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The Lure Of Demon Spawn: Do We Love To Hate Kids?
New York, 9:33 PM
Fri Dec 18
73 posts in the last 24 hours
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The Lure Of Demon Spawn: Do We Love To Hate Kids? |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
07/07/09
[www.mahoganymisfit.com]
Children are sinister little beings!
07/07/09
I know quite a few of us who don't. At least, not any more than we'd have towards any other human being.
07/07/09
07/11/09
My problem was actually with the "especially women" aspect, like men somehow aren't protective of children and shouldn't be expected to be, but women are somehow not women if they're not.
I'm not saying I care nothing for children or would want to see harm come to them, but I don't treat them any differently than any other human/relative just because of their age.
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07/07/09
But, then, why can't we extend misanthropic tendencies towards children? Must they always be the sweet, dancing bumblebee girl? There are a lot of people in this world I don't like. Why shouldn't the same be true for children.
My favorite book was always 'The Secret Garden" and Mary was a bit of a cow in that book. I liked that about her as I am also a scowling and cranky soul. Now, she wasn't a demon spawn but I like portrayals of kids as something other than a Care Bears episode. I've no issue that they get to be the fantastical bad guy.
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On a serious, respond-to-the-article note: I think it has something to do with the fear of the abnormal, the corruption (rot, badness) within could be the rising uncertainty/doubt that the post-Victorian image of a child as an innocent (which requires a suppression of all thought of negative aspects of children, and especially all thought of icky-bad sexual aspect of kids) is fully effective. Similar to the "return of the repressed" aspect of ghosts, I guess... but all the badness bubbles up in the form of one child and threatens to take down the family unit, which is itself something of a microcosm for society?
(Warning: I got called out in the middle of writing this and am dead certain it's less than coherent.)
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07/07/09
[www.horrormasters.com]
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07/07/09
*won't post it here in case of spoilers*
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Gah gah GAH. *shudders violently*
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07/07/09
@Francie Nolan: done
07/07/09
Also: It's kind of the ultimate mindfuck - what came from you will destroy you.
End 2 cents
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There's something to be said for world-building and characterization when you have a fictional work that deals with strange or possessed children. What's REALLY scary to me is when you have a fictional universe that depicts children as innocent and angelic and naive across the board. That sort of universe makes me almost identify more with the "bad" or "demon" child, because s/he at least has some personality and motivation.
07/07/09
The kids that grow up to be adults are the ones that learned to hide it, right? So the universe...
Awshit. Now I've got a plot AND rambling movie logic.
07/07/09
every single kid was a "bad seed" according to the official propaganda?
The kids that grow up to be adults are the ones that learned to hide it, right?
This might just be the fact that I'm cynical, but: This is actually how the world works NOW. All of us are born as selfish, squalling, blithering assholes who care for nothing and no one unless we're eating, pooping, and staying entertained.
Those of us who got past that stage STILL just want to eat, poop, and not be bored, but most of us have learned to hide the howling and histrionics when we don't get to eat/poo/be amused.
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07/07/09
"Yes, Anthony. That's a very good thing you did. A real good thing." *Shudder*
[en.wikipedia.org]'s_a_Good_Life_(The_Twilight_Zone)
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07/07/09
You know what else scares me? When the kid in "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" (the first or the sequel? I never can remember) gets made massive, and he has all this destructive power, and they're trying to reason with him, when he's just a toddler. Silly, but I find that very frightening.
07/07/09
But in a nutshell, monster children address our fears and anxieties about parenting and the intimate relationship between parents and children. Monster parent stories do the same, from the flipside.
07/07/09