Cryptids: Friend, Foe, or… Lover?

BY AMY BENNET.

We grew up telling stories of things that go bump in the night. We regaled tales around campfires, or whispered them in the dark silence of sleepovers, or pointed out at a funny BuzzFeed Unsolved meme we stumbled across on the internet. Folklore is ingrained all our societies, both past and present; those threads of the supernatural have been woven into the tapestry of mankind. So, what’s the obsession with these mysterious, and debatably hot, cryptids?

Mothman is the first example that springs to mind. There’s been images stirring online of a double cheeked up statue of him that in his hometown of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. He’s the perfect package: quiet, enigmatic, and handsome. But I digress. Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster are so firmly rooted in our knowledge of these pop culture icons, too, that it’s hard to not believe they can be anything except real. The list of other cryptids from around the world, and so many more, goes on: Mokele Mbembe, the Congo dinosaur; the Yeti, from the Himalayas; or the goat-sucking chupacabra, first sighted in Puerto Rico. None are quite as lustful as Mothman, but my point still stands.

Yet, why do we seek them out, you still ask?

Well, old faithful Wikipedia has a whole webpage on cryptozoology, describing it as a subculture and “pseudoscience by mainstream science: it is neither a branch of zoology nor folklore studies”[1] that focuses on proving the existence of cryptids. Zoologists Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson are the founding figures of cryptozoology as it was first created in the 1950s, only to grow and change into what we know today. It’s cemented itself into our everyday lives. I think it’s that mash-up of legitimate research and mythos combined that makes the whole thing so damn entertaining. The evidence of cryptids—the blurry photographs and video, the footprints, the freak eyewitness accounts—always sparks as much scepticism as it does further belief in these alluring mysteries. However, there will always be people who want to know about cryptids, or if they exist. They start to look into it, they trace the history, they piece together information, and we get a story about it. We can play a part in creating lore. Not just so we can joke about Mothman’s delicious ass, but so we can create something larger than ourselves.

In a recent article I read, ‘The Mothman: Harbinger Of Death, Beloved Pop-Culture Icon, And Maybe Your New Boyfriend’ by Kristina Manete on SFYY WIRE, she cites cryptid enthusiast and creator of The Cryptid Databse, Alyssa Maynard, saying, “More than ever people are gathering to tell and craft stories that make you feel that spark of nerve that says not all the mysteries of the earth have been solved or discovered.”[2]. This resurgence of retelling folklore has become a source of intrigue, as well as inspiration. There are countless films, books, podcasts, and a thriving internet culture that are tasked with exploring who, or what, these creatures are. Or, maybe, what they represent.

At the core of this millennial-age fascination with monsters—hunky or not—is quite simply an urge to make new discoveries. They cryptids linger at the edges of existence, like Schrodinger’s Boyfriend, both real and not. These mythical beings fuel our imagination in things beyond our mundane mortal realm, which aren’t ruled by the corporations or capitalism. It reaffirms our belief that there are still wonders of the world that delight and horrify in the same breath. It’s a pursuit not just for the truth, but for the sake of looking. I do believe in the grand scheme of the world that it’s not much, but it’s honest work. And, admittedly, it has bought us all together, becoming a part of this whole hilarious, niche subculture of sexy pop icons. Cryptids are here to stay, and if they really do exist (they do, I’m sure), I call dibs on Mothman.

[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/130907-cryptid-crytozoology-bigfoot-loch-yeti-monster-abominable-science.

[2] https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/mothman-museum-real-fake-cryptid-west-virginia-point-pleasant.

EDITORIAL NOTE: This article has been reuploaded and was originally published in 2021.