These alien things that appear from behind hills, breaching the skyline, sometimes attacking towns or cars, are manifestations of our collective actions. These monsters are metaphors for the climate we’ve been persistently changing, as predicted by scientists for such a long time. ‘The weather’ used to be ‘just the weather’. It was just nature doing its thing, in the background or over there, like a machine outside of the body, seperate and impersonal, not really alive.

Now the everyday evidence is before us. The weather is no longer the weather. It has become personal. And it’s dangerous and its demanding attention and it is imbued with character and being-ness just like a living thing!

I think we can all agree that when monsters show up, things are clearly out of balance

This is such a big change in human perception but it is actually going to be good for us, at least in the long run. It insists Western thinking give Nature a ‘sentient upgrade’. It’s where our thinking used to be, rooted in the animism of our ancestors. Nature is no longer below us, no longer a ‘thing’.Indeed it could be a someone:

I can no longer see the weather, indeed the world, as ‘outside’ of me. That means my actions must affect things, that I have a hand in it. Indeed we are all collectively the creators here, with our hands in it, stirring things up, making the conditions just right for monsters. 

The meaning of monster most likely comes from the latin word monstrare, ‘ to demonstrate’ and monere, ‘to warn’. I think we can all agree that when monsters show up, its a warning, that things are clearly out of balance. 

Devastating an Australian town near you…

Stephen Fearnley

Cloud Farm Studios, 2022