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Branson Smock
Karen Redding
English 1101

Monstrous Folklore: Reasons

The essays of which I decided to discuss are Japans Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb
Became a Beast Called Godzilla by Peter H. Brothers, and Mermaids Attributes, Behavior,
and Environs by Skye Alexander. I chose Japans Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became
a Beast Called Godzilla by Peter H. Brothers because it shined a light on how the Japanese
where feeling and the fears they had after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I chose
Mermaids Attributes, Behavior, and Environs by Skye Alexander as it showed the different yet
similar ideals of the lore behind the mermaids and the fact they use their beauty to lure men into
impending doom. Both of them combined tells us why we need to create and have Monsters in a
general sense, but also in their individual ways such as fear or lust.
The essay Japans Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became a Beast Called Godzilla
by Peter H. Brothers expresses that while the Japanese where recovering from the war they are
once again reminded that they are an unwilling participant in the Atomic Age. Brothers also
suggests that the island nation of Hiroshima has always had the fear of the two great superpowers
in the Second World War would lay waste to their city. Godzilla is in fact a virtual re-creation
of the Japanese military and civilian experiences during the final months of WWII. (Brothers,
53) Brothers emphasizes that the film itself is every inch the director Ishir Hondas film, a
somber testimony of the personal experience of the war. As Honda said years later I wanted to
make radiation visible. As a result, the Bomb became the Beast. (qtd. in Brothers, 52) Godzilla

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was and forever will be a film to be taken seriously. It shows not only how the Japanese felt
during the war but also the guilt we as Americans should feel. Many people have argued
throughout the years that if Pearl Harbor never happened that Hiroshima would have never been.
What is also true is that without Hiroshima there would never have been Godzilla. The American
version of the film has been altered drastically, to take the real life events that caused the film in
the first place, out. Making it more acceptable to us as Americans to not feel as guilty by what
they have done. Brothers mentioned that the bombs where were considered as a necessary evil in
America, whereas the bombs where were considered just plain out evil.
The terrible irony of all this is that if Godzilla is indeed the representation of the dangers
of mans tampering with atomic and nuclear power, it has more recently surfaced in such places
as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and now in Fukushima, where at the time of this writing a
possible nuclear-reactor meltdown threatens consequences beyond even the imagination of the
men who brought such a terrible fiction to life (Aa recent e-mail sent by one of the workers at the
plant desperately trying to avert catastrophe reads like dialog from Godzilla: If were in hell
now, all we can do is to crawl up towards heaven. Who could stand this reality?). (Brothers, 59)
Brothers suggested that Godzilla is a film less about a giant dinosaur running amuck, but
more about the psychological recovery of a people trying to recover from bombs and the
radioactive fallout.
In Mermaids Attributes, Behavior, and Environs by Skye Alexander, the basic points
Alexander was trying to make is that the mermaids folklore is old, unified, and world-wide.
Alexander disagrees with the fact that the mermaids enchanting voices, their sensuality, and
their destructive potential is part of the very core of the mermaid mystique. Do mermaids intend
to sing mariners into the big sleep? Or do their victims simply overreact when they heard the

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otherworldly beauty of the music? Its a subject for debate. (Alexander, 232) The mermaids
themselves can be derived as many ways as the sea is. An Oracle, and Bearers of Good Fortune.
Or as a Deadly Beauty, and the Tempest. Mermaids, it seems, are as changeable as the seaserene one moment and tumultuous the next. (233) Alexander stated that you will never see a
picture of a mermaid with a pixie or brush cut, that one of the key characteristics of a mermaid is
her long, flowing hair. Alexander commented saying that a womans hair has long been viewed
as her most seductive attributes. The religious women of the times have concealed their hair so
they will not distract the men during the prayer/holy times. Barbara Walker proposes that when
a mermaid combs her hair she is performing a type of magic to enhance her powers (qtd. in
Alexander, 236)
Obviously, theres more to a mermaids hair that meets the eye. Barbara Walker,
author of The Womans Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, proposes that
when a mermaid combs her hair shes performing a type of magic. Because hair
traditionally represents strength, the mermaids act of attending to her long,
lustrous hair signifies her efforts to nurture and enhance her personal power. (qtd.
in Alexander 236)
Alexander stated that since people have reported seeing mermaids all over the world that the
fact they can live almost everywhere, even on land. In the end though, they always go back to
their true home: the water. (Alexander, 237)
Both of these essays portray the fact that there is always some sort of reasoning for these
Monsters to have been created. Whether it is to be a way to express the fears we have like in
Godzilla, or the way to pass the time on travels using, lets say, fish-tales like with the
Mermaids. They both not only put a face to the things we fear the most, whether it be internal or

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external, but give us a way to cope with said things. I feel like these two essays are valuable by
the way they hold up a mirror to our inner -selves and puts a face to the things that terrifies, to
me at least, the most: ourselves. The main thing that connects these two stories is the fact that
they both relate to mankind. One being the fears we have, the other being the lust and the need of
anotherand the need to connect to others. This being said, I still love the quote from the very first
essay in chapter one, Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen king, shines a light on our
nature;. I think were all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better
and maybe not all that much better, after all. If we are all insane, then sanity becomes a
matter of degree. (King, 16-17)

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Works Cited
Brothers, Peter H. "Japan's Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became a Beast
Called Godzilla." Monsters: Bedford Spotlight Reader. By Andrew J. Hoffman. 1st ed.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2015. 51-60. Print.
Alexander, Skyer. "Mermaids' Attributes, Behavior, and Environs." Monsters:
Bedford Spotlight Reader. By Andrew J. Hoffman. 1st ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins,
2015. 232-38. Print.
King, Stephen. "Why We Crave Horror Movies." Monsters: Bedford Spotlight
Reader. By Andrew J. Hoffman. 1st ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2015. 16-19. Print.