Books like On monsters by Stephen T. Asma

From the back cover: "Bringing together the highlights from a decade of independent reseaarch into ancient monuments, prehistoric rock art, mythology, and altered states of consciousness, this collection is an idiosyncratic trip into the archaic imagination. Grappling with personal gnosis, dense complexes of religious symbolism, and recent academic research into the significance of trance states in the very earliest human creations, the author constructs a labyrinth of lucid reflections that provoke, bewitch, and illuminate."

An anthology of essays exploring how monsters reveal the cultural values, history, and morality of the societies that create them.

"The human mind needs monsters. In every culture and in every epoch of human history, from ancient Egypt to modern Hollywood, imaginary beings have haunted dreams and fantasies, provoking in young and old shivers of delight, thrills of terror, and endless fascination. All known folklores brim with visions of looming and ferocious monsters, often in the role as adversaries to great heroes. But while heroes have been closely studied by mythologists, monsters have been neglected, even though they are equally important as pan-human symbols and reveal similar insights into ways the mind works. In Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors, anthropologist David D. Gilmore explores what human traits monsters represent and why they are so ubiquitous in people's imaginations and share so many features across different cultures."--BOOK JACKET.

Monsters is an anthology of science‑fiction tales and an essay, featuring stories from Robert Silverberg, Lloyd Biggle Jr., J. H. Rosny aîné, Theodore L. Thomas, William Tenn, Roger Zelazny, Floyd L. Wallace, A. E. van Vogt, Philip José Farmer, Murray Leinster, and Michael Shaara.