"Why is it that the most direct indicator of self-conciousness combined with rational, abstract cognition, seems to be the capacity for horror, and how is it the case that this condition can only be signified aesthetically through its embodiment in a victim? Most perplexingly - the 'monsters', exert such an attraction upon self-concious beings that they violate not only their victims but also the boundaries of their own genre, ultimately to become not only figures of fun and fantasy, and occasionally figures of awe and wonder in the frequent cases of religions of the monstrous or terrible, but even the role-models which provide for some not only scapist pleasure, but a guide for life?"

Sieg

Infinite Regress