Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters

Description

Every culture has monsters that eat us, and every culture repels in horror when we eat ourselves. From Grendel to Sawney Bean, and from the Ghuls of ancient Persia to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, our fear of being consumed is both universal and terrifying. Kevin Wetmore explores monsters that eat the dead: ghouls, cannibals, and other beings that feast on human flesh. Moving from myth through history to contemporary popular culture, considering ancient Greek myths of feeding humans to the gods, through sky burial in Tibet and Zoroastrianism, and actual cases of cannibalism in modern societies, this book examines those that consume corpses and what they tell us about ourselves and our fears.

Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. is a Professor at Loyola Marymount University. He is author and Bram Stoker Award-nominated editor of many books, including Post-9/11 Horror in American Cinema and Uncovering Stranger Things. He lives in Los Angeles.

"Wetmore has written a fascinating history of the ultimate recycling-cannibalism. The taboo history of the eating of one's own genus is a car-wreck you can neither turn away from nor erase from your mind. The book is two-fold, investigating not only the innate fear of being eaten but the nightmare of becoming a cannibal ourselves. It is a banquet of repulsion that needs to be devoured, a dissertation of disquietude." -- Del Howison, award-winning editor, owner of Dark Delicacies