The Plymouth Monster of 1670.

I have been reading Monster Theory (ed Jeffrey Jerome Cohen), a collection of essays, and came across a reference to The Plymouth Monster in Stephen Pender's essay entitile "No Monsters at the Resurrection".  William Durston, a Doctor in Physic reported to the Royal Society that he had not had enough time to examine the bodies properly.  Firstly, the father of the children had been unwilling to have the babies dissected, but when permission had been granted, Durston found his work hampered by the large crowd who had gathered to see the twins.

Durston wished to make more observations, but the "Fathers importunity to hasten the Birth to the Grave" put an end to his work. Dissection was reserved for executed criminals, and a body needed to remain whole to rise on Judgement day.  Autopseys were viewed with deep suspicion (by uneducated people), even though there was a fashion for anatomical treatises and illustrations.

At no point is the mother of these twins mentioned in Durston's account, but the following link discusses another pair of cojoined twins (also from Plymouth, but dating from 1635?).

http://grotesque-observatory.blogspot.com/2011/08/plymouth-monster-conjoined-twins.html 

Little Red Riding Hood

Chaperon Rouge - Supinfocom

I was really entranced by this animation.  The colours are lovely and the wolves are pretty much perfect.  Game players have probably seen all of this before......... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqrPAoS9Py4&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL09426036CF9E1853

Starting with the end of fairy tales

It's hard to know where to begin witha blog about monsters, and we've looked at quite a few fairytale monsters.  But there is one character we havn't talked about yet who haunts these tales, and he's Death.   I'm never quite sure why death is a 'he', but he is.  Often, in Fairytales he works out of sight, like a stagehand in the wings, taking mothers and fathers before their children have a chance to know them, or whilst they still need them.  

Death and The Newly Married Lady

I read somewhere (and now I can't find it) that the reason why Fairy tales all end with a wedding is because the next stage of a young womans life was bearing children (especially important if you've married a prince) and risking death in childbirth. So my first images come from Hans Holbein's series of woodcuts entitled The Dance of Death (1538) where Death cavorts around Kings, Abbots, Nuns and Pedlars et al.    Holbein's prints were to remind people how Death lurked at every turn and could take the rich and poor at a moments notice. 

The Newly Married Lady might be dressed in her best and smug about her change of status, but Death is there in front of her gleefully beating the time down to her confinement. 

Death and the Knight

Death is a lot more direct in his dealings with the knight.  The Knight kills, and Death deals him a body-blow back.  I do love the twist and turn of this image, although The knight does not really have a place in fairy-tales. So just imagine he's the Prince and fathered his first child, and has now provided us with another stock character for Fairytales - the Widow.