Monsters have always stalked the hinterlands of the imagination, emblems of fear and symbols of guilt. They commonly take their aspects and roles from the supernatural imagination (seeSupernatural Creatures); but the scientific imagination has produced many monsters of its own. The recruitment to theHorror story of monsters spawned by Nature was pioneered by H GWells's classic alien-Invasion storyThe War of the Worlds (1897) and by William HopeHodgson's sea stories. Sf monsters are often familiar but repulsive creatures made monstrous by increasing their size (seeGreat and Small), andAlien monsters are often created by chimerical redeployment of the nastier features of earthly creatures; deliberate attempts at interbreeding betweenAliens and humans (seeExogamy), as in FredSaberhagen'sThe White Bull (1988), can generate monsters orSupermen, sometimes, ambivalently, both in the same birth. The fossil record has increased this vocabulary of ideas considerably: see the entries forDinosaurs (which lists many relevant dinosaur films with entries in this encyclopedia) and, possibly synonymous, theLoch Ness Monster. Other monsters arise asMutants or as the accidental products of human scientific endeavour: the archetypal monster of this kind stars in MaryShelley'sGothic-SF classicFrankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1818; rev1831). The actual scientific discipline of teratology (the study of monsters) has made little impact on sf, although its elaboration in the gruesome murder mysteryThe Cadaver of Gideon Wyck (1934) by AlexanderLaing brings that novel close to the sf borderline, and the same might be said of WhitleyStrieber's horror-detective novelThe Wolfen (1978). Russell MGriffin'sThe Blind Men and the Elephant (1982) borrows heavily from the well known "Elephant Man" case.

Many of the standard figures of fear have made their way fromMythology or elsewhere into sf via more-or-less ingenious processes of rationalization. The invisible monster proved easy to adapt (seeInvisibility): one was featured in the first issue ofAmazing in George AllanEngland's "The Thing from – 'Outside'" (April 1923Science and Invention). The Gorgon became the sexual predator of C LMoore's "Shambleau" (November 1933Weird Tales).Werewolves are rationalized inDarker Than You Think (December 1940Unknown; exp1948) by JackWilliamson and "There Shall Be No Darkness" (April 1950Thrilling Wonder) by JamesBlish. "Who Goes There?" (August 1938Astounding) by John WCampbell Jr, writing as Don A Stuart, takes the idea of the menacingShapeshifter to its limit. SfVampires are featured in numerous stories, including "Asylum" (May 1942Astounding) by A Evan Vogt – whoseThe Voyage of the Space Beagle (stories July 1939-August 1943Astounding, May 1950Other Worlds; fixup1950; vtMission: Interplanetary1952) features a whole repertoire of monsters –I Am Legend (1954) by RichardMatheson,The Space Vampires (1976) by ColinWilson,The Vampire Tapestry (fixup1980) by Suzy McKeeCharnas andThe Empire of Fear (1988) by Brian MStableford. The entire retinue of mythological monsters is recreated byComputer inNightworld (1979) andThe Vampires of Nightworld (1981) by David FBischoff. Other kinds of quasivampiricParasitism are featured in Eric FrankRussell'sSinister Barrier (March 1939Unknown;1943; rev1948), van Vogt's "Discord in Scarlet" (December 1939Astounding) and Robert AHeinlein'sThe Puppet Masters (September-November 1951Galaxy;1951; text restored1990).

Monsters have always been very popular in the movies, and until the 1960s sfCinema was dominated byMonster Movies of every possible kind. The first of many versions ofFrankenstein was made in 1910, but the legend was created anew in 1931 when BorisKarloff took the role of the monster. Shortly afterwards a new legend was born in the story ofKing Kong (1933), in which fear was modified by sympathy: the pragmatically necessary destruction of monster by mankind was thereafter able to take on a dimension of tragedy, and the monsters could be pitied in their monstrousness. Japanese monster movies, pioneered byGojira (1954), have frequently converted charismatic monsters into heroes. Another significant cinematic innovation was the monster liberated from the scientist's id inForbidden Planet (1956). Later twentieth-century advances in special-effects technology permitted a resurgence of scaryMonster Movies, the most notable sf examples beingAlien (1979) and its sequels, and various films directed by DavidCronenberg, whileTerminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) grafts a traditional monstrous propensity –Shapeshifting – onto a technological construct.

Genre SF, of course, made abundant melodramatic use of monstersIllustration played a considerable part in building sf's monster mythology –Alien horrors were a particularly rich source of lurid cover pictures, and theBug-Eyed Monster, orBEM (whose archetype appeared on the cover ofAstounding May 1931, illustrating Charles WDiffin's "Dark Moon"), quickly became aCliché. One such is spectacularly featured, with calculated nostalgia, inHeart of the Comet (1986) by DavidBrin and GregoryBenford, but the genus became virtually extinct in the 1940s. After World War Two, monsters became much less evident as staples of sf, although new ground continued to be broken by such novels asThe Day of the Triffids (6 January-3 February 1951Collier's Weekly; as "Revolt of the Triffids";1951; rev1951; orig version vtRevolt of the Triffids1952) by JohnWyndham, which features lethal ambulatory plants, andThe Clone (1965) by Theodore LThomas and KateWilhelm, in which a constantly growing amorphous creature absorbs any flesh with which it comes into contact. In many stories aRobot filled what was in every respect the role of a monster. Sympathy for alien beings became sufficiently pronounced that stories began to be written which analysed the sad predicament of the monster. The shock of monstrous self-discovery had earlier been the theme of such stark parables of alienation as "The Outsider" (April 1926Weird Tales) by H PLovecraft andThe Metamorphosis (1915 chap; trans1937) by FranzKafka, but many sf stories of the 1960s and 1970s were prepared to take the initial situation of monstrousness for granted and analyse its implications, especially the psychological ones. This is particularly common in the work of RobertSilverberg, as inThorns (1967),The Man in the Maze (1968) and "Caliban" (inInfinity 3, anth1972, ed RobertHoskins), and crops up often in the work of DamonKnight, as in "The Country of the Kind" (February 1956F&SF),Beyond the Barrier (1963) andMind Switch (1965; vtThe Other Foot). A parallel work from outside the genre is John (Champlin)Gardner'sGrendel (1971), which retells the Beowulf legend from the monster's viewpoint. Humans sometimes become monsters in alien contexts, as in A Evan Vogt's significantly titled "The Monster" (August 1948Astounding), RobertSheckley's "All the Things You Are" (July 1956Galaxy) and C JCherryh'sCuckoo's Egg (1985).

The advent ofGenetic Engineering has lent a new lease of life to the sf monster story, reflected in such works as StephenGallagher'sChimera (1982), Dean RKoontz'sWatchers (1987) and MichaelCrichton'sJurassic Park (1990). FrankensteinianScientists embarking on teratological experiments in biotechnology have become common on the fringes of the genre where sf overlaps with thrillers and horror stories, but even here a certain sympathy for the plight of the monstrous creations is commonplace, reflecting the disreputability into which the idea that ugliness may be equated with evil has, thankfully, fallen. [BS]

see also:Gods and Demons;Resident Evil.

previous versions of this entry

• Internet Archive