Arachnaphobia

Thanks, Tramp …

The Monster Manual was the first hardcover Advanced Dungeons & Dragons book I ever owned. I bought with money I'd received as a Christmas gift from my grandmother and ordered it through the Sears catalog – talk about a different world! I spent untold hours staring at the artwork of that fabled tome (and, no, not just this one), which is why, to this day, certain illustrations are seared in my memory. Among them is the full-page piece above, depicting what I always took to be a giant (as opposed to a huge or merely large) spider, as it prepares to leap upon a collection of largely unsuspecting adventurers – though the pointing finger at the far right suggests at least one of their number is paying attention to his surroundings.

I wish I could say precisely why, but I've always had a fear and loathing of spiders. Over the years, I've attempted to explain it, even justify it, but to little avail. I suppose it's possible that I watched something involving spiders as a young child that traumatized me. I know the scene toward the end of the 1958 movie, The Fly, where a human-headed fly is menaced by a spider – and cries out, in a squeaky voice, "Help me!" – did a number on me as a kid. I also know that the spiders in the 1977 animated version of The Hobbit creeped me out too, not least because they'd cocooned the hapless dwarves and would have eaten them if not for the intervention of Bilbo.

Whatever the reason, I don't like spiders and took some pleasure in the fact that Gary Gygax deemed the giant variety Chaotic Evil (perhaps a nod, in spite of himself, to Tolkien?). In similar fashion, spiders and spider-like creatures appear frequently in my games as antagonists, such as the demon lord Bael who played a role in my Dwimmermount campaign of old and the sinister Weavers of the Gaps, a race of demonic arachnids that appeared recently in my House of Worms Empire of the Petal Throne campaign. Much as I dislike them, spiders make terrific enemies, which is no doubt why Gygax established a connection between them and the drow, for example. 

I think the key to any effective monster is that it's something you simultaneously fear, hate, and yet are weirdly fascinated by. Spiders are indeed fascinating and, even as I feel my skin crawling just thinking about them, there's no denying what remarkable animals spiders are. Their webs can be works of great complexity, even beauty in the right context, such as when covered with dew after a rainfall, but they're also snares for unwary insects and serve to remind us that spiders are predators of a very effective sort. Contemplating this brings to mind that scene from The Fly again and it still makes me uncomfortable. I know that many people admire spiders and that, in some cultures, they're considered wise and clever rather than frightening, but that's not me. They'll always be monsters in my book.