man can be as savage as animals. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding presented fear of the unknown to be a powerful force in a man's mind. Fear of the unknown is a powerful force, which can turn to either insight or hysteria. The kids feared of not being rescued off of the island, so they made signal fires on top of the mountain. Then, there and gone, Roger's fear of the old rules he abided to. Also, there were the fears of the beast which confused and isolated the kids from the top of the mountain.
“When you say 'fear of the unknown', that is the definition of fear; fear is the unknown, fear is what you do not know, and it's genetically within us so that we feel safe. We feel scared of the woods because we're not familiar with it, and that keeps you safe.” – M. Night Shyamalan
We all have cravings, be it for snacks or sweets, there is always something we desire. We crave horror in the same way. In Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” he argues that people need to watch horror films in order to release the negative emotions within us. King believes that people feel enjoyment while watching others be terrorized or killed in horror movies. King’s argument has elements that are both agreeable and disagreeable. On one hand he is acceptable when claiming we like the thrill and excitement that comes from watching horror movies; however, his views regarding that the fun comes from seeing others suffer cannot be agreed with because the human condition is not as immoral as he claims it to be.
Fear can be caused by many different things and can be a result of different situations. “Fear is a primary emotion. It is an evolved and adaptive physiological response that occurs automatically in response to particular
Fear has controlled the world and shaped humans into what they are now. New technologies have been created, because of the fear humans have. Over time new fears have evolved, and illnesses occurred due to anxiety and depression from these fears. The terror that runs through each individual is different. Without fear there would be no evolution or protection.
Fear keeps humans from being stupid. Occasionally human’s detect a unsettling feeling in the pit of their stomach, this is know as the “gut” feeling which often prevents moronic actions which could have unfavorable consequences. This type of fear helps to keep humans grounded, sane, from being to risky. Fear often prevents people engaging in crazy actives, however, on occasion humans are able to overcome fears such as killing a spider, riding a roller coaster, when people conquer there fears it leads to a sense of bravery and confidence which had not been instilled in them before. This benefits the individual helping them to possibly realize they are capable of so
Fear is a human emotion everyone dislikes. Fear is in every person with no exception. It can be difficult problem to solve. We can overcome our fears by challenging ourselves by analyzing fear and developing a growth mindset.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, fear is “the emotion of pain or uneasiness caused by the sense of impending danger, or by the prospect of some possible evil.” This is a very exact definition of the fear whenever we describe it today. This definition somehow relates to phobia or anxiety, but these words are really far from the “true purpose” of fear. Although have we ever thought about what good fear does to us instead of just looking at the negative effects that it causes us?