THE CONFLUENCY OF THE PITCHFORK: THE MONSTER, SCIENCE AND LITERATURE

Abstract

Analogy knows no limits; it is the richest of the semantic threads that connect humans to things. Analogy radiates through every possible space and crevice, enveloping humans on all sides. Yet, just as it envelops, it is also enveloped, transmitting the similarities it receives from the world. Humans are the genesis of the archetype, where all relations converge, are born, and die. Our hypostatizations, our relationships with things, animals, or people, are in constant flux. However, some semiotic relationships with the distorted reflection of reality seem to persist, as in the case of what we academics often call myths and legends. A legend, for instance, only becomes a legend when it ceases to function as a fact within our culture. The monster, for example, only becomes mythical when it stops lurking around our homes and sucking our goats’ blood, to then appear in some dictionary of Myths and Legends. Theories make us laugh at similarities today, but what do theories do today? Above all, they justify themselves rather than justifying things.