Ontology of the monster, an example: the monster of the invisible

Abstract

This article proposes an approach to the figure of the monster based on the philosophy of the limit developed by Eugenio Trías. The monster is not defined as a simple cultural symbol, but as a possible inhuman response to the ethical imperative to «be a frontier», but one that is also ontologically significant. The monster is so versatile that it cannot be pigeonholed.

Starting from the being of the limit, from the topo-ontology of spatial and ontological fences at the same time, and from the consideration of man as a border inhabitant at the limits of those spaces, the monster appears to us, thus, as one of those inhabitants of that border space, rising freely and opting for inhumanity as a response to the border imperative and not accepting its ontological condition.

The monster is one of the possible answers that the person can give to his situation of exile and nomad. And it can do it in two main directions: returning to the original nature from which it has been torn to life or trying to cross the fence of the occult in a desperate attempt to overcome the human condition itself and even death itself.