Author: Gregory Marc

1.    In “Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and other famous cryptids,” two extremely dedicated investigators by the name of Daniel Roxton and Donald R. Prothero decided to find information on these “seemingly” mythological creatures rumored to have been discovered throughout the world. The purpose of their information was to provide and or grant some sort of closure or update on their status of existence. For the purpose of challenging the pseudoscience that perpetuates their myths, Daniel and Donald would present both sides of the spectrum when it came to a creature’s believability. This pattern continues throughout the entire book, creating a definitive, educational, and entertaining experience for the reader. Toward the end of the article, Roxton and Prothero conclude the article by making some final analyses of the psychology behind the persistent belief in paranormal phenomena, identifying well-known people in the cryptozoology field, conversating about the character of its sub-culture, and reflecting on the difficulty of being able to think clearly and critically on these matters in a world that’s getting increasingly more complex to live in by the day.

2. “The Baylor Religion Survey found in 2005 that one in five Americans have read a book, consulted a Web site, or otherwise researched “mysterious animals, such as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. 2 Many of those people are interested because they are persuaded that cryptids exist, but around 13 percent of those who do not believe in cryptids have made the effort to seek out information about these hypothetical creatures.”

“Across human societies, variations on mythical creature stories like that of Bigfoot have persisted for thousands of years, and accounts of seeing or hearing them still abound. There may be some basic culture-based need for these fantastical tales, said Todd Disotell, professor of anthropology at New York University. Monsters represent dark aspects of our subconscious worlds and can be metaphors for the challenges of life, said Karen Sharf, a psychotherapist in New York. “Some monsters are scary. Some monsters are friendly. Sometimes in movies or myths, we befriend the monster, and it’s just like in our inner world: There are monsters; there are dark aspects that we have to face,” she said. Humans also have a fascination with the divide between their species and animals, and Bigfoot bridges that gap, said John Hawks, anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Believing in these creatures and following their trails in the forest is somewhat akin to an amusement park ride: They are safe ways of experiencing fear, said Jacqueline Woolley, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.”

3. Completed (and printed)

4. In “Abdominal Science” by Daniel Loxton, he addresses the most popular rumors on mythological creatures spread throughout the globe. The cause of the creation of this article was this author’s frustration with the fact that researchers and scientists that have the opportunity to dig deeper into this matter have decided to discontinue their pursuit of creatures such as the “Locc Ness” monster because of the lack of evidence surrounding all of those creatures. Feeling frustrated knowing there’s a multitude of research out there to prove their existence, Daniel decided to create a book laying out every perspective on it, all the evidence to prove their potential existence, and a potential reason as to why humans are so interested in researching these type of things in the first place. Due to the seriousness of this nonfiction genre, this book wasn’t created to reach out to the demographic of kids. This article was mainly created to reach out to the many adults and scientists around the world in the field of cryptozoology basically ignoring their importance.

This book was made in 2013 at Columbia University of New York. The main appeals that he uses to persuade and convey the opinions of other readers are logos and ethos, mainly due to the fact that very few readers can argue an appeal such as pathos (emotion) towards empirical evidence. The evidence he uses throughout his novel is extremely credible and the type of research he uses, such as quotations from extremely credible sources in the cryptozoology genre plus more empirical evidence to support his positions on the believability of these monsters. Furthermore, the author uses an agitated tone throughout the text because, similar to other people like him, they’re all tired of being deemed crazy for expressing their beliefs in these myths and legends. Which is the sole purpose of him creating this novel, to be a voice for the people saying these type of creatures are real.

   The birth of my curiosity for the Locc Ness monster began once I read a book about it when I was in elementary school. I don’t remember the title of this book, all I remember is that the central idea of it was to address and potentially give updates on mysterious events that have occurred throughout the history of Earth. There were plenty of other mysteries that initially caught my attention as well, such as “Bigfoot” and “The Bermuda Triangle.” But they didn’t catch my attention as much because those stories have answers and closure to them. With Bigfoot, people assume he’s real and hiding because there are multiple “credible” pictures of him around the Internet and Amelia Earhart’s dead and missing body was reportedly found in 2018 by scientists. There isn’t much mystery to those stories anymore, however, the Locc Ness monster case has never been solved, for all we know, it can be lurking out in the ocean right now, finding it’s next victim. It seems like scientists and the rest of the population have given up on discovering the thing they were once so eager to find. With that being said, I wanna understand what made these people so eager to discover the Locc Ness monster in the first place. What made him threatening to mankind to the extent where we wanted to find it? While researching into this curiosity, I’d like to find out how threatening this creature truly is to our existence on Earth, so in order to do that, I’d have to find out it’s living habits. I wanna know how it’s eats, sleeps, and most importantly, where does it live? Although this type of research would be hard to do, because its never been thoroughly researched, due to the fact that it’s a “mythological creature” I think enough research will give me a clear gauge on its threat level to society, and that’s one of my ultimate goals with my research. Because that would make it easier to understand why scientists and researchers were interested in discovering the Locc Ness monster in the first place. On the contrary, I’m aware that my research can end up leading me down a path of deceit. Meaning that I could run into definitive evidence that the Locc Ness monster is nothing more than a myth “crazy people” have convinced the world of being real, however, I welcome that type of conclusion, because it’ll still give me closure on a situation I’ve been tryna understand since I was a child. I feel like it wouldn’t satisfy me leaving this situation to shy away like everyone else has. That reason alone is more than enough of a reason to go into thorough research on this monster and find out what it’s all about for all.

   When James Baldwin says “the world is larger,” he attempts to emphasize that there’s a lot more to discover in this world than what the government has presented to us. In fact, the overall message that James was trying to convey is that nobody should feel detained by the mental chains of the government, despite the economic or political strength of an administration or authority. He says “I would teach him [the student] that he doesn’t have to be bound by the expediencies of any given administration, any given policy, any given morality; that he has the right and the necessity to examine everything,” because he wants people to understand people they have more power in their life than what the government tells them. He emphasizes this message especially for African Americans, a group of people that have been getting oppressed nearly since the beginning of time.

   I agree with James’ point mentioned in the article because I too believe that I have the obligation to uncover the “not-so-hidden” truths that society decides to keep away from us. I would also be fascinated to know more about the history related to the people that overthrew our country (aka white people). Before reading this article, I was never aware that white people had segments of their history they were hiding from the public as well. I thought all of their history (somewhat similar to black people) was fully uncovered. However, I was mistaken, with this new information discovered in my mind, I would hope schools across the globe shed more light on this topic, so there aren’t any more children oblivious to certain segments of history, like myself.