"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

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

I love you like cake.

[china_shop]

Heeee! You win!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*BEAMS*

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

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Yays! What exactly is it that I win?

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

my childhood is just not at all what i thought it was.

...

i. um. am kind of disturbed that this is my only muppet icon.

[china_shop]

Um... my respect and admiration. :-)

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*giggles* It does make your point a little less convincing.

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

COOKIES! for you!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Dude, you really win at Muppets icons! *admires*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

YAY COOKIES!

[leld.livejournal.com]

I realize you don't know me but... I think I love you. Because this is made of awesome.

[corinna-5.livejournal.com]

There Is A Monster At The End of This Book, actually.

I just bought a copy for my nieces, and was struck by its formal postmodernism, which of course allows Grover to move from abjection to denial by transferring his anxiety of the self directly onto the reader, and also implicates the reader directly in the social structures that create his abjection. In the end, the act of recognizing himself as the structuring monstrosity of the text, much like the Lacanian mirror stage, ends up being his way of entering into language and subjectivity.

Plus, the girls really like Grover, although not as much as they love Elmo.

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

although, one could argue that since pepe was introduced the year i graduated from high school, he Does Not Count :)

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I went with The Monster at the End of the Book because that's what was on the cover, according to the scans of the book in the link above. I don't have a hard copy handy, alas.

Also, you get two thumbs up. Woot.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Details!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I am deeply impressed. Also, rather terrified.

[janet-carter.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor Grover! Although one could argue that, within the context of the Muppet subculture, a context that is strangely absent from this particular text, the idea of "monsterness" has been reclaimed.

[hobbledehoy.livejournal.com]

oh my goodness, ericapup!

umm, what else. oh, lemony snicket and the please-stop-reading.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*beams* I totally approve of that response!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes, Lemony Snicket also has the interesting narrative structure! Although he seems to be trying to make us stop reading for our own good, not for his, which is an interesting difference.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

That is an EXCELLENT point! <3<3<3

[anotheryourself.livejournal.com]

puck made me read this and it is GREAT, and i think i remember having lots of these these thoughts when i was little... except not like a paper.

[lynnmonster.livejournal.com]

I want to frame this.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I love this icon like OMG YES.

And, yeah, pearl_o, you win for sures. \o/ Let us reclaim our monsterhood!