First, he lives alone with his mum in a dismal marsh.
Second, he has a very strange attitude to parties. That is, he is always drawn to the sound of feasting but, because he is a monster, the only way he can participate is by trashing the house and eating people.
This is not just hunger. If he were just hungry, he could eat cattle and lonely travellers like a normal, healthy troll or dragon. No, it has to be people socialising.
If you think that doesn't count because it was a thousand years ago, then I would like you to consider the two monsters which dominate the contemporary imagination, namely, the fundamentalist terrorist and the paedophile.
It is disputable to what extent either of these conforms to a particular profile, but, to the extent that either does, those profiles overlap significantly with the nerd profile, as summarised in the symptom list for Asperger's Syndrome. Blowing up the night club, or snatching the child from the funfair, they follow in the same large, damp footsteps.
Geekdom is in-born, but monstrous choices are not. How many of us emerge as monsters depends partly on how successful we are at engaging constructively with the rest of you out there.
- Jane Darwin 2008-02-15 13:56:25