For my final project, I wanted to explore the ideas of monstrosity that lie outside those normal ideologies and classical interpretations of what it means to be considered a monster. The process for choosing my particular monster was a relatively easy one because through extensively researching the principles of monstrosity, as well as, my presence within this course, my overall perceptions of this notion has been eye-opening. Even to the point where it was hard not to find the monstrous in every single object or space. However, before enduring in this rather fascinating subject, my own awareness of monsters existed in traditional concepts like big, gross, and ugly creatures and beast who strictly emphasized a frightening appearance. This definition is essentially not wrong as the Oxford English Dictionary provides an etymology that classifies monster as a disfiguration of a person and/or misshapen being, deriving from the Anglo-Norman and Middle French monstre during the first half of
the thirteenth century. And more specifically, any imaginary creature that is large, ugly, and frightening (OED). However, it was the exposure to this course material that allowed myself to think in a new light, not just to see monsters as imaginary creatures, but as social tools that we find difficult to accept in our society because of their embodiment of undesirable characteristics and attributes. This also permitted me to realize, despite appearance, what makes a monster monstrous is their abilities to represent a formidable unknown and a deviant form; something that disrupts social boundaries and spaces, and provides an eerie sensation that we are not able to properly understand. Therefore, by this notion, something natural or non-distinctive within our society can be considered monstrous. For this very reason, is why I wanted to analyze buildings as my source of monstrosity, but more specifically the dystopian buildings of the catastrophic urban environment in the film I am Legend.