Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy,
Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence by
Gerard Jones is an engrossing reflection on the importance of
superheroes and fantasy violence in the lives of children and youth. Jones
argues for the necessity of fantasized violence for the development of a sense
of personal power and for the working through of stress, anger, fear and
frustration.

Killing Monsters is the outcome of
the author experience with children and youth in his career as a comic book
designer and workshop leader. Jones theorizes that children and youth need
fantasize violence and that it is a natural occurrence. The fantasies allow the
young person to cope with anger, fear, frustration, pressure and stress that
the child senses is inappropriate to express. Fantasy violence in the guise of
storytelling, art, play, music, and video games allows the young person to experience
their emotions in a safe and cathartic manner. In today’s post-Columbine world,
however, parents and teachers are fearful about the impact of media violence on
young people. He theorizes that in an attempt to eliminate the potential threat
of violent acts by children and teens, adult who restrict young people’s need
to express their very real feelings of frustration, fear, and anger inadvertently
place road blocks in the path of the young people from find socially accepted
ways to channel their feelings. The temporarily repression of these “negative
feelings” only forces them to burst forth later inappropriately in uncontrolled
rage. The use of fantasy to express and feel these emotions allows the child to
channel the feelings into less destructive means. Destroying a monster that is
an imaginary surrogate for a real person, allows a child to express their
feelings, gain a sense of personal power, and find release in a socially
acceptable manner. Jones does, however, point out that for some children and teens
the line between fantasy and reality remains in an infantile blurred state. It
is for these young people that imagined violence may become a rehearsal for
real violence.

Killing Monsters at times reads
like a “one-note (or chapter) Charlie” book. The author takes his basic theory
– imagined violence is natural and healthy – rehashes it by type of media or
type of person (child, female, abused, etc.). One chapter focuses on video
games while another focuses on movies. One chapter looks exclusively at
imagined violence from the female perspective. There are times that this reviewer
felt as if I had just read this in the previous chapter. I asked myself why say
it again, you just said this, but each chapter is unique and addresses the
issue from a slightly different perspective. The book also gives good advice to
parents and teachers dealing with young people. It discusses the powerful
influence of parents in modeling, mirroring, and mentoring their children.
Throughout it points out the red flags to note in children that might indicate
the presence of a harmful relationship to violence. The author advises that
adults should not confuse or try to impress their attitude about real violence
upon children’s views about imaginary violence. He can not shout loud enough
that real is real and fantasy is not. By enlarge, children know the difference,
but it is adult that confuse the issue and thus send confusing messages to
children.

The works focuses primarily on today’s children and youth. While there is
some historic perspective, I would have liked to read more about earlier
generations. It would have been interesting to compare the stories of today’s
youth with those of the WWII generation or the Vietnam/Sixties generation. It
would have been interesting to care the study further to reflect upon the
impact of childhood fantasy violence or lack there of on grownups. For example,
did imagined violence assist soldiers to cope during war? Did girls raise in
earlier traditional society express more or less violent imaginings? What type
of violent imagines produced soldiers, police, or criminals? These are a few of
“my” questions for the author, however, he was happy addressing children and
youth born post -1980, that of course is his option as an author. Perhaps, he
will choose to explore these issues as his own son, the laboratory for much of
his research, grows into adulthood. Time will tell.  If not, I wish another author would pick up
this theme and carry it further. The fact that I am so interested is a good indicator
how well the author writes and how well he invites thought and encourages
investigation.

Gerard Jones is an author and former comic book writer. He is the founder
of Media Power for Children and the Art & Story Workshops. He is the author
of The Beaver Papers: The Story of the Lost Season (1984), The Comic Book Heroes: From the
Silver Age to the Present (1986),
Honey,
I’m home!: sitcoms, selling the American dream  (1992) He
lives with his wife and son in San Francisco.
http://www.gerardjones.com/

Killing Monsters is VERY thought provoking book. Written for
the layperson it is definitely appropriate for academic use. (It would,
however, be improved by a bibliography.) It should definitely have people
talking. Read it and you can talk about it too! I recommend this book.

© 2003 Su Terry

Su
Terry: Education: B.A. in History from Sacred Heart University, M.L.S. in
Library Science from Southern Connecticut State College, M.R.S. in Religious
Studies/Pastoral Counseling from Fairfield University, a M.Div. in Professional Ministry from New Brunswick
Theological Seminary, a Certificate in Spirituality/Spiritual Direction from
Sacred Heart University. She is a Licensed Minister of the United Church of
Christ and an Assistant Professor in Library Science at Dowling
College,
Long Island, NY.
Interests in Mental Health: She is interested in the interplay between
psychology, biology, and mysticism. Her current area of research is in the
impact of hormonal fluctuation in female Christian mystics.

Categories: Psychology, General