Sunday, August 23, 2009

Grotesquing the Stone

I am writing mostly to myself, but just in case anybody else pops by: welcome to Groteskology.

Whatever the grotesque means to you, to me it is the topic of my PhD thesis and thus intricately complicated and endlessly fascinating.

It is also fascinating to you, even though you may not know it. You discuss it almost every day, each time your pet eats some other creature's poo and you say "ew gross."

(Please note, this does not apply to mentions of 'gross income' - that is a different kind of gross, unless you find your income really disgusting: in which case I can do nothing for you.)

Every time you hold forth upon that "grotty guy with the BO" who sat behind you on the bus... you're talking about the grotesque. So this blog is about something we all love but rarely critique.

The ancient stone carving above right is called a grotesque. The beastly dude on the left is (blog namesake) Grotesk from Marvel comics circa 1968. Clearly there has been some water under the bridge.

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