AnOther Magazine

The word monster comes, in part, from the Latin monere — meaning to warn. As a cautionary figure, the monster has always been with us: from menacing beasts and fairytale creatures inhabiting ancient worlds to medieval demons and today's hyper-sophisticated cinematic villains, they serve as portents and omens. Ruled by uncontrollable and wholly human impulses — anger, passion, the need to survive — and shaped by the prejudices of a wider society, the monster is also a reflection of ourselves, our deepest-rooted fears, sometimes our longings. This issue of AnOther Magazine explodes the notion of monster, exploring it inside out, archetypical and atypical. Be they predator or victim, fearless or vulnerable, mad or melancholy, the centuries-old — and not so old — antiheroes that inhabit worlds still darker than our…

“I love the 1930s Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Bride of Frankenstein films from Universal Studios — they are the most iconic monster movies in cinema history. Even if you haven't seen them, the reason Frankenstein's Monster has a flat head in every Halloween costume is because of Boris Karloff. Dracula wears a tuxedo because of Bela Lugosi. They are ingrained in the public imagination. Frankenstein is the first one I remember seeing, aged six. It really worked on me the way it was meant to — I was truly terrified by Karloff's gait and his face. But even as a child I realised that he was the victim too — when he throws the girl into the water I was scared, but I understood that he didn't mean…

“Peaceful sleep has eluded me for as long as I can remember. By the time I was 15, I was experiencing sleep paralysis every night, along with these violent nightmares about things like my family being murdered, or Bob from Twin Peaks slowly rising out of the darkness. I basically didn't sleep for a year, until I visited family in Cuba and underwent an exorcism to remove any spirits attached to me. You know how a certain smell can transport you back to a specific time and place? It felt a bit like that, and the nightmares stopped for a long time. They eventually came back — not helped by me living in a bunch of haunted houses in London — but I've since found I just don't have the…

“As an adolescent, I was never interested in psychoanalysis or, indeed, knew anything about it. I was in a bookshop browsing and came across this book. Very quickly I found it to be riveting — as an adventure and a romance. Jung was interested in what he called the depths, and I thought I was too. He gave the most extraordinary account of a life lived as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, in which amazing things could happen to people if they spoke freely to each other. For me, psychoanalysis was of a piece with literature — there was an ongoing cultural conversation about who we are, who we want to be, what we think about, what matters to us and what is the best language we have for what matters…

“I'm not a nostalgic person but I watch a lot of old shows from the late 50s and 60s because I'm intrigued by the idea of censorship. The Andy Griffith Show aired from 1960 to 1968. Historically, there was so much happening during that time but, looking at that sleepy black and white sitcom and the innocent storylines, you wouldn't know it. You watch the intro and you already know it's gonna give feelgood, it's gonna wrap up with a cute little bow at the end. It's jarring to think of the political landscape at the time and compare it to what was on television, and it got me to thinking that it's still going on now. In the future, it will be interesting to look back on a modern-day…

“I've always been obsessed with whales — they're just so beautiful and mysterious. I read Moby Dick when I was 17 or 18 and couldn't get into it, with all ye olde language. I liked Dostoevsky, but that was an easier read. Then I gave Moby Dick another go years later, and I was like, fucking hell, this is biblical. I also remember seeing an animated film when I was a child — or maybe it was some kind of lucid dream — and that made a big impression. It was about these villagers who go around hunting whales. When they die you see that they're reincarnated as the whales. They don't realise it, but by killing the whales they're killing the thing they become. As a kid I thought…