Teratology

Extrapolation

Alchemists sought to create gold from lead; the Church sought to turn sinners into saints. The darker arts of alchemy explored poisons; the darker agents of the Church explored abominations of nature. The lack of “natural” specimens was but a stumble -- drawing on legends of bestiality, Greek explorations into homunculi, and Paracelsus’ investigations of poisons, clandestine operations sought to create new life. Who is the monster? The creation or the creator? Dareste? A fall guy -- a victim of psy-ops by the Church whose teratological creations extend back well into the days preceding the Renascence.

Though the alchemetic analogy fell apart long ago when Joseph Merrick spouted poetry and gawkers found a monster in the mirror, the work continues today. As the public eye is drawn to genetically modified foods, stem cell research, and hunimals, Chinese “doctors” promise results to unsuspecting foreign women offering cash for miracle fertilization treatments and North Korean scientists use people as they see fit. And in the US, thousands of children go missing every year -- many victims of lone wolfs, others falling to various Death Cults, and a select few… who can say? In a more PC era we speak of monstrous deeds instead of monstrous appearance. The Koran states that “each soul is the hostage of its deeds” (Sura 74, v. 38), but is the monster’s soul not held by the unseen hand of its creator? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Few are gold, but are only few monsters?

See Also

• Boer
• Priory of Goom

Desiderata

The ancient Mayans worshipped conjoined twins, paying them the highest honor of ritualistic death.

Mary Shelley was inspired to create Frankenstein by her father’s unnaturally strong curiosity for the unnatural.

A 1986 survey found that nearly one third of boys aged 13 to 16 living on dairy farms in the US had carnal knowledge of cattle.