There was a time when the atomics industry fueled more than political debate—it fueled the growth spurts of God’s creatures, which turned the tables against the domineering species known as man. Giant spiders, towering ants, train-sized gila monsters, praying mantises larger than 747s, and yes, even mutated leeches big enough to swallow you whole.
These were the themes behind the classic Creature Feature films of the 50s and 60s. By the 70s we learned that no amount of atomic radiation would cause a flea to grow so large it could leap across an entire city, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look back on those drive-in films with a sense of fondness. They are as fun today as they were back then. It was, after all, the sight of these giant beasts attacking man that became the catalyst for many of today’s horror writers to pick up a pen.
~ call for submissions @ Permuted Press
We’ve only just begun using our baby monitor and I’m not used to it yet, so every time the wee critter upstairs makes a squeak I jump out of my skin because it comes through the receiver like the snarl of some fierce, fearsome creature behind me.
Once upon a time people believed the world was populated with terrible monsters and fabulous mythical beasts. They thought if they just searched long enough and hard enough, they’d find them. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the mythical beasts of folktale and legend, and the modern researchers who are still hunting for them. Tales of sea serpents, lake monsters, and abominable snowmen.
(via Endicott)
Can we right now put out an offering, a meek and humble supplication to the gods of nature and time and science and human endeavor? Can we make it a juicy and spiritually-charged appeal that runs in direct opposition to the mad and never-ending human need to find and grab and trap and kill every gorgeous messy squishy mystery we ever encounter so as to study it and quantify it and force-fit it into our rather narrow worldview, a very specific offering that says please, oh please, let us never, ever capture and understand and fully comprehend a live 50-foot, 2-ton colossal deep-sea squid? Please?
~ SFGate (via Burningbird)
Instead, let’s find a giant squid (without the trapping and killing and fully comprehending, please) but also find something else and something else again to look for after that.
NEW YORK —A peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant was attacked by a man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal-control authorities said.
I really hope there’s a follow-up story to this.
Are you an able-bodied Sasquatch aged 10 to 150 who loves his or her country? If so, The Republic of Cascadia needs YOU to enlist in the Sasquatch Militia and defend our homeland against our many enemies…
I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of fed up with realism. After all, there’s enough reality already; why make more of it? Why not leave realism for the memoirs of drug addicts, the histories of salt, the biographies of porn stars? Why must we continue to read about the travails of divorced people or mildly depressed Canadians when we could be contemplating the shopping habits of zombies, or the difficulties that ensue when living and dead people marry each other?
~ Audrey Niffenegger (via Endicott Redux)
Stefan G. Bucher’s Daily Monster, a growing collection of curious creatures and the stories behind them.
I live in the forests of Sumatra, Indonesia. I’m pretty secretive and like to keep myself to myself most of the time. Some people have called me a cryptid – a mere hypothetical creature – and suggested that I do not exist. Such suggestions are very offensive to me.
~ Orang Pendek (via)
Tired of being spoken for, Homo floresiensis (or a distant cousin, apparently) takes to Myspace to speak for himself.
Dead Ends is an interactive zombie story; is it ironic that monsters made monstrous by their lack of conscious effort are featured in a story that requires conscious effort to read it? Or am I battling zombism simply by exerting my will toward free choice as I navigate the story?