"Do you know you are very strong?": Rethinking identity and monsterhood

[schmerica]

The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone is a classic text in Muppet studies, standing out as one of the seminal works in the genre. The story, as such, consists of "lovable, furry old Grover" breaking the fourth wall to conduct a conversation with the reader. Since the title frightens Grover, he begs the reader not to continue on with the story -- a desire that obviously never be fulfilled, as the pages continue on, nonetheless. In a way, then, the entire book can be seen as a sadistic exercise; in order to engage with the text, it is necessary for the reader to indeed actively torture the helpless Grover, even as he goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid his fear.

This is far from the most disturbing aspect of the book, however, as a closer analysis shows. Of The Monster at the End of This Book's twenty pages, eighteen are devoted to Grover's fear and anxiety of monsters. The final two pages conclude the story with a seemingly happy ending, as Grover is relieved to discover "[he], lovable, furry old Grover [is] the monster at the end of this book. And you were so scared!" (Stone 19). Instead of bringing the story to a satisfying conclusion, however, these pages instead seem to recontextualize the entire work. Grover is himself a monster, and yet the first thing he admits to us is that "Oh, [he is] so scared of Monsters!!!" (Stone 1). In this light, the entire work seems to be an obvious exploration of Grover's internalized self-loathing. One can imagine the same story told from the perspective of a gay person, or a Jewish one, or a member of any other minority group towards its other members, and the result is equally disturbing.

Grover's lack of identification with his monster self is not only evidence of his prejudice, but also raises questions about his level of assimilation with the larger, non-monster community. The audience for the book is clearly intended to be solely made up of non-monsters, and Grover joins himself immediately to this group and denying his own heritage as he allies himself with the majority. The greater social prejudices towards monsters, then, do have huge personal effects on the individual Muppet, and Muppets studies definitely requires further analysis into this promising field.

fox1013 made me.

Comments

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*BEAMS*

...You should totally write a rebuttal, now.