Rawhead Rex
Let me disclaimer: I will be referring to Rawhead as a male, not an "it."
First, I love the gore this graphic story displays. Rawhead is what I like to call a bad-ass (is that one word, two words, or hyphenated?). I am all for child-eating monsters, but at the time of drafting this post (9/6), I just saw IT Part II last night and find myself tired of all the lore focusing on children between Pennywise and Slenderman. However, Rawhead is brutal, and I love every second of the 69 pages of its existence; except page 69, where he dies. Pennywise had a connection to the Losers club, Slenderman only feeds off children and leaves their bones behind. Rawhead? Well, he kills for power and hunger but does not discriminate against any age or even species when it comes to ripping things to shreds. He rips adults, children, and animals apart. All around the type of guy I would love to go on a date and get to know better.
I also found it hilarious when Rawhead saw the car as a box, grabbed the man out and said the guy had a small penis. He seemed to move off his senses the most. So, the fact this monster sized a man up is humerus. Isn't that one of the poorly created stereotypes men have? The bigger the dick, the better/tougher they are?
Rawhead is also more of a rational creature. He learns more and new lethal things about fire early on after the penis ripping scene. He is also injured by normal things humans would be hurt from, such as guns. He also thinks through situations. He knows humans are easily scared. He concludes that the police force would use the night as an excuse not to pursue him, as he makes his limp getaway injured. Highlighting not only a god complex (he knows the feelings of other beings), but also rationally working to calm himself down in a stressful scenario.
God? Let me go deeper. Rawhead has this complexity of god that we often see in works in various genres. It was refreshing to see that a creature so brutal can be seen god-like. Considering the Catholic god is a monster in his own, terrible, right. (Not meant to offend anyone. I am an atheist with a Philosophy degree. From that degree, with my English one, I studied a lot of different religions of both the East and West. I was also raised Catholic.) I think the image of a monster as god is suiting. Take Paradise Lost, for example. God is clearly the antagonist, while Satan is the protagonist holding Eve as the primary, supporting character. From human sacrifice to kneeling down to say a prayer, religion is full of terrifying rituals. Rawhead peeing on Declain as a form of baptism is just one of the many shots at what appears to be the Catholic religion, considering they dunk their kids in water for the same ritual. I feel the ironic connection works well for what Barker seemed to portray in regards to religion; it's wild.
Barker also uses the victims, the meals, to get the descriptions out of Rawhead, even though it is a graphic story. When Ian is getting yanked out of the car, and pulled close to Rawhead's mouth, he notes how his mouth smelled like the dumpster behind the cafeteria, but a million times worse (52). We also got plenty of description from Coot before his death both what he saw in darkness and light. Often the narrator refers to Rawhead as a king. I think this must circle back into some religious innuendo with Catholicism: King of Kings idea. Another substantial area is that Declain is deranged. Frequently a lot of overly, enthralled, religious people are seen the same way as Declain.
Personally, I was sad to see Rawhead defeated. He was a brutal delight for me.
First, I love the gore this graphic story displays. Rawhead is what I like to call a bad-ass (is that one word, two words, or hyphenated?). I am all for child-eating monsters, but at the time of drafting this post (9/6), I just saw IT Part II last night and find myself tired of all the lore focusing on children between Pennywise and Slenderman. However, Rawhead is brutal, and I love every second of the 69 pages of its existence; except page 69, where he dies. Pennywise had a connection to the Losers club, Slenderman only feeds off children and leaves their bones behind. Rawhead? Well, he kills for power and hunger but does not discriminate against any age or even species when it comes to ripping things to shreds. He rips adults, children, and animals apart. All around the type of guy I would love to go on a date and get to know better.
I also found it hilarious when Rawhead saw the car as a box, grabbed the man out and said the guy had a small penis. He seemed to move off his senses the most. So, the fact this monster sized a man up is humerus. Isn't that one of the poorly created stereotypes men have? The bigger the dick, the better/tougher they are?
Rawhead is also more of a rational creature. He learns more and new lethal things about fire early on after the penis ripping scene. He is also injured by normal things humans would be hurt from, such as guns. He also thinks through situations. He knows humans are easily scared. He concludes that the police force would use the night as an excuse not to pursue him, as he makes his limp getaway injured. Highlighting not only a god complex (he knows the feelings of other beings), but also rationally working to calm himself down in a stressful scenario.
God? Let me go deeper. Rawhead has this complexity of god that we often see in works in various genres. It was refreshing to see that a creature so brutal can be seen god-like. Considering the Catholic god is a monster in his own, terrible, right. (Not meant to offend anyone. I am an atheist with a Philosophy degree. From that degree, with my English one, I studied a lot of different religions of both the East and West. I was also raised Catholic.) I think the image of a monster as god is suiting. Take Paradise Lost, for example. God is clearly the antagonist, while Satan is the protagonist holding Eve as the primary, supporting character. From human sacrifice to kneeling down to say a prayer, religion is full of terrifying rituals. Rawhead peeing on Declain as a form of baptism is just one of the many shots at what appears to be the Catholic religion, considering they dunk their kids in water for the same ritual. I feel the ironic connection works well for what Barker seemed to portray in regards to religion; it's wild.
Barker also uses the victims, the meals, to get the descriptions out of Rawhead, even though it is a graphic story. When Ian is getting yanked out of the car, and pulled close to Rawhead's mouth, he notes how his mouth smelled like the dumpster behind the cafeteria, but a million times worse (52). We also got plenty of description from Coot before his death both what he saw in darkness and light. Often the narrator refers to Rawhead as a king. I think this must circle back into some religious innuendo with Catholicism: King of Kings idea. Another substantial area is that Declain is deranged. Frequently a lot of overly, enthralled, religious people are seen the same way as Declain.
Personally, I was sad to see Rawhead defeated. He was a brutal delight for me.
I also loved the way that Barker subverted tropes about monsters and religion in this story—such a refreshing change of pace from the "monsters defeated by the cross" conceit that gets so overused. What I thought was most fascinating about that was how Rawhead was ultimately defeated by the Venus statue and the power of the ancient fertility goddess. I think it added a whole new layer of parallels between Rawhead and Christian God—because not only is Rawhead this super masculine, phallic deity which parallels the patriarchy of the Church, but he's driven out by the image of the goddess which the Church first desecrated and destroyed by conquering the pagans who used to live there. In that sense, Declan was totally right when he said that Rawhead *was* God—which is the only reason why I enjoyed seeing him get defeated. Not for the weenie townsfolk's sake as much as because of what he symbolized.
ReplyDeleteReally fascinating point! I thought he had a god complex but I never considered to turn the wheels that he was god. Thank you!
DeleteLike you pointed out, I think a real strength of Rawhead as a monster was getting to see him rationalize things. Figuring out what the petrol was and how he could use it. Realizing he'd have to "fight" one of these box creatures and kill it. Understanding that the bullets were a threat and that he needed to run and, like you said, count on the night to slow down his would-be pursuers. I don't think we could have gotten this level of understanding of Rawhead without getting his POV. Getting the monster's POV is not something I've seen much of, and it was a real treat. I most definitely have been inspired to try this in my own writing.
ReplyDeleteI also agree. I enjoyed being behind the POV of the monster rather than the usual watching the monster through other POVs. Barker showed that even the most vicious of creatures still have a mind of their own.
DeleteI don't know if you mean you didn't like tat rawhead died or how he died, but I was disappointed by the ending. It ended in piss instead of in his skull being smashed in and I felt like that was a lackluster end to a rampaging monster, whereas a violent end would have felt better. Also, funny that you mention it, because rawheads pee flows into a gutter and the sewers in the end, terrifying OoOoOoO
ReplyDeleteA lot of people read into the religion of this story, but having being raised atheist, I missed a lot of the parallels (I don't know much more than the main stories Veggie Tales taught you). I'm glad someone pointed them out to me.
Ahaha! At least now we know that Pennywise is baptized ;)
DeleteI read a lot into region as I was raised Catholic and sent to religious secondary eds all my life. Even as denouncing the faith and becoming an atheist my freshman year, I still had four years of being stuck around a lot of hypocrites that labeled me as a Satanist. I used to feed into it too. I told one girl I was going to sacrifice her to Satan because I needed a virgin. Needless to say, the dean and my parents exchanged holiday gifts every year because I was always in some sort of trouble for my lack of tolerance.
I also really love Rawhead's character design. I didn't care too much for the world he was put in, but it became such an afterthought that I forgot about it and moved on. I really like how he starts off in a vulnerable place and is freed by humans, then becomes seemingly invincible then proved not. I think your point on Barker showing Rawhead rationalize was what made him such a special character. I felt more sympathy for Rawhead than the human characters because he was doing what he was made to do. The humans he killed, although not all of them, were shown as selfish or perverted. I really like how the pedophile is killed right before the deacon talks about how Rawhead is a childeater.
ReplyDeleteHi Alexis,
ReplyDeleteGood comments. I think I need to mention something based on the other commentators' comments though and therefore be more comment-y. This story was written in the late 80's as I recall and therefore skewering religion was more of a "thing". I think that as the story has aged though (its still an outline for a monster movie to me)it is feeling much more like a play on fairy-tales and fables then an attack on Catholicism. Its absurdist and although it does contain a lot of quasi-religious subtext in Rex being a pagan god the execution is pure splatter-punk meets "Wicker Man". I would have liked to have seen more "character development" of Rex. I know it was a short story so the limitations of the format keep the characters as sketches but if I were to "re-imagine" this story, I would have spent more time in Rex's head. I don't think he/it is sympathetic the way King Kong or Frankenstein is but he could have been much more like Hammer's Dracula if he had some more motivation.