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The Kaiju Connection
Giant Monsters and Ourselves
by Jason Barr
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Book Presentation:
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.
See the publisher website: McFarland & Co
> From the same author:
Giant Creatures in Our World (2017)
Essays on Kaiju and American Popular Culture
Dir. Camille D.G. Mustachio and Jason Barr
> On a related topic:
Japan's Green Monsters (2018)
Environmental Commentary in Kaiju Cinema
by Sean Rhoads and Brooke McCorkle
21st Century Kaiju (2023)
The Resurgence of Giant Monster Movies
The Truths of Monsters (2021)
Coming of Age with Fantastic Media
Magic, Monsters, and Make-Believe Heroes (2019)
How Myth and Religion Shape Fantasy Culture
Dinosaurs Ever Evolving (2016)
The Changing Face of Prehistoric Animals in Popular Culture
Prehistoric Monsters (2009)
The Real and Imagined Creatures of the Past That We Love to Fear
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