About this item
Highlights
- What makes a kaiju a kaiju?
- About the Author: Jason Barr is an associate professor at Blue Ridge Community College.
- 210 Pages
- Performing Arts, Film
Description
About the Book
"What makes a kaiju a kaiju? What makes a large ape a large ape, and why do we sympathize with some, such as King Kong, and not with others, such as Konga? And what makes a giant person become a "monster"? This book provides a new and updated perspective on the kaiju genre and reveals that our boundaries for the kaiju film are perhaps not as solid as we think. These critical commentaries focus primarily on newer kaiju works, ranging from Colossal to Shin Godzilla to Godzilla vs. Kong, but also touches on classics such as King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, Godzilla Raids Again, and even lesser-known works such as What to Do With the Dead Kaiju? and Agon. From the Conclusion: "Like our ancestors from centuries ago, we have collectively incorporated and adopted giants and giant monsters into our culture and, more importantly, into our pop culture. Within these new realms and domains where giant monsters walk the Earth, we experience the rigidity of our moral structures, the fleeting borders of our definitions of humanity. Within the kaiju film genre, and all of the films inspired by the kaiju film, rest our own assumptions about what makes a monster a monster, and, more importantly, what makes a human a human"--Book Synopsis
What makes a kaiju a kaiju? What makes an ape a large ape, and why do we sympathize with some, such as King Kong, and not with others, such as Konga? And what makes a giant person become a "monster"? This book provides a new perspective on kaiju and reveals that our boundaries for the genre are perhaps not so solid.
This work focuses primarily on newer kaiju works, ranging from Colossal to Shin Godzilla to Godzilla vs. Kong, but also touches on classics such as King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, Godzilla Raids Again, and lesser-known works such as What to Do With the Dead Kaiju? and Agon.
Like our ancestors we have collectively adopted giant monsters into our culture, especially our pop culture. Within the domains where giant monsters walk, we experience the rigidity of our moral structures, and the fleeting borders of our definitions of humanity. Within the kaiju film genre rest our own assumptions about what makes a monster a monster, and, more importantly, what makes a human a human.
About the Author
Jason Barr is an associate professor at Blue Ridge Community College. His work has appeared in African American Review, Explicator, The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, and The Journal of Caribbean Literatures, among others. He lives in Weyers Cave, Virginia.