Every story needs a monster

 

IN PRAISE OF MONSTERS


An eerie shadowy faceless figure dressed in black from head to toe walks -- or glides -- through the pages of "Dark Angel”, volume three of the Angel Mountain saga. Who -- or what -- is this strange creature that appears intermittently, leaving no trace of his movements, even when there is snow on the ground which should show up footprints? Is The Nightwalker a human being intent on stalking or terrorising our heroine Martha and her family and friends? Or is the creature a ghost -- or a devil -- or even the Grim Reaper, come to remind Martha of her mortality and maybe of her impending demise? 

And remember this before you start to worry about authenticity -- or about me as an author making people seem silly and gullible when in any real situation they would have thought rationally and applied due scrutiny. In the Wales of the early 1800's Darwin had not yet written his "Origin of Species" and there was still a widespread belief that the Bible was TRUE in all respects.  Many people believed that ghosts and demons might indeed be out there, prowling about and sometimes visiting punishment on the wicked.  The supernatural was a part of everyday life.

In the writing of eight novels and in the portrayal of Wales as it was 200 years ago, I was always mindful that I should not fill the story with "modern people in fancy dress".

Anyway, the character of The Nightwalker is one of the most interesting of the 200 or so characters who appear in the stories. As an author, of course I have used the "creature" to symbolise the darker components of this story -- Martha's loneliness and despair, her paranoia, and her tendency towards depression. But it was also interesting to turn everything upside down towards the end of the novel, and to turn The Nighwalker into an ultimately pathetic and even tragic figure -- and the scene in which Martha is finally forced to confront this creature is one of the scenes of which I am most proud.... but I must not give too much away.........

Beauty and the Beast. The Phantom of the Opera. King Kong. Ogres, monsters and trolls. Literature is full of these terrifying figures who are demonised because they are different -- either because they are large, or ugly, or fail to conform with what we are used to seeing as beautiful or comfortable. The great film called "Monsters" comes to mind as well. All too often the monsters are themselves terrified because they have suffered from some traumatic event, or just because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Anyway, every story needs a monster……..
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