No Go, the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling, and Making Mock

Having previously examined the role of women in fairy tales in From the Beast to the Blonde, Marina Warner now sets out on an equally eclectic study that was originally supposed to be about men, but instead became a treatise on the grotesque. Taking on everything from Zeus to Bluebeard, from Punch to the Teletubbies, she examines the ways in which we give voice to our fears in order to master--and even mock--them. In that light, her sections on the modern cultural transformation of children themselves into "little monsters" should prove quite interesting to readers of Joseph Campbell and other scholars who take erudite approaches to pop and folk culture.