Edgelands: A Collection of Monstrous Geographies

Book excerpt: This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2016. We are captivated by the monstrous. The monstrous encapsulates a variety of emotions, actions, behaviors, and re-sponses. In general usage it draws attention to the physicality of bodies, the fear and repulsion that have so often driven societal response, and the marginal status of those defined by such terms. Monstrous geographies draw on the unease and uncanniness at the core of the monstrous while shifting the consideration from bodies to places and spaces, away from corporeality and toward the sites or landscapes within which bodies move; away from the mon-strous form of a creature like the Yeti and toward the environment in which the Yeti thrives, an environment that must be monstrous to produce and sustain such a being. Considering such geographies allows for a nuanced under-standing of the places, both real and imagined, subtle and fantastic, that make up our world.