tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/godzilla-20636/articlesGodzilla – The Conversation2024-02-01T01:30:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2215962024-02-01T01:30:31Z2024-02-01T01:30:31ZGodzilla Minus One offers an insight into the complexity of Japan’s war memories<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571815/original/file-20240129-15-jdeo34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1920%2C1276&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Toho Studios </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The new hit Japanese film Godzilla Minus One – an homage to Honda Ishirō’s <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/05/why-you-should-watch-the-actual-original-godzilla/371389/">original 1954 film Gojira</a> (more commonly known to English speakers as Godzilla) – centres on the human costs of war.</p>
<p>Released in Japan in November and internationally in December, Takashi Yamazaki’s film is still breaking records, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2024/01/25/godzilla-minus-one-hits-100-million-watch-exclusive-black-and-white-clip/?sh=754bfc0e4db6">surpassing US$100 million</a> at the global box office. </p>
<p>Much like the iconic Gojira transformed the war into an allegorical nuclear monster bent on destroying Tokyo, Godzilla Minus One offers insights into early post-war Japan and the complexity of the nation’s war memories.</p>
<p>Japan has never forgotten its wartime past, and its population has had to deal with its own trauma. For those interested in Japanese history, Godzilla Minus One provides a new way to read the complexity of Japan’s war memories.</p>
<h2>Living despite despair</h2>
<p>During the second world war, Navy Tokko (Kamikaze) pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) fails to follow through on a suicide mission and lands on Odo Island. </p>
<p>Godzilla appears, and Shikishima freezes in fear instead of shooting. All but he and the head mechanic are killed. Upon his return to Japan, Shikishima experiences post-traumatic stress disorder, torturous guilt and the contempt of his neighbours. </p>
<p>Shikishima’s return references a <a href="https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/the-endless-search-for-dead-men-funasaka-hiroshi-and-fallen-soldi">common experience</a> of veterans of Pacific battlefields in Japan. Guilt and an ambivalent reception at home prevented many veterans from being able to make a life in post-war Japan.</p>
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<p>In Godzilla Minus One, it is only when the monster of war – Godzilla – is defeated that the central hero can overcome his trauma and get the girl. </p>
<p>The film critiques the inhumanity visited upon soldiers who served within a wartime imperial army and navy paradigm in which honour was predicated on <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/147/monograph/book/72858">their willingness to die</a> in service to the emperor, and thus the nation. </p>
<p>In Godzilla Minus One, survival, life and love become the basis of post-war nation-building. The film emphasises this when Shikishima visits the <a href="https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/macarthur%20reports/macarthur%20v1%20sup/ch5.htm">Ministry of Demobilisation</a> to find another Odo Island survivor, only to learn it is nigh impossible to trace anyone’s whereabouts when so many have been sent to their deaths.</p>
<p>If Godzilla (or war) is to be defeated, the movie says, the government can be of no hope. This can be read as a commentary on the ongoing debates in Japan on how the second world war should be taught and interpreted. </p>
<p>Textbooks often acknowledge the country’s role in the war, but <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/teaching-war-not-easy-controversies-japan-germany-and-the-united-states">avoid</a> “uncomfortable evaluation”. The role of the government in these debates is also a key area of contention. Article 9 of the Japanese constitution <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/japan-s-article-9-pacifism-protests-defence-budget-doubles">promotes pacifism</a> even while the country increases its defence budget, and the removal of the article <a href="https://apjjf.org/2017/21/Tawara.html">is debated</a> in current Japanese politics.</p>
<p>In the film, those who collaborate to fight Godzilla must do so through their own ingenuity and volition – unlike the wartime sailors and Tokko pilots who had no choice in their deployment. </p>
<p>While the heroes of both Gojira and Godzilla Minus One exercise choice, their choices take them in drastically different directions: death in the former and life in the latter. This perhaps illustrates a shift in values among today’s younger Japanese generations that privileges surviving the war rather than dying in it. </p>
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<h2>Post-war transformation</h2>
<p>Godzilla Minus One idealises the disappearance of a troublesome rift in post-war Japan, which, since 1945, has pitted the wartime generation’s view of the war against those of younger Japanese. This rift became <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00223344.2018.1491300?needAccess=true">especially stark</a> around the death of Emperor Showa (Hirohito), who ruled from 1926 until his death in 1989.</p>
<p>The film also references an important shift in post-war Japan: the war destroyed previously unbreachable class divides. The country’s defeat flattened social differences, impoverishing everyone equally. Here, Godzilla is defeated by an exalted scientist and his best friend, a sea captain of humble origins. </p>
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<p>In the film, the endeavour to fight Godzilla is a masculine one. The film depicts women as the monster’s victims, not participants in its destruction. The men in the movie are motivated by the protection of those at home, symbolised by the central character’s adopted female child: a reflection of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppfc8">gendering of pacifism</a> as female in post-war Japan, which renders the creation of – and the fight against – war as masculine. </p>
<p>Godzilla Minus One demonstrates how Japan’s relationship to its wartime past is constantly being reframed. The film iterates that this allegorical monster of war and destruction is one created by humans – not just the result of some natural disaster divorced from the politics and active decision-making of war.</p>
<p>The only way to kill the monster, or subdue it temporarily, is by a coalition of people who pursue pacifism, ever vigilant against systems and ideologies that seek old glories in new wars, reawakening monsters that should have remained at the bottom of the sea.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/godzilla-minus-one-finding-paradise-of-shared-co-operation-through-environmental-disaster-219555">'Godzilla Minus One': Finding paradise of shared co-operation through environmental disaster</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An homage to Honda Ishiro’s original 1954 film, the new hit Japanese film Godzilla Minus One centres on the human costs of war.Jason Jones, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, Monash UniversityBeatrice Trefalt, Associate Professor of Japanese Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195552023-12-19T20:38:38Z2023-12-19T20:38:38Z‘Godzilla Minus One’: Finding paradise of shared co-operation through environmental disaster<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/godzilla-minus-one-finding-paradise-of-shared-co-operation-through-environmental-disaster" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><em>Godzilla Minus One</em>, directed by Takashi Yamazaki, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7DqccP1Q_4">brings viewers back to post-war Japan</a> and to the wholly belligerent monster of the original 1954 <em>Godzilla</em> — a beast bereft of the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/05/godzilla-movies-king-of-the-monsters-history/590545/">friendly connotations</a> accrued in the later <a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls027620105/">Toho Studios Japanese installments</a>.</p>
<p>This original Godzilla represented what its director, Ishiro Honda, <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6649-reign-of-destruction">described</a> as the “invisible fear” of the nuclear contamination of our planet. </p>
<p>Historian William Tsutsui asserts in <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781403964748/godzillaonmymind">his book dedicated to the series</a> that the film allows us to neutralize our fears of potential annihilation. Cathartic or not, this <a href="https://bigthink.com/thinking/apocalypse-philosophy-science-fiction-teaches-existence/">apocalyptic trend</a> remains a staple of science-fiction movies and series to this day. </p>
<p><em>Minus One</em> returns to that fear, once perhaps invisible but <a href="https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/ipcc-report/117241/">now undeniable</a>, of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58073295">the disasters incurred by damage</a> to our environment. </p>
<p>At the same time, the film asks how individuals and communities can tackle disaster while embracing an ethos of mutual aid that sidesteps nostalgia for nationalist policies that lead to even more harm.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Godzilla Minus One’ trailer.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Disaster response</h2>
<p>In the two most recent instalments in the Godzilla franchise, 2016’s <em>Shin Godzilla</em> and 2023’s <em>Godzilla Minus One</em>, the monster can be read as a personification of a diminished belief in governmental abilities to prevent or respond adequately to disaster. </p>
<p><em>Shin Godzilla</em>, directed by Hideaki Anno, dealt satirically with the <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/shin-godzilla-review-hideaki-anno-1201735981/">limp governmental response to the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami</a>. As the threat of the monster escalates to catastrophic levels, the politicians in the film are more concerned with optics and in which board room they should be conducting their meetings. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Shin Godzilla’ trailer.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In contrast, 2023’s <em>Minus One</em> captures ire for a nationalistic government that guided Japan into imperial campaigns <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan/World-War-II-and-defeat">in Asia and finally to a total defeat with a devastating human cost</a>.</p>
<p>When Godzilla arrives <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph-22HvCNfU">to further compound post-war misery</a>, harried survivors don’t rely on the same government that has led them astray. </p>
<h2>Putting aside ideological differences</h2>
<p>Instead, as some reviews of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/13/godzilla-minus-one-review-rageful-monster-is-one-of-the-best-in-the-series">the film</a> have noted, they turn <a href="https://www.theverge.com/23981319/godzilla-minus-one-review">to a community with the power</a> to act outside of official bodies, making use of technological skills earned through wartime experience. </p>
<p>While the state lends them a few ships, citizens are otherwise left to their own devices, relying on old and decommissioned machinery. They rise to face the monster not by developing a new weapon of destruction but by using what is already at hand. </p>
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<img alt="A woman's face seen through a window and a giant lizard is reflected." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564718/original/file-20231211-89932-no7p97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C734%2C431&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564718/original/file-20231211-89932-no7p97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564718/original/file-20231211-89932-no7p97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564718/original/file-20231211-89932-no7p97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564718/original/file-20231211-89932-no7p97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564718/original/file-20231211-89932-no7p97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564718/original/file-20231211-89932-no7p97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Facing the monster requires collaboration in ‘Godzilla Minus One.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(TOHO Co. Ltd.)</span></span>
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<p>The characters in <em>Minus One</em> create a shared purpose in light of their wartime experience. As engineer Noda notes, their lives have been undervalued. This realization leads them to turn away from the government and the nationalist policies that led to the war, and to rely instead on one another.</p>
<p>To do this they must put aside ideological differences to achieve the common goal of stopping Godzilla. This is best illustrated by the co-operation of Koichi Shikishima, a kamikaze pilot who questions the value of his death amid imminent defeat yet is dogged by the shame of his desertion, and an engineer, Sosaku Tachibana, who initially deems Shikishima a coward. </p>
<h2>Revisiting values, alliances</h2>
<p>These plotlines reflect contemporary interest in the local and political communities we should be forging in light of serious environmental threats.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ecological-grief-and-uncontrollable-reality-in-wes-andersons-asteroid-city-211419">Ecological grief and uncontrollable reality in Wes Anderson's 'Asteroid City'</a>
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<p>Writer Rebecca Solnit laments <a href="https://therumpus.net/2009/08/07/a-paradise-built-in-hell-the-rumpus-interview-with-rebecca-solnit/">self-serving governmental responses</a> to disaster. But her <em><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301070/a-paradise-built-in-hell-by-rebecca-solnit/">A Paradise Built in Hell</a></em> focuses on the positives that can come from disaster at the communal level. </p>
<p>She concludes that in enhancing social cohesion and bringing out the humanitarian in each of us, disaster “reveals what else the world could be like.” In short, a paradise of shared purpose and co-operation. </p>
<p>The key, however, is distinguishing between a benign social cohesion, like the aforementioned networks of mutual care, and a malignant one, as seen in destructive forms of nationalism and war. </p>
<p>In <em>Godzilla Minus One</em>, Shikishima and Tachibana band together to save lives. Their wider group insists on a victory <a href="https://religionnews.com/2023/11/29/godzilla-minus-one-offers-a-profound-critique-of-war-and-american-pop-culture/">without the sacrifice of human life</a>, an ethos made possible by adopting a communal view in which humans are not statistics. </p>
<h2>Dream together or die alone</h2>
<p>At a time of an <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2021/09/are-yasukuni-shrine-visits-a-sign-of-rising-nationalism-in-japan/">increasingly nationalist Japanese government</a> that has been criticized for <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/why-japan-ranks-poorly-in-press-freedom/a-65549778">undermining freedom of the press</a>, the film suggests how a nostalgic dream for a return to a time of stronger social ties and a sense of unified purpose is one easily manipulated by nationalist governments. </p>
<p>This has been seen in a host of recent examples including <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-has-made-america-nostalgic-again-for-a-past-that-never-existed-149449">Donald Trump</a>, <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/brexit-britain-and-nostalgia-for-fantasy-past/">Brexit</a> and, as mentioned above, the <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2014/02/shinzo-abes-nationalist-strategy/">policies of Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party</a>. </p>
<p>On the global scale, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2019/mar/06/revealed-the-rise-and-rise-of-populist-rhetoric">rise of populism</a>, diplomatic spats and outright conflict sees much of the world drawing away from their neighbours. This is happening when, to counteract the effects of climate change and face the exponential <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2017/11/16/climate-change-will-bring-more-frequent-natural-disasters-weigh-on-economic-growth">increase in disaster</a>, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/10/04/humanitys-greatest-challenge-coming-together-fight-climate-emergency">we must unite</a>. </p>
<p><em>Godzilla Minus One</em> shows how we must rely on a fondness — even a nostalgia — for times of togetherness that do not mix with a nationalist sentiment that encourages isolationism and aggression towards others. </p>
<p>To do so really would be to go from zero to minus one. From there, there is little guarantee we can recover.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219555/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Corker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The film asks how individuals and communities can tackle disaster while embracing an ethos of mutual aid that sidesteps yearning for nationalist policies that lead to even more harm.Chris Corker, PhD Student, Humanities, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1581052021-04-01T18:47:35Z2021-04-01T18:47:35Z‘Godzilla vs. Kong’: Monster movies evoke adventure but also ‘dangers’ of tropics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393182/original/file-20210401-19-kx3hwy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C12%2C1349%2C679&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hollywood movies have historically represented the tropics as lush green coasts but lurking underneath is disease and danger.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Warner Bros.)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For audiences stuck in their living rooms, the new monster film <em>Godzilla vs. Kong</em> offers an opportunity to do some armchair travelling. But before you imagine a tropical island getaway — perhaps a lounge-chair by a beach soaked in sunshine — this is a monster movie and so you must also make room for a scary lurking creature. </p>
<p>The duality of these images are with us partly because <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/hollywoods-hawaii">Hollywood movies have long leaned into colonial representations</a> of the tropics: imagined as romantic palm-fringed coasts full of abundance and natural fertility, but also scary places full of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9493.00060">pestilence, disease and primitiveness</a> and previously “undiscovered” creatures. </p>
<p>Through stories of colonial exploration, tropical landscapes become places where the western explorer can experience the unbridled sensuality of nature as well as the thrill of danger from the unknown. In this view, the tropics become a landscape where nature towers over man, a power imbalance that monster films seek to address. </p>
<p>Though these films start with tropical locales, the threat posed by mega-creatures does not become real until they cross into the realms of the western world. For example, Godzilla’s journey begins with former colonies and ends in New York. </p>
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<span class="caption">Monster movies are about protecting western lands and people from exposure to strange lands, people and disease.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Duke Press)</span></span>
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<p>The problem in these monster movies then becomes one of protecting western lands and people from <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/bioinsecurities">exposure to strange lands</a> and the “aberrant” creatures and people contained in those lands. Non-western landscapes and people thus become endowed with the burden of embodying these threats, magnified many times over in monster films. The same trajectory is also invoked with narratives of disease transmission: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822390572">from a “primitive” space to the metropolitan centre</a>. </p>
<p>Although <a href="https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/godzillas-island-origin/">Godzilla originated out of Japanese history and culture</a>, when it crossed over into Hollywood, the setting of the films relied on tropes from colonial history. So while monster films may be entertaining, they build on structures with long imperial histories and have implications for the way <a href="http://www.siupress.com/books/978-0-8093-2624-2">Hollywood audiences perceive the tropics</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Savage wilderness’</h2>
<p>The narratives of tropics simultaneously containing possibilities for paradise and pestilence can be traced back to the beginning of colonial scientific exploration.</p>
<p>These ideas come alive in <a href="https://search.proquest.com/openview/61933b5a4492e779/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2599">a 19th-century explorer’s account of a journey </a> to French Guiana. He writes about “virgin forests,” “tropical luxuriance,” “wild denizens” and their “gloomy recesses” and “the poetry of savage wilderness.”</p>
<p>The 19th-century British explorer, Joseph Banks, who accompanied cartographer James Cook on his voyage to the South Pacific, marvelled <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/joseph-banks-endeavour-journal">how nature had provided for the inhabitants of these lands in abundance. He even said the tropical land yielded fruit without labour</a>. These perceptions shaped the idea of tropics as a place of natural abundance, and gave rise to the trope of <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14096.html">tropical bounty</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/earth-day-colonialisms-role-in-the-overexploitation-of-natural-resources-113995">Earth Day: Colonialism's role in the overexploitation of natural resources</a>
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<p>The “discovery” of new lands was combined with the impulse to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/green-imperialism-colonial-expansion-tropical-island-edens-and-origins-environmentalism-16001860">recreate the Biblical idea of an Eden, or paradise on Earth</a>, a phenomenon which played out with colonial explorers on tropical islands. </p>
<h2>The yellow filter</h2>
<p>Hollywood’s monster films like <em>Godzilla</em> (1998, 2014) and <em>Kong: Skull Island</em> (2017) have used similar ideas. In all three films, the tropical island is an important setting, a place where the story is set in motion. All three films fall into similar patterns and use similar techniques to depict the tropics versus the west.</p>
<p>The opening sequences in the 1998 and 2014 versions of <em>Godzilla</em> rely on footage of sepia-toned palm lined beaches, Indigenous Peoples and a warmly lit mine next to a lush forest in the Philippines. </p>
<p>The sepia tone in the 1998 <em>Godzilla</em> resembles Hollywood’s common use of the <a href="https://matadornetwork.com/read/yellow-filter-american-movies/">yellow filter</a> to show tropical locations. Critics like journalist Elisabeth Sherman have pointed out the use of the yellow filter as something western movie makers do to “depict warm, tropical, dry climates.” But she says, “it makes the landscape in question look jaundiced and unhealthy.” <em>Kong: Skull Island</em> also makes use of a warm yellow tinge for the scenes that unfold in the tropical jungle that is Kong’s turf.</p>
<h2>The photographic lens</h2>
<p>Modes of representation such as the camera and photography were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/magazine/when-the-camera-was-a-weapon-of-imperialism-and-when-it-still-is.html">part of the imperial apparatus</a>. As technology brought by the white explorers, photography provided a means to <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/P/bo15581095.html">capture the land, erase and arrange the people</a> being looked at through the camera.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two people, one with a gun raised and one with a camera search under dinosaur bones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393154/original/file-20210401-15-107io6u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393154/original/file-20210401-15-107io6u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393154/original/file-20210401-15-107io6u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393154/original/file-20210401-15-107io6u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393154/original/file-20210401-15-107io6u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393154/original/file-20210401-15-107io6u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393154/original/file-20210401-15-107io6u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A scene from ‘Kong: Skull Island.’ Brie Larson plays the photographer and Tom Hiddleston is the tracker.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Warner Bros.)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Kong: Skull Island</em> features an “uncharted” island in the South Pacific. In the film, the inhabitants of the island are often shown through the photographer’s camera. The residents are mute in the film; the audience and the rest of the team in Skull Island need the westerner’s help to parse what they mean with their gestures.</p>
<h2>Depicting Indigenous Peoples as in the past</h2>
<p>In <em>Kong: Skull Island</em>, expedition leader William Randa (played by John Goodman) tries to get funding for his trip to the uncharted island by describing it as a place “where God did not finish creation” or, in other words, a place where time has stood still. </p>
<p>Indeed, the inhabitants of Skull Island are situated squarely in a <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/time-and-the-other/9780231169264">prehistoric</a> time-frame, separate from the contemporary time inhabited by the explorers.</p>
<p>Building on the colonial imagination that casts Indigenous inhabitants as being close to nature, the 2021 film features an Indigenous girl from Skull Island as the sole contact between Kong and the rest of the world. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UCRV1bU-sKY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Official trailer of King Kong vs. Godzilla/Warner Bros. 2021.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With its unknown creatures and lush forests, Skull Island occupies a different space-time. These sentiments of the Indigenous populations and flora and fauna were commonly expressed by colonial explorers. Ernst Haeckel, the famous naturalist and proponent of Darwinism, on his visit to Sri Lanka said the flora of the land reminded him of <a href="https://archive.org/details/visittoceylon00haecuoft">fossils from earlier geological ages</a>. </p>
<p>Reminiscent of the competition between various colonial powers to map “unknown” lands and resources, what gets Randa his funding is the assurance that Americans will “discover” the uncharted island first.</p>
<h2>Old texts still have everyday impact</h2>
<p><em>Kong: Skull Island</em> builds on the long history of colonial literature. Two characters in the film: the tracker, named Conrad (played by Tom Hiddleston), and Marlow (John C. Reilly) are a nod to the literary journey up the Congo river in the novel, <em><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/310601/heart-of-darkness-by-joseph-conrad/">Heart of Darkness</a></em> about an explorer named Marlow and written by Joseph Conrad. The novel’s premise that the journey up the Congo river is a journey into darkness <a href="https://www.massreview.org/volume-57-issue-1">has raised many debates</a> about the racism in Conrad’s text. </p>
<p>Though the new <em>Godzilla vs. Kong</em> offers the two mega-creatures a common enemy, the film still traffics in established tropes of monster films. </p>
<p>For decades, these landscapes have been characterized as sites of abundance but also disease outbreaks. At the same time, they also become places full of resources that need extraction. In Hollywood and colonial literature imaginations, the tropics hold cures for disease, alternative medicines and other geological resources, building on the long history of collaboration between <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-bears-fingerprints-colonialism-180968709/">scientists and the colonial enterprise</a>. </p>
<p>Even though these tropes came into being centuries ago as a result of colonial expeditions, they still underpin how space gets imagined in contemporary pop culture, revealing the everyday impact of old literary texts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Priscilla Jolly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hollywood movies have long leaned into colonial representations of the tropics: imagined as romantic palm-fringed coasts full of abundance, but also scary places full of pestilence and primitiveness.Priscilla Jolly, PhD student, Department of English, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1571012021-03-29T18:41:07Z2021-03-29T18:41:07ZGodzilla vs. Kong: A functional morphologist uses science to pick a winner<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392328/original/file-20210329-23-c1eknf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C0%2C746%2C444&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hollywood has picked a winner, but what does the science say?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/godzilla-vs-kong#gallery">Courtesy of Warner Bros Entertainment</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 2021 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/video/vi576962841?playlistId=tt5034838">“Godzilla vs. Kong”</a> pits the two most iconic movie monsters of all time against each other. And fans are now picking sides.</p>
<p>Even the most fantastical creatures have some basis in scientific reality, so the natural world is a good place to look to better understand movie monsters. <a href="https://www.formorphology.com/">I study</a> functional morphology – how skeletal and tissue traits allow animals to move – and evolution in extinct animals. I am also a huge fan of monster movies. Ultimately, this is a fight between a giant reptile and a giant primate, and there are relative biological advantages and disadvantages that each would have. The research I do on morphology and biomechanics can tell us a lot about this battle and might help you decide – #TeamGodzilla or #TeamKong? </p>
<h2>Larger than life</h2>
<p>First it’s important to acknowledge that both Kong and Godzilla are definitely far beyond the realms of biological possibility. This is due to sheer size and the laws of physics. Their hearts couldn’t pump blood to their heads, they would have temperature regulation problems and it would take too long for nerve signals from the brain to reach distant parts of the body – <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/godzilla-king-of-the-monsters-movie-size-too-big-2019-5">to name just a few issues</a>.</p>
<p>However, let’s assume that somehow Godzilla and Kong are able to overcome these size limitations – perhaps because of their radiation exposure they have distinctive mutations and characteristics. Based on how they look on the big screen, let’s explore the observable differences that might prove useful in a fight.</p>
<h2>Kong: the best of ape and human</h2>
<p>At first glance, Kong is a colossal primate - but he’s not simply a giant gorilla. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391533/original/file-20210324-17-9g6tvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An upright human skeleton next to a gorilla skeleton on all fours." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391533/original/file-20210324-17-9g6tvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391533/original/file-20210324-17-9g6tvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391533/original/file-20210324-17-9g6tvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391533/original/file-20210324-17-9g6tvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391533/original/file-20210324-17-9g6tvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391533/original/file-20210324-17-9g6tvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391533/original/file-20210324-17-9g6tvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kong has a mix of both gorilla and humanlike physical traits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=100&offset=0&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1&search=gorilla+skeleton+human+filetype%3Abitmap&advancedSearch-current={%22fields%22:{%22filetype%22:%22bitmap%22}}#/media/File:Human_(Homo_sapiens)_and_Gorilla_(Gorilla_gorilla).jpg">Cliff/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the most striking things about Kong is his upright, bipedal stance – he mostly walks on two legs, unlike any other living nonhuman apes. This ability could suggest close evolutionary relationship to the only living upright ape, humans – or his upright stance could be the result of <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/convergent_evolution.htm">convergent evolution</a>. Either way, like us, Kong has thick muscular legs geared toward walking and running, and large free arms with grasping hands, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.04.001">enabling him to use tools</a>. </p>
<p>Humanity’s bipedal, upright posture is unique in the animal kingdom and provides a slew of biomechanical abilities that Kong might share. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9416">human torsos are highly flexible</a> and particularly good at rotation. This feature – in addition to our loose shoulder girdle – makes <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-humans-became-the-best-throwers-on-the-planet-131189">humans the best throwers</a> in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2007.0107">the animal kingdom</a>. Throwing is helpful in a fight, and Kong could probably <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12267">throw with the best of them</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391559/original/file-20210324-21-1j1ifks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gorilla skull showing the tall saggital crest on top." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391559/original/file-20210324-21-1j1ifks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391559/original/file-20210324-21-1j1ifks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391559/original/file-20210324-21-1j1ifks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391559/original/file-20210324-21-1j1ifks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391559/original/file-20210324-21-1j1ifks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391559/original/file-20210324-21-1j1ifks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391559/original/file-20210324-21-1j1ifks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The tall ridge of bone on top of a gorilla’s skull helps it bite with incredible force.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gorilla_Male_perspective_5.jpg#/media/File:Gorilla_Male_perspective_5.jpg">Didier Descouens/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kong is also, of course, massive. He absolutely dwarfs the largest known primate, an extinct orangutan relative called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23150"><em>Gigantopithecus</em></a> that was a bit bigger than modern gorillas.</p>
<p>Kong does have many gorillalike attributes as well, including long muscular arms, a short snout with large canine teeth, and a tall sagittal crest – a ridge of bone on his head that would be the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12609">anchor point for some exceptionally strong jaw muscles</a>.</p>
<p>Strong, agile, comfortable on land and with the unparalleled ability to use tools and throw, Kong would be a brutal force in a fight.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391527/original/file-20210324-23-wyux78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A comparison between an upright Godzilla and a horizontal Godzilla." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391527/original/file-20210324-23-wyux78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391527/original/file-20210324-23-wyux78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391527/original/file-20210324-23-wyux78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391527/original/file-20210324-23-wyux78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391527/original/file-20210324-23-wyux78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391527/original/file-20210324-23-wyux78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391527/original/file-20210324-23-wyux78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Godzilla’s upright posture is unique among lizards and dinosaurs. Figure depicts what he’d look like with a dinosaur posture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Godzilla_Compare.jpg#/media/File:Godzilla_Compare.jpg">Kenneth Carpenter/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Godzilla: An aquatic lizard to be reckoned with</h2>
<p>Godzilla appears to be a giant, semiaquatic reptile. Like Kong, Godzilla has the traits of a few different species.</p>
<p>Recent Godzilla movies show him decently mobile on land, but seemingly much more comfortable in the water despite his lack of overt aquatic features. Interestingly, Godzilla is depicted with gills on his neck – a trait that land vertebrates lost after <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icm055">they emerged from the sea about 370 million years ago</a>. Given Godzilla’s terrestrial features, it’s likely that his species has land-dwelling reptile ancestors and reevolved a mostly aquatic lifestyle – kind of like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0406">sea turtles</a> or sea snakes, which can actually <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0300-9629(75)90387-4">absorb oxygen through their skin</a> in water. Godzilla may have uniquely reevolved gills.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391846/original/file-20210325-19-1p3dr3u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An image of a Tyrannosaurus rex showing large tail muscles connecting to the upper leg and hip." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391846/original/file-20210325-19-1p3dr3u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391846/original/file-20210325-19-1p3dr3u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391846/original/file-20210325-19-1p3dr3u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391846/original/file-20210325-19-1p3dr3u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391846/original/file-20210325-19-1p3dr3u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391846/original/file-20210325-19-1p3dr3u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391846/original/file-20210325-19-1p3dr3u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dinosaurs like <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em> had huge muscles that connect their powerful tails to their hips and upper legs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.skeletaldrawing.com/">Dr. Scott Hartman</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Godzilla’s tail is what really separates him from Kong. It is massive, and anchored and moved by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.21290">huge muscles attached to his legs, hips and lower back</a>. Dinosaurs like <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em> stood horizontally and used their tails for balance and to help them walk and run. Godzilla, in contrast, stands vertically and keeps his tail low to the ground, probably for a different type of balance. This vertical posture is unique for a two-legged reptile and more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2014.0381">resembles a standing kangaroo</a>. Godzilla stands on two muscular, pillarlike legs similar to those of a sauropod dinosaur. These would provide stability and help support his gargantuan mass but would also bolster the strength of his tail.</p>
<p>In addition to his powerful tail, Godzilla carries three rows of sharp spikes going down his back, thick scaly skin, a relatively small head full of carnivorous teeth and free arms with grasping hands, all built onto a muscular body. Taken together, Godzilla is a terrifying and intimidating adversary.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391561/original/file-20210324-19-jhyqtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Godzilla shooting King Kong with his atomic breath from the 1962 film 'King Kong vs. Godzilla' " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391561/original/file-20210324-19-jhyqtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391561/original/file-20210324-19-jhyqtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391561/original/file-20210324-19-jhyqtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391561/original/file-20210324-19-jhyqtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391561/original/file-20210324-19-jhyqtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391561/original/file-20210324-19-jhyqtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391561/original/file-20210324-19-jhyqtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kong is faster and could use tools, but Godzilla is stronger and has armored skin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gameraboy/48298898271/in/photostream/">Tim Simpson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ready, fight!</h2>
<p>So now that we’ve looked a little closer at how Godzilla and Kong are built, let’s imagine who might emerge victorious in battle.</p>
<p>Though Kong is a little bit smaller than Godzilla, both are more or less comparably massive in size and neither has a clear advantage here. So what about their fighting abilities? </p>
<p>Godzilla would likely favor his robust tail for both offense and defense – much like modern-day large lizards that <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2017.2299">use their strong tails as whips</a>. Scale up that strength to Godzilla’s size, and that tail becomes a lethal weapon – which he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO_utO644sk&ab_channel=Gigan2004">has used before</a>.</p>
<p>However, Kong is more comfortable on land, faster and more agile, can use his strong legs to jump, and possesses much stronger arms than Godzilla – Kong probably packs a walloping punch. And as an ape, Kong would also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030380">likely use tools to some degree</a> and might even capitalize on his throwing ability.</p>
<p>Both would have a gnarly bite, with Kong likely getting a slight advantage. However, Godzilla’s bite is by no means weak, and all of his teeth are flesh-piercing, similar to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2019.05.025">crocodile</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1666/0094-8373-35.4.525">monitor lizard</a> teeth.</p>
<p>On defense, Godzilla has the edge, with thick scaly skin and sharp spikes. He might even act like a porcupine, turning his back to a rapidly approaching threat. However, Kong’s superior agility on land should be able to offer him some protection as well.</p>
<p>I will admit I am #TeamGodzilla, but it’s very close. I may give a slight edge to Kong in broad terrestrial battle ability, but Godzilla’s general mass, defense and tail would be hard to overpower. And lest we forget, the tipping point for Godzilla is that he has atomic breath! Until researchers find evidence of a dinosaur or animal with something like that, though, I will have to reserve my scientific judgment. </p>
<p>Regardless of who emerges victorious, this battle will be one for the ages, and I am excited as both a scientist and monster movie fan.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to use more inclusive language</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157101/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kiersten Formoso receives funding from the National Science Foundation, Paleontological Society, and Evolving Earth Foundation. </span></em></p>Hollywood loves a good monster battle, and where better to turn for inspiration than the animal kingdom? Traits from real animals can provide clues about the fighting prowess of Kong and Godzilla.Kiersten Formoso, PhD Student in Vertebrate Paleontology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1173332019-06-03T11:33:40Z2019-06-03T11:33:40ZGodzilla, King Kong: films are actually spot on in how to defeat kaijus – mathematician<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277398/original/file-20190531-69059-39jqyu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mediapass.warnerbros.com/">Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How do you get rid of a giant pest like Godzilla, King Kong, or any of <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/top-trumps-giants-japans-monster-movies">the other assorted kaiju</a> (Japanese for “strange beast”)? Evidence from films suggests that these monsters are highly destructive and tremendously difficult to kill. </p>
<p>To a mathematician, however, this situation is nothing more than a predator-prey interaction problem. By accurately simulating the properties of the species we want to eradicate, we can predict the required properties of the predators we would need to create. If we look to the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls027559043/">movies that made them famous</a>, we find two alternative strategies for dealing with an invasion of multiple monsters. We could build our own mechanical monsters, or create a kaiju of our own.</p>
<h2>Option one: deploy jaegers</h2>
<p>Giant offensive robots, known as jaegers (“hunter” in German) have the advantage of being completely under our control. In reality mass production of such weapons appears to be out of the question – not least because, as seen in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663662/">Pacific Rim</a>, they are also often giant <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/but-not-simpler/pacific-rim-physics-part-2-in-a-nuclear-explosion-bubble-at-the-bottom-of-the-ocean/?redirect=1">nuclear reactors on legs</a>, prohibitively expensive and <a href="http://www.zimbio.com/Beyond+the+Box+Office/articles/TzjPYG8JMuA/Pacific+Rim+How+Engineer+Sees+Jaeger">difficult to engineer</a>. But, assuming we solved these issues (and that secretive organisations had them ready when needed), jaegers are still only a viable solution if they are far deadlier than the kaijus. </p>
<p>Jaegers are typically dispatched alone to specific areas (for example, Manila, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and other locations around the pacific rim) so each mechanical fighter must be able to get rid <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070122/">of multiple creatures</a> before falling. But given the small number of jaegers that the world would be able to produce which could stand up to the onslaught, we would only be able to defend a country little bigger than the UK using jaegers. So, unless we want to move the world’s population onto a few islands we need a more radical idea to defend the larger continents.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277376/original/file-20190531-69055-w8p0tw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277376/original/file-20190531-69055-w8p0tw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277376/original/file-20190531-69055-w8p0tw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277376/original/file-20190531-69055-w8p0tw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277376/original/file-20190531-69055-w8p0tw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277376/original/file-20190531-69055-w8p0tw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277376/original/file-20190531-69055-w8p0tw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277376/original/file-20190531-69055-w8p0tw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jaegers are stationed in the north of Scotland and south of England in this simulation. Light shading represents high population density of kaijus and dark, low population density. Using jaegers, kaiju density can be reduced to practically zero everywhere within 24 hours.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Option two: create a kaiju</h2>
<p>In the words of fictional scientist Ishiro Serizawa (most recently seen in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">Godzilla: King of the Monsters</a>), we could allow nature to take its course and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbnqQ1dF-KI">let them fight</a>”. Kaijus naturally prey on each other so we could genetically modify an animal to grow to a monstrous size (a good blast of radiation seems to help them grow in no time at all) and predate on them, as seen in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058379/">numerous</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399102/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_7">entries</a> in the Godzilla canon.</p>
<p>Now, this may seem crazy. As soon as we release our own mutants we are unable to control them and, if <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369610/">Jurassic World</a> tells us anything, it’s that even a highly trained predator has no master. So apart from the additional collateral damage that this would entail, we may be generating a bigger problem for ourselves by creating this new top predator species.</p>
<p>History is littered with failed examples of ad hoc eradication that have gone drastically wrong. Cane toads were <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-39348313">introduced into Australia</a> to eat beetle pests. Unfortunately, for several reasons, including having no natural predators, the toad population grew dramatically, and they <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians/c/cane-toad/">became the pest</a>. But this tactic can work if approached scientifically. There are successful examples of biological eradication through the introduction of natural predators. California’s citrus industry <a href="https://biocontrol.entomology.cornell.edu/success.php">was saved</a> from the cottony cushion scale by the careful introduction of the cardinal ladybird from Australia, for example.</p>
<p>Critically, the biggest benefit of allowing kaijus to control their own populations is that once we have generated the initial species, the monsters will naturally keep themselves in check. So, as long as we learn from past mistakes and carefully choose our predator’s properties, we need not worry about costs of managing the monsters. </p>
<p>To fight a fictional kaiju, the creature would have to be extremely fast, tough (but not aggressive to humans), and have a short life expectancy (so they die out when not needed). Unfortunately, even with such features, our simulations suggest that such predators would be unable to wipe the kaiju out completely. Instead the predator and prey would find a sustainable balance. Indeed, the best we can manage is to increase the speed of our monsters, meaning that they would be able to cover larger hunting grounds, and reduce the number of enemy kaiju.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277387/original/file-20190531-69079-ly1wct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277387/original/file-20190531-69079-ly1wct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277387/original/file-20190531-69079-ly1wct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277387/original/file-20190531-69079-ly1wct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277387/original/file-20190531-69079-ly1wct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277387/original/file-20190531-69079-ly1wct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277387/original/file-20190531-69079-ly1wct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277387/original/file-20190531-69079-ly1wct.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dark shading shows low kaiju density, light shading shows high kaiju density. Our monster’s speed is increased left to right showing that kaiju can be corralled into fewer and fewer areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on the above mathematical predictions, and considering the catalogue of creatures seen throughout kaiju movies, the best option would appear to be genetically modifying a species of moth to create a creature like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/movies/mothra-godzilla-king-of-the-monsters.html">Mothra</a>. Indeed, she has <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058379/">won</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058544/">fights</a> against Godzilla <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104352/">several times</a>. Specifically, she is extremely fast (reaching at least Mach 3), friendly to humans and, generally, a new Mothra is born only when one is killed (providing the population control).</p>
<p>Overall, mathematical modelling from these fictional parameters suggests that jaegers are the best strategy for small islands, while genetically modified kaiju work best to protect larger land masses. As a final point we note that Japan’s land area is very close to the cut-off size that determines if jaegers will be a successful strategy. This may underlie the reason why Japan is a world-renowned creator of kaiju movies. They act as simulations, like our mathematical model, predicting the outcomes of the ensuing battles. So, because of Japan’s uncertain fate, they produce films alternating between using monsters and jaegers to protect humans, to ascertain which solution is more successful. </p>
<p>However, both of our main strategies rely on the same idea: create a monster to catch a monster. So we leave with a final word of caution – as philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117333/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Woolley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How do you solve a problem like Godzilla? It’s not too tricky to work out if you are a mathematician…Thomas Woolley, Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1175042019-05-29T00:24:01Z2019-05-29T00:24:01ZGodzilla: King of the Monsters, ‘Godzilla’ and its evolving environmental messages<p>A new Godzilla mega-movie is rampaging across the globe, its giant green monster stomping and screeching upon the silver screen. </p>
<p>It hits theatres this week.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wVDtmouV9kM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for the 2019 movie <em>Godzilla: King of the Monsters</em> (Legendary Pictures. Director: Michael Dougherty)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since its first appearance in 1954 as a mutated dinosaur-like monster, Godzilla has often spread an environmental message to the public – though the exact make-up of the message has evolved over time.</p>
<p>Once synonymous with the monstrous nature of nuclear disaster, the new movie seems to ditch Godzilla’s old anti-nuclear stance to focus on environmental concerns more presently in the public mind, like climate change and mass extinction. The film’s cast and producers have <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/godzilla-king-monsters-carries-powerful-message-environment-165859802.html">noted and endorsed</a> this environmental theme.</p>
<h2>Godzilla now</h2>
<p>The 2019 Godzilla outing sets up the titular monster as an ancient natural being, evolved a long time ago when the Earth was far more radioactive. The monster is presented as a guardian of nature seeking to bring balance to a world messed up by human activity. </p>
<p>In this latest Godzilla, nuclear energy is natural and nuclear bombs are benign since the monster uses atomic power to energise himself in his battles against a suite of enemy monsters. The Godzilla monster also enters into an alliance with the United States military to vanquish their common enemies and to claim the throne of “King of the Monsters”.</p>
<p>The Godzilla of 2019 will seem like pretty shallow “<a href="https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2014/may-august/recent-eco-cinema-list-ten-must-see-films">eco-cinema</a>” to most environmentalists. Yet deeper eco-films like <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-years-on-how-al-gores-an-inconvenient-truth-made-its-mark-59387">An Inconvenient Truth</a> or <a href="https://www.beforetheflood.com/">Before the Flood</a> might only be viewed by those already swayed by environmental arguments. Godzilla has potential “broad spectrum” advantage, seducing a much wider audience into sitting in on a film with an environmental back story. </p>
<p>If we’re feeling charitable, we can conjecture that some proportion of this wider audience might be pushed a little more toward caring about the present-day environmental crisis. Alas, though, a critical reflection upon 2019’s Godzilla would resist the idea that “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/dec/12/nuclearindustry.climatechange">nukes</a>” or “<a href="https://ceobs.org/topics/military-and-the-environment/">the military</a>” can serve as saviours of the Earth. </p>
<p>The most recent Godzilla producers have enjoyed a good <a href="https://static2.businessinsider.com/the-military-helped-edit-godzilla-script-for-accuracy-2014-5">working relationship</a> with the US military in order to credibly represent the army and navy on screen. Such relationships assure filmmakers access to spectacular military hardware – tanks and warships, for instance. The US Army seems very happy with the results but, given the environmental impact of <a href="https://theconversation.com/crimes-against-the-environment-the-silent-victim-of-warfare-50215">military activities</a>, the producers might have done better to work with conservationists as they strove to envision Godzilla as an ecological being. </p>
<h2>Godzilla in the past</h2>
<p>Godzilla in fiction is some 65 million years old. In fact, he’s a mere 65. </p>
<p>The very first Godzilla movie, or <em>Gojira</em> in Japanese, was made in Japan in 1954; the monster being accidentally exhumed by an atomic bomb test in the Pacific Ocean. The monster then came ashore to destroy the capital Tokyo. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2014/07/20/editorials/godzillas-message-still-relevant/#.XOQLAfZuLIU">message</a> of the first Godzilla was clear: nuclear bombs and nuclear pollution are monstrous; messing about with them will invite catastrophe upon both nature and humanity. Such a theme resonated strongly in a nation that had recently lived through the devastating <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-politics-explainer-the-atomic-bombings-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-100452">Hiroshima and Nagasaki</a> nuclear attacks on Japan.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KNmk4uTZ6vI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for the 1954 movie <em>Godzilla: King of the Monsters</em> (Toho. Director: Ishirō Honda).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, if Godzilla’s primary goal was to fend off dangerous nuclear development, it failed. Japan soon embarked upon a massive <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/nuclear-tsunami-the-japanese-government-and-americas-role-in-the-fukushima-disaster/oclc/895030498">nuclear energy</a> program. </p>
<p>As well as being ineffectual, Godzilla might also be regarded as unoriginal. Many science-fiction fans <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/godzilla/232124/waiting-for-godzilla-the-roots-of-the-king-of-the-monsters">acknowledge</a> that 1954’s Godzilla was inspired by a 1953 Hollywood “creature feature”, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045546/">The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms</a>, whose gigantic dinosaur “star” was also born from a nuclear test blast.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Japan’s Atomic Monsters – Origins and Legacy (2019) Producers: Alan Marshall & Nanthawan Kaenkaew.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The writers of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms managed to shine a light on their own militarised society, the US, outlining the horrendous power of homemade mega-weapons. However, the 1954 Godzilla writers did no such thing; they blamed Godzilla’s monstrous birth not on any homemade Japanese military endeavour but upon US nuclear <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/02/bikini-atoll-nuclear-test-60-years">bomb tests in the Pacific</a>. </p>
<p>By doing this, the original Godzilla avoids investigating Japan’s own mid-century fixations with military power and chooses instead to apportion the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10371399308521861">majority of the moral blame</a> for the second world war’s “horrific violence” upon the US and its inhumane nuclear bombs. This anti-American attitude had to be <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Critical-History-Filmography-Tohos-Godzilla-Series-David-Kalat/9781476672946">edited out</a> of the 1954 Godzilla film before hitting US cinemas.</p>
<h2>The evolution of Godzilla</h2>
<p>Since the 1954 movie, more than 30 Godzilla features have been produced. </p>
<p>In the 1960s and 1970s, Godzilla became memorably kitschy. There’s nothing so camp as two actors dressed up in rubber whilst trading blows as grinning monsters. <a href="https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/95640274/godzilla-on-my-mind/tsutsui-williamm/">Some film critics</a> deride these ’60s and ’70s versions as artless and childish, but <a href="https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/japans-green-monsters/">others have noted</a> the value and charm of showcasing beloved monsters as eccentric anti-heroes whose battles could be imaginatively emulated by excited schoolchildren.</p>
<p>As light-hearted as they were, the 1960s and 1970s Godzilla movies often managed to spread an environmental message by resurrecting the anti-nuclear theme or by referencing other kinds of pollution. </p>
<p>For example, the 1971 movie <a href="http://www.moriareviews.com/sciencefiction/godzilla-vs-the-smog-monster-godzilla-vs-hedorah-1971.htm">Godzilla Vs the Smog Monster</a> flags up the <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kz7w9w/godzilla-is-a-radical-environmentalist">horrific character</a> of marine pollutants and urban smog.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for the 1971 movie <em>Godzilla vs The Smog Monster</em> (Toho. Director: Yoshimitsu Banno).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 2014 Godzilla movie, the anti-nuclear message seems for a moment to reappear. The opening act portrays a nuclear plant suffering a <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/archive-international/en/campaigns/nuclear/safety/accidents/Fukushima-nuclear-disaster/">Fukushima</a>-type meltdown and an abandoned city that resembles a Fukushima <a href="https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/fukushima-ghost-towns-idUSRTR2WFK1">ghost town</a> in Japan. </p>
<p>However, we soon learn the disaster is caused by a gigantic radiation-hungry mutant and not by <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2012/02/28/greenpeace-fukushima-disaster-caused-japans-nuclear-authorities-not-tsunami">safety lapses or general technological hubris</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for the 2014 movie Godzilla (Legendary Pictures. Director: Gareth Edwards).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All in all, Godzilla has often been praised by critics and fans as reflecting public concerns about environmental disaster. Yet the environmental messages that many Godzilla episodes convey is often so encumbered with competing narratives, and also by the need for fantastic spectacle, that the eco-message is confused or diminished.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Marshall receives research funding from the National Geographic Society and from Mahidol University. In decades past, he was contracted as a social scientist at Nirex UK (now part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, UK) and also received funding support from Friends of the Earth's 'Beyond Nuclear Initiative'.</span></em></p>Godzilla might be radioactive and toxic but he’s also a ‘green’ monster. As the latest ‘King of the Monsters’ film rampages across our screens, it’s time to investigate his ecological credentials.Alan Marshall, Lecturer in Environmental Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Mahidol UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1169962019-05-28T19:46:48Z2019-05-28T19:46:48ZWhy Godzilla is the perfect monster for our age of environmental destruction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276721/original/file-20190528-92769-13sjzf6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A still from the new film Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which opens this week. In a time of environmental destruction, Godzilla is the perfect monster to represent the consequences of humanity's actions. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Warner Bros/IMDB</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The monsters that stalk us in popular culture embody fears about our contemporary human condition. As a <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">new Godzilla film</a> opens in cinemas this week, we might gain insight into what currently haunts us most.</p>
<p>The endless waves of zombies in film, TV and literature are said to reflect the mindlessness of our behaviour, whether as a cog in the industrial machine, or as noted <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-well-always-be-obsessed-with-and-afraid-of-monsters-65080">by film scholar Leo Braudy</a>, as “an unthinking member of a mass consumer society”.</p>
<p>For Braudy, zombies “may best represent the anxieties of the 21st century” because these nameless monsters can represent whatever fear most consumes us as individuals, which might include pandemics, globalisation, or the anonymity imposed by impersonal technology.</p>
<p>However, the age we are currently living in requires another monster – one that is capable of representing the awesome complexity and enormity of the challenges facing humanity today. That monster is Godzilla.</p>
<p>The consequences of human-induced climate change are now spoken of with increasing alarm, with prominent experts, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/03/david-attenborough-collapse-civilisation-on-horizon-un-climate-summit">including David Attenborough</a>, suggesting the possibility of civilisational collapse. With the new film upon us, audiences may see their fears about the damage we have wrought reflected back at them.</p>
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<h2>A monster of awe</h2>
<p>In their 1987 book <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Angels_fear.html?id=FynHAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Angels Fear</a>, anthropologists Gregory and Mary Catherine Batseon proposed a fictional god called Eco, one that would represent the importance of seeing the world as a system of interconnected organisms, or the “unity in which we make our home”. They hoped that the existence of such a god might encourage humanity to behave more respectfully towards our world.</p>
<p>However, in today’s world, a figure such as Eco does not inspire the awe or respect which our age of existential crisis demands. A monster is needed, and as I have argued in my co-authored book <a href="http://kismet.press/portfolio/monsters-of-modernity/">Monsters of Modernity: Global Icons for Our Critical Condition</a>, Godzilla is the perfect monster to make us think about the consequences of our actions.</p>
<p>From the first Japanese <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047034/">Godzilla film in 1954</a>, all the way through to Godzilla’s latest outing in this year’s aptly named Hollywood blockbuster <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">Godzilla: King of the Monsters</a>, Godzilla has been understood as a response to humanity’s mistreatment of the earth.</p>
<p>The first case of mistreatment to provoke Godzilla in 1954 was the use of nuclear weapons. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/281343.Godzilla_on_My_Mind">While developing a premise for the first film</a>, Tanaka Tomoyuki, a young producer at Toho Studios in Japan asked himself: “What if a dinosaur sleeping in the Southern Hemisphere had been awakened and transformed into a giant by the Bomb? What if it attacked Tokyo?”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276689/original/file-20190528-193544-1vrzn35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276689/original/file-20190528-193544-1vrzn35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276689/original/file-20190528-193544-1vrzn35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276689/original/file-20190528-193544-1vrzn35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276689/original/file-20190528-193544-1vrzn35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276689/original/file-20190528-193544-1vrzn35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276689/original/file-20190528-193544-1vrzn35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276689/original/file-20190528-193544-1vrzn35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In the first Godzilla film, the monster was a consequence of humanity’s use of nuclear weapons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
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<p>Subsequent films, which vary immensely in their level of earnestness or goofiness, have referenced other environmental misdeeds, such the 1971 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067148/?ref_=nv_sr_2?ref_=nv_sr_2">Godzilla vs Hedorah</a> (aka the Smog Monster) in which mankind’s pollution becomes a nearly invincible monster. Although Godzilla defeats the Smog Monster, viewers are left in no doubt that we ignore the effects of our pollution at our peril. </p>
<p>As time has moved on, so has the particular crisis that brings forth the monster. In the words of a protagonist in <a href="https://youtu.be/wVDtmouV9kM">the trailer for the 2019 movie</a>, “Our world is changing. The mass extinction we feared has already begun and we are the cause. We are the infection. But like all living organisms, the earth has unleashed a fever to fight this infection”.</p>
<p>Here lies an important trait of Godzilla’s. As the scientist Dr Serizawa says in the 2014 Hollywood movie simply titled <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831387/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">Godzilla</a>: “we may not have created this monster. But we summoned it. We brought this on ourselves.”</p>
<p>Godzilla is not on our side. It threatens humanity, although it sometimes incidentally helps humanity avert a larger threat (such as the Smog Monster) or Godzilla’s archenemy, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. But even when Godzilla and humanity share a common goal, it is not that Godzilla takes our side or that we make Godzilla “our pet”, as it is put in the 2019 trailer. Instead, <a href="https://youtu.be/KDnKuFtdc7A?t=82">Dr Serizawa</a> observes, “we would be his”.</p>
<p>Wherever Godzilla appears, the triviality of humanity’s accomplishments and defences are made plain. Godzilla treats us and our great cities with the contempt and disregard with which we regularly treat our world.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-is-this-the-endgame-and-did-we-win-or-did-we-lose-117172">Friday essay: is this the Endgame - and did we win or did we lose?</a>
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<h2>The Godzilla principle</h2>
<p>In project management, The “Godzilla Principle” refers to the idea that problems should be addressed while small, because “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=8xfjEpWFhMAC&pg=PA140&lpg=PA140&dq=%D4left+unchecked+and+uncared+for,+they+wax,+not+wane,+until+they+are+too+big+too+handle%D5&source=bl&ots=5WcTi4YEvo&sig=ACfU3U1MIXGBg-IdABamuHa89ihpdfZdgQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjkg7mT5KviAhW_7HMBHXHFDpEQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%98left%20unchecked%20and%20uncared%20for%2C%20they%20wax%2C%20not%20wane%2C%20until%20they%20are%20too%20big%20too%20handle%E2%80%99&f=false">left unchecked and uncared for, they wax, not wane, until they are too big too handle</a>”. However, I argue that the lesson of Godzilla is in fact starker. The Godzilla Principle is that there is no forgiveness.</p>
<p>There is no forgiveness because Godzilla is our environmental transgressions reflected back to us, personified in the form of a monstrous reptile. In this way, Godzilla echoes Bateson and Bateson’s Eco: it “is of no avail to tell [Eco] that the offense was only a small one, that you are sorry and that you won’t do it again.” Every one of our misdeeds against the world irrevocably rebounds against us.</p>
<p>In reality, the impacts of our vandalism or thoughtlessness can remain in out-of-sight lands or <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-no-garbage-patch-in-the-southern-indian-ocean-so-where-does-all-the-rubbish-go-114439">immense garbage patches in our oceans</a>, or be <a href="https://theconversation.com/society-actually-does-want-policies-that-benefit-future-generations-69481">borne in the future</a>. However, in fiction, Godzilla is karma incarnate, bringing ruin today to the cities that represent “civilisation”.</p>
<p>Although people can forgive the wrongdoings of each other and start afresh, our world cannot forgive in this way. We must act from the outset with an awareness of the gravity of our actions, to avoid awakening unstoppable “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2018/oct/06/earths-climate-monsters-could-be-unleashed-as-temperatures-rise">climate monsters</a>”.</p>
<p>Godzilla, then, is the monster for our times. Godzilla is awful, implacable, and irresistible. Our only hope is not to bring it upon ourselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian CH Lee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Popular monsters often reflect humanity’s greatest fears. Godzilla, with its destructive rampages, is the foremost monster for our age of environmental threat.Julian CH Lee, Associate Professor, Global Studies, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/986752018-07-03T14:35:39Z2018-07-03T14:35:39ZHollywood’s mega-monsters head back east<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225968/original/file-20180703-116132-1i1jz8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Universal Pictures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom</a>, Hollywood’s most recent creature feature, has taken <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=jurassicworldsequel.htm">more than US$900m</a> at the global box office in just a few weeks. August sees The Meg unleashed – based on <a href="https://www.stevealten.com/books/meg/">Steve Alten’s novel</a>, it’s a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mega_shark_vs_giant_octopus/">big-budget mega-Jaws</a> featuring Jason Statham battling a 75ft megalodon. And from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663662/?ref_=tt_rec_tt">Pacific Rim</a> (2013) to <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831387/?ref_=tt_rec_tt">Godzilla</a> (2014) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2231461/?ref_=tt_rec_tt">Rampage</a> (2018), these monster blockbusters can tell us a story about how Hollywood sits in global cinema, especially its power relationships with Asia.</p>
<p>It is widely believed that the giant monster movie is an import from Japan – often referred to by its Japanese name, <a href="https://reelrundown.com/movies/A-Beginners-Guide-To-Kaiju-Eiga"><em>kaiju eiga</em></a> (literally, strange beast films). In 1954, Gojira (Godzilla in English), in which a huge mutant dinosaur, awoken by nuclear tests, devastates Tokyo, <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2014/05/godzilla-meaning-monster-metaphors.html">set the template</a> for films that manifest the devastating effects of humanity’s destructive excesses in the form of giant city-smashing monsters.</p>
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<p>This sci-fi sub-genre emerged from <a href="https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/1034">processes of cultural exchange</a>, which helps us to see how one culture borrows or recycles material from another. Gojira borrowed aspects from two key American films: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/">King Kong</a> (1933) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045546/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms</a> (1953), both released in Japan not long before Gojira’s conception. Gojira’s name is a combination of the transliteration of gorilla, and the Japanese word for whale, kujira. The producer’s <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Atomic_Dreams_and_the_Nuclear_Nightmare.html?id=DpPxsgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">working title</a> was even The Giant Monster from 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. </p>
<p>Combined with the influence of <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2012/03/18/general/lucky-dragons-lethal-catch/#.WzI_2_Uo9hE">an incident</a> in which the Fukuryu Maru fishing boat was caught up in radiation from the Castle Bravo nuclear tests, we see a powerful demonstration of cultural exchange, where local and global ideas came together.</p>
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<p>Cultural exchanges have continued for a long time in this genre. American companies worked with Japanese studios to produce new versions of Godzilla and other <em>kaiju</em> movies. Collaboration with Japanese producers helped guarantee a steady supply of content for exploitation cinemas, drive-ins and later television, including <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKxQHhki_k8">Frankenstein Conquers the World</a> (1965), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrUFlFD4Lvo">King Kong Escapes</a> (1967) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSpJXVP4agI">Yog: Monster from Space</a> (1970).</p>
<p><em>Kaiju eiga</em> were also produced across Asia, including <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY-tnP3uJRM">Hong Kong</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwreEB6gvrs">South Korea</a>. The most notorious example is North Korea’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCKSR0JArUQ">Pulgasari</a> (1985), produced by Kim Jong-il and directed by Shin Sang-ok, once South Korea’s most successful film producer, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/03/kim-jong-il-kidnapped-director-films-north-korea-cinephile">who was kidnapped by the regime</a> and forced to improve their cinema.</p>
<h2>Hollywood’s recycling habit</h2>
<p>In Hollywood, global tropes are adopted and reworked – and their nostalgic (sometimes fetishised) referencing is rife at the moment. Pacific Rim called its monsters <em>kaiju</em> in homage to the genre’s Japanese roots – and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557478/?ref_=nv_sr_1">its sequel’s</a> climactic showdown occurs in Tokyo. Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One (2018) depicts a future dystopia where the populace has retreated into a pop culture saturated VR game. When one of its protagonists fights the evil corporate executive trying to take over <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBpgOIQR0sw">the game</a>, they take the forms, respectively, of anime robot <a href="https://mechabay.com/rx-78-2-gundam/">Gundam</a> and 1970s Godzilla enemy, <a href="https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Mechagodzilla">MechaGodzilla</a>, both icons of Japanese popular culture.</p>
<p>Rampage is an adaptation of a <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/rampage-the-most-faithful-video-game-adaptation-ever-made.html">1980s video game</a> in which giant monsters smash up cities. The largely plotless game spawned a film that critiques <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/rampage-what-makes-it-a-new-kind-monster-movie-1102661">the dangers of genetic experimentation</a>. Godzilla (2014) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Kong: Skull Island</a> (2017) initiated a Marvel-style shared <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/MonsterVerse">MonsterVerse</a>. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">Godzilla: King of the Monsters</a> was teased in the end credits of Kong, and the two <em>kaiju</em> will face off <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5034838/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">in 2019</a>.</p>
<h2>Eastern appeal</h2>
<p>The Jurassic World films challenge similar cultural and political ideas. As cinema becomes more transnational, cultural exchange and a changing global marketplace challenge our understanding of traditional power relationships. Hence, there is a different reason why we should consider Jurassic World a <em>kaiju</em> movie: the ownership of its producers. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"958762606864384000"}"></div></p>
<p>If you’ve been watching <a href="https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/marketing/sponsorship/partners/wanda-group.html">the World Cup</a>, you’ll have seen hoardings advertising the Chinese company <a href="https://www.wanda-group.com/">Dalian Wanda</a>, one of China’s biggest conglomerates, who operate <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/chinas-wanda-group-merge-film-production-company-cinema-business/">the world’s largest cinema</a> holdings. In 2016, <a href="https://variety.com/2016/biz/asia/wanda-deal-with-legendary-1201676878/">it paid US$3.5 billion for Legendary Entertainment</a>, the production company behind the Jurassic World, Pacific Rim and Godzilla series. </p>
<p>An earlier deal with <a href="https://variety.com/2013/film/news/legendary-east-finds-key-partner-in-china-film-co-1200489836/">state-run China Film Group</a> had granted Legendary Entertainment unparalleled access to the Chinese market through co-production deals. The Meg is also <a href="https://variety.com/2016/film/asia/china-to-get-first-release-of-shark-thriller-meg-1201887432/">a Chinese co-production</a>.</p>
<p>Localised strategies have also appealed to Chinese audiences. Chinese star Jing Tian has appeared in several Legendary monster films – as a military leader in <em>kaiju</em> martial arts spectacular <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034800/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Great Wall</a> (2016), a biologist in Kong: Skull Island and a famous scientist in Pacific Rim: Uprising. Star casting has long been one of the key techniques used by Hollywood to appeal to local markets. Locations are also important – the action in The Meg has been relocated from Maui in the novel, to China. Its cast also includes <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0508356/">Li Bingbing</a>, a Chinese star who also appeared in the most recent Transformers movie.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225468/original/file-20180629-117422-xlaj8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225468/original/file-20180629-117422-xlaj8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225468/original/file-20180629-117422-xlaj8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225468/original/file-20180629-117422-xlaj8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225468/original/file-20180629-117422-xlaj8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225468/original/file-20180629-117422-xlaj8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225468/original/file-20180629-117422-xlaj8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Legendary’s films demonstrate the mixture of local and global features at work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Legendary East and China Film Group</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several monster movies have recently <a href="http://chinafilminsider.com/hollywood-blockbusters-better-china-u-s-recent-weeks/">grossed more in China</a> than domestically in the US. Pacific Rim: Uprising grossed almost twice as much, and Rampage over 50% more. By contrast, Star Wars films make negligible impact at the Chinese box office – clearly <a href="https://variety.com/2018/film/asia/monster-hunt-2-190-million-china-enjoys-half-billion-dollar-weekend-1202703946/">monster content</a> is more appealing to Chinese audiences.</p>
<p>This cycle of giant monster movies is currently the most prominent example of Hollywood’s globalised business. Its embrace of international material, familiar recycling and relationships with Asia are most strongly evidenced in these films. That’s not to say that all of this is new or one-way traffic: Legendary’s success with Godzilla inspired Toho studios to develop <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4262980/">not one</a> but <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80180373">two new series</a> with the beloved national icon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98675/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Rawle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Monster movies are currently rampaging across the globe. Their popularity shows us how Hollywood’s place in world cinema is changing.Steve Rawle, Associate Professor in Media Production, York St John UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/880612017-11-27T12:06:43Z2017-11-27T12:06:43ZEight surprising things it’s time you knew about Gulliver’s Travels<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196221/original/file-20171123-17988-1vwsyta.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gotcha!</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Happy 350th birthday, Jonathan Swift. Widely recognised as the leading satirist in the history of the English language, Swift found his way into the world 350 years ago on November 30, 1667. Celebrations of his life and legacy have been underway across the globe – not only in his home city of <a href="https://jonathanswiftfestival.ie">Dublin</a> but also <a href="http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/swift_papers.html">Philadelphia</a>, <a href="http://www.uni-muenster.de/Anglistik/Swift/Library/Events/7th_Symposium.html">Münster</a>, <a href="http://www.city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp.e.rb.hp.transer.com/2490/event/15kannnonnzakifes.html">Yokosuka City</a>, <a href="https://beinghumanfestival.org/events/series/jonathan-swift-350-lost-found/">Dundee</a> and beyond.</p>
<p>Gulliver’s Travels is Swift’s most famous work. Since it first appeared in 1726, it has captivated readers, authors and artists alike. But many people’s engagement with this astonishing book tends to get lost in fantastical images of scampish little people and baffled giants. So here is your cut-out-and-keep guide to all things Gulliver. </p>
<h2>1. Not really a children’s book</h2>
<p>Most readers will fondly remember Gulliver as a children’s book, but the <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/classics//catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780679405450">unexpurgated version</a> is full of brutality. The ruthlessly logical Houyhnhnms – highly intelligent horse-like creatures – plan to wipe out the bestial humanoid Yahoos by castrating them all. This plan is inadvertently inspired by Gulliver’s description of how horses are treated in England.</p>
<p>There is a particularly unsavoury scene in the Lilliput voyage where Gulliver urinates on the queen’s home to quench a devastating fire. This is routinely included in the children’s edition, albeit in sanitised form. And then there’s the scene in one of Gulliver’s final adventures where our hero has to fend off a highly libidinous female Yahoo who appears intent on raping him. </p>
<h2>2. Coining new words</h2>
<p>Gulliver’s Travels has given the English language a number of notable words, not least Houyhnhnm (move your lips like a horse when saying it). There’s also Yahoo, an uneducated ruffian; brobdingnagian, meaning huge, after the giants in the second voyage; and lilliputian, meaning small, after the miniature humans of the first voyage. </p>
<p>Swift also loved puns. Lindalino, a most unusual place, is another name for Dublin (double “lin”). The flying city of Laputa is a harsh allegory of England and its colonial dominion over Ireland – the name means “the whore” in Spanish (la puta). As for the kingdom of Tribnia, it is an anagram of Britain. Its residents call it Langden, an anagram of England. </p>
<h2>3. Roman à clef</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196222/original/file-20171123-17982-6d64gn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196222/original/file-20171123-17982-6d64gn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196222/original/file-20171123-17982-6d64gn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196222/original/file-20171123-17982-6d64gn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196222/original/file-20171123-17982-6d64gn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196222/original/file-20171123-17982-6d64gn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=975&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196222/original/file-20171123-17982-6d64gn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=975&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196222/original/file-20171123-17982-6d64gn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=975&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Robert Walpole.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Walpole">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like any successful satirist, Swift had many enemies. Britain’s first prime minister, Robert Walpole, is recreated as Flimnap, who as the pompous Lord High Treasurer of Lilliput has an equivalent role in their society. Either the Duke of Marlborough or Earl of Nottingham is the inspiration for his war-hungry governmental counterpart Skyresh Bolgolam, the Lord High Admiral of Lilliput. </p>
<p>Other authority figures are roundly mocked throughout the book. The pettiness of politicians – Whigs and Tories alike – is compellingly conveyed by rendering them small. That moment where Gulliver urinates on the palace is <a href="https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/g/gullivers-travels/summary-and-analysis/part-i-chapter-5">sometimes interpreted</a> as a reference to the <a href="http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/History-of-Gibraltar/">Treaty of Utrecht</a> of 1713, which ceded Gibraltar to the UK – and by which the Tories put out the fire of the War of Spanish Succession with some very ungentlemanly conduct.</p>
<h2>4. Big in Japan</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g298174-d1238912-Reviews-Kannonzaki_Park-Yokosuka_Kanagawa_Prefecture_Kanto.html">Konnonzaki</a> in Japan, just south of Tokyo, is a tourist delight. In addition to stunning mountains and beautiful beaches, it is thought to be where Gulliver first set foot in Japan – represented as the port of Xamoschi. </p>
<p>Local tourist associations in neighbouring Yokosuka City hold a Gulliver-Kannonzaki Festival every November. American sailors from the Yokosuka Naval Base dress up as Gulliver and parade around the district. In the first Godzilla movie, the monster also lands at Kannonzaki, then heads toward Tokyo – just like Gulliver. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196224/original/file-20171123-17988-1qk8jmi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196224/original/file-20171123-17988-1qk8jmi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196224/original/file-20171123-17988-1qk8jmi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196224/original/file-20171123-17988-1qk8jmi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196224/original/file-20171123-17988-1qk8jmi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196224/original/file-20171123-17988-1qk8jmi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196224/original/file-20171123-17988-1qk8jmi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196224/original/file-20171123-17988-1qk8jmi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">He gets around.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. Gulliver goes Martian</h2>
<p>The book jokingly mentions the presence of moons around Mars. After Phobos and Deimos were discovered by astronomers in 1872, <a href="http://www.irishphilosophy.com/2015/08/17/swifts-crater/">Swift crater</a> on Deimos was named in the Irishman’s honour. </p>
<h2>6. Swifter things</h2>
<p>Before the advent of film, Gulliver appeared in stage adaptations, musical rearrangements, visual caricatures – and on fans, pots and various other knick-knacks. Pioneering French illusionist Georges Méliès directed and starred in the first cinematic adaptation in 1902, the spectacular Le Voyage de Gulliver à Lilliput et Chez les Géants. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dGg9j0BdyEM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Yet it’s the <a href="https://youtu.be/nzdon9kK5-k">live-action version</a> from 1977 with its Disneyfied Lilliputians that tends to stick in our minds. That film features an ebullient Richard Harris as Gulliver, but many other actors have portrayed him – including <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1320261/">Jack Black</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115195/">Ted Danson</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026793/">Vladimir Konstantinov</a>. Gulliver even appeared in a 1968 Doctor Who serial (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/mindrobber/detail.shtml">The Mind Robber</a>) and in the first volume of Alan Moore’s comic <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen-volume-1-alan-moore/1102302221">The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen</a> (1999-2000).</p>
<h2>7. Inspiring other writers</h2>
<p>Writers expressly influenced by Gulliver’s Travels include HG Wells (most obviously in The Island of Dr Moreau and The First Men in the Moon) and George Orwell (Animal Farm). Margaret Atwood’s adventure romance Oryx and Crake takes a quotation from Swift for an epigraph. Atwood has also written an <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10356713-in-other-worlds">important essay</a> on the mad scientists depicted in Gulliver’s third voyage. </p>
<p>In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Guy Montag, alludes to the Big Endian-Little Endian controversy about the proper way to break a boiled egg (“It is computed that 11,000 persons have at several times suffered death rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end”).</p>
<h2>8. Gulliver’s encores</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196225/original/file-20171123-17982-1kj5hq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196225/original/file-20171123-17982-1kj5hq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196225/original/file-20171123-17982-1kj5hq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196225/original/file-20171123-17982-1kj5hq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196225/original/file-20171123-17982-1kj5hq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196225/original/file-20171123-17982-1kj5hq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196225/original/file-20171123-17982-1kj5hq2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our notional hero’s life ends unhappily – by his own account – when he returns home to a wife and children he has come to loathe. Nevertheless, scores of secondary authors keep taking Gulliver on yet more journeys, typically beyond the world Swift created for him, but sometimes back to where it all began.</p>
<p>The earliest of these was the anonymously authored <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Memoirs_of_the_Court_of_Lilliput.html?id=IZTRAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">Memoirs of the Court of Lilliput</a>, published less than a year after Gulliver took his first bow. More recently, a 1965 Japanese <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059212/">animated film</a> (right) took an elderly Gulliver to the moon – along with a new crew comprising a boy, a crow, a dog and a talking toy soldier. New countries, new planets, new companions, new adventures: Gulliver has had a busy afterlife.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88061/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Cook has received funds from the British Academy, the Levehulme Trust and the AHRC.</span></em></p>Even now, 350 years after his birth, the great Irish satirist Jonathan Swift remains as sharp and relevant as ever.Daniel Cook, Senior Lecturer in English, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/478342015-09-20T08:31:28Z2015-09-20T08:31:28ZGodzilla – a tale of the times<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95446/original/image-20150920-31751-10z2whg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Godzilla emerges from the ocean</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Godzilla (1954)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The emptiness that is the product of American bombs rumbles, and from within the cracks of imperialisms, both Western and Eastern, emerges an uncontrollable monster. Technocrats, bureaucrats and capitalists, the rulers and petty “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/eichmann_01.shtml">Eichmen</a>” who constitute the triumvirate of the military-industrial-scientific complex – politicians all – scramble to come up with “solutions” to the “problem.” </p>
<p>But the monster, bathed in pathos, stumbles on, awkwardly stepping on buildings and people, emitting grey breaths that metamorphose into fire on bodily contact. </p>
<p>The people cry out in bewilderment, fear and anger at the monster; only a select few understand the relationship between the original bombs and the appearance of this antediluvian force. These few shake their heads, but cynically search for new means of mass destruction, hiding their knowledge – and readily acknowledged partial culpability – from the distraught public. </p>
<p>Eventually a new death-force is unleashed by a buccaneer-type scientist sporting an eye patch. This weapon is the epitome of the “atmoterrorist” warfare that, as German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk argues in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6137539-terror-from-the-air-foreign-agents-semiotext?from_search=true&search_version=service">Terror from the Air</a> (2009), is the hallmark of twentieth century technological progress. </p>
<p>In an oddly arresting, melancholic sequence, the monster is strafed back towards the ocean, and the ocean, as one of the life-media of the monster, is transformed into a death-space. </p>
<p>The ocean is left black and rippled, a scaly, reptilian surface awaiting the next irruption of monstrosity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95442/original/image-20150920-31729-1cm9bor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95442/original/image-20150920-31729-1cm9bor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95442/original/image-20150920-31729-1cm9bor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95442/original/image-20150920-31729-1cm9bor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95442/original/image-20150920-31729-1cm9bor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95442/original/image-20150920-31729-1cm9bor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95442/original/image-20150920-31729-1cm9bor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) lobby card.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tom1231/4172774369/in/photolist-7mJyrF-9PJY1w-nFDzHi-onwSFJ-dGBLSC-nGBPZ6-7dsumf-4Ju9uf-7doBue-qyTpJq-82aVgW-8agSq4-f3Sctc-ua9fEa-DjrHV-fxja88-5q8apy-nd2311-sNzn3q-9zfSuN-ni5Zwc-Ct4p7-frGUws-uRMccB-qjEBuL-dCPETM-9ptjYt-p3pUnz-areuo-nNM5oU-48Fpob-pfLQnT-oCf17V-vJD8zc-5tbFaj-wh8z6V-u94wz4-nB2Ef3-nSSk5j-qBrvwJ-wDrR3s-orjyyi-s4NnPv-3Pvgj-mGXxKP-pmVnFg-6mETch-rAQ9vT-oCi7bf-7mNqqQ">Tom/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Taking <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Jorge-Luis-Borges">Jorge Louis Borges’</a> provocation in the essay “<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/jimeikner/home/borges/kafka-and-his-precursors">Kafka and His Precursors</a>” that works create both their antecedents and descendants with some large grains of salt, Ishirô Honda’s film of 1954, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047034/?ref_=nv_sr_4">Godzilla </a>(originally Gojira), appears to be, perhaps, the most accurate commentary on the current situation in Syria. </p>
<p>There is no need to watch, therefore, the hawks - and hawks in doves’ clothing - of Fox News and CNN; we just need to re-watch Godzilla to understand what is actually a fairly simple series of geopolitical and geo-ethnic events despite their frequent mystification under Western allegations of complexity. </p>
<p>A power vacuum is created by what could at best be described as American-Western hubris. This is then filled by other fields of competitive force. The West responds with either a cynicism or (being generous) stupidity that will, undoubtedly, strengthen the body of resistance: engorging ISIS’ repressive stimuli and enhancing its appeal to the disenfranchised, who are produced through the inaccuracy of drone and manned air strikes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95444/original/image-20150920-31744-1iui577.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95444/original/image-20150920-31744-1iui577.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95444/original/image-20150920-31744-1iui577.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95444/original/image-20150920-31744-1iui577.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95444/original/image-20150920-31744-1iui577.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95444/original/image-20150920-31744-1iui577.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95444/original/image-20150920-31744-1iui577.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Godzilla leaves a trail of destruction across the Tokyo night.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Godzilla (1954)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>ISIS is, like Godzilla, then, a kind of “accident” of Western “humanitarianism” and interventionism. And the accident, as Aristotle argued, in fact <a href="http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2n.htm">reveals the substance</a>. </p>
<p>Of course, there are some fundamental differences between the romantically alienated beast Godzilla, and the politically savvy and imperialistic ISIS, and if, to draw on another fabled cinematic beast, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/?ref_=nv_sr_3">King Kong</a> (1933) embodies a kind of modern, pre-Holocaust US vitality and naivete, then Godzilla represents a post-Hiroshima Japanese humility. </p>
<p>In any case, there are, despite the protestations of nationalists and rulers to the contrary, no such things as monsters. Rulers effectively allege monsters to justify the nakedness of their own power, whereas nationalists generally don’t know any better. Such “holy wars” act, Sloterdjik argues in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46002.Critique_of_Cynical_Reason?from_search=true&search_version=service">Critique of Cynical Reason</a> (1987), as a kind of mass-psychological mechanism for resolving inherent ideological and affective tensions: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since 1096, the holy war functions in Western civilizations as a safety valve. Under the pressure of their own inner contradictions and madnesses, people have since then sought external, diabolical enemies and have waged the holiest of wars against them. […] Jews, heretics, witches, Antichrists, and Reds are all victims of a primarily inner formation of fronts that emerge during highly schizoid periods of pressure, when the irrationality of the whole society seeks an outlet for contradictory ethics. (237)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If, as Karl Marx <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm">famously suggested regarding Napoleon III</a>, history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce, then where does the current Western bomb-mania – pyrobophilia – sit in this series of killings, this “serial-killing”? After a century and a half of grim trench warfare and the grinding of bodies through industrial death-apparatuses – after the Franco-Prussian war, Verdun and Auschwitz, and also after Hiroshima, Vietnam and Iraq – this question seems particularly pertinent. What follows “farce” in the current historiographical series?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95445/original/image-20150920-31762-1uh5q1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95445/original/image-20150920-31762-1uh5q1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95445/original/image-20150920-31762-1uh5q1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95445/original/image-20150920-31762-1uh5q1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95445/original/image-20150920-31762-1uh5q1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95445/original/image-20150920-31762-1uh5q1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95445/original/image-20150920-31762-1uh5q1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Godzilla dies as the ocean is deoxygenated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Godzilla (1954)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We should remember that there are 30 Godzilla movies (including sequels and remakes), several video games and television series, with more slated. Perhaps, to draw on Sloterdijk’s Critique once again, </p>
<p><em>We must first flee into reality out of the systematised paranoia of our everyday world.</em> (228)</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The emptiness that is the product of American bombs rumbles, and from within the cracks of imperialisms, both Western and Eastern, emerges an uncontrollable monster.Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Media Studies, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.