PITY THIS BUSY MONSTER, MANUNKIND: This post about Junji Ito’s horror manga Uzumaki (h/t Sean Collins) made me think about a couple of things. First, I realized that I have a harder time with cosmic-horror than with small-scale horror, and so realized that if I went back to Uzumaki knowing that cosmic horror was on its way, I wouldn’t be disappointed by the later volumes, and might get a lot more out of them.

But also! There’s this:

In his superb The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart, Noel Carroll argues that monsters are central to the effects of horror, and the primary trait of these monsters—beyond their obvious malicious intent–is their impurity, defined by their “interstitiality and categorical contradictoriness” (43). As human beings, we structure the world into mutually exclusive categories and respond with dismay and revulsion when we encounter something or someone that doesn’t fit into that worldview–i.e. a monster.

(link)

And I couldn’t help thinking: OK, but so here, Christ is a monster (in a monstrance!)–genre-crossing God and man. The Eucharist is a monster, bread and flesh and God. The Trinity is a monster, three and one. The Mass is a monster, now and always.

And man is a monster, several times over: clay and breath, soul and flesh, consciousness and meat, sinner and imago Dei.

I don’t have a huge amount to say about this, really. One: Monster horror is self-recognition. Two: Possibly the best genre for the Crucifixion is horror, not tragedy. Three: Not all “impurity” is the same kind of impurity.

If people have more to say… I’d like to hear it.