The night was cool and still. I had the pleasure of interviewing Lexi Quint ’13, a second year urban planning student, to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding Mothra, the controversial new mascot of the urban planners. I’m sure most people have seen these haughty black shirts with glowing spray paint stencils that read “Mothra Attacks!” I became interested in the project after Googling Mothra on the Internet. How did this ancient symbol, associated with some of history’s most tragic events, end up on t-shirts representing City and Regional Planning? I tracked down Lexi and we spoke one evening on the roof of Olin. He sat, surrounded by darkness, with an unlit cigar in the corner of his mouth and a glass of orange juice in his hand.

Tniuq Ixel: So Lexi, tell me, what exactly is Mothra?

Lexi Quint: Mothra entered popular culture through the Japanese Godzilla films. Mothra appeared a number of times to fight against Godzilla, and she was able to stand on equal footing with him. In the film, Mothra is portrayed as a god-like figure of an island off the coast of Japan. She protects these people from Godzilla’s attacks and is also often portrayed as a protector of the environment. There is much debate about whether Mothra truly originated in Japan, but there is no doubt that the image of Mothra has been around for at least four thousand years before the film came out. 

T.I.: Why Mothra, why urban planning? 

L.Q.: Well, the original idea was to create a symbol with which to create greater camaraderie among the planning students. Dragon day creates a strong bond amongst Architecture students, which has further implications for their collaborative design work in class. There is a strong movement within the Planning department to move away from the idea of the planner as a technocrat, and instead view planners as community organizers and facilitators for public participation. At the same time though, there is not a strong tradition for community among the students themselves. Mothra, a powerful, flying monster able to battle Godzilla, fights for the people and for the environment. It’s a good image for CRP.

T.I.: So you then decided to make T-shirts? 

L.Q.: When I think Dragon Day, T-shirts are right up there. So we thought our Mothra T-shirts would both raise awareness for us and give Dragon T-shirts a run for their money. Once that was decided, we had to come up with a design and a method. We did it the old-fashioned way, and decided to spray a Mothra stencil onto a t-shirt. I came up with the stencil with a lot of help from an architecture friend (unnamed for safety reasons) and began spr­aying.  

T.I.: Onto a more controversial issue. What are your thoughts on the dark and ancient history of Mothra? Images of Mothra have been found in the Chauvet Caves, and John Wilkes Booth is said to have mentioned Mothra during his interrogation after assassinating Abe Lincoln. 

L.Q.: Honestly, I only learned about this other history of Mothra after I began making the T-shirts. You’re right; references to Mothra have turned up in all different time periods. If I remember correctly, in the original Arabian Nights Stories, King Shahryar has a tattoo of Mothra on his arm. Mothra was also found on Cao Cao’s coat of arms during the warring states period in China. There has also been some scholarly speculation that the Aztec eagle is really a depiction of Mothra. It has also sprung up in contemporary America. The famous Batmit (a variation of baseball) team from North Jersey and the SUNY Waverly Kung Fu team both have Mothra as their Mascots. Of course, these are just some of the more famous examples. 

T.I.: Still, do you see any merit in these, for lack of a better word, conspiracy theories?

L.Q.: Let me clarify: the Mothra associations throughout history are very real. The debate hinges more on why we see images of Mothra across both space and time. It could just be a coincidence, but the sum of coincidences is too great for me to casually throw-out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. For example, Mothra’s connection with Chaos Theory is quite strong. 

T.I.: What is Mothra’s connection with Chaos Theory? 

L.Q.: Well the idea is that, if Mothra flaps his wings on one side of the world, this small disturbance will cause other small occurrences elsewhere. These changes to the airflow will continue to build up until a hurricane forms off the coast of the U.S. 

T.I.: Are you saying that Mothra is responsible for Hurricane Katrina? And another thing, what can you tell me about the FreeMothrans? 

L.Q.: No comment. 

T.I.: Well this conversation has turned pretty strange. Can we expect anything  from the Planners tomorrow? 

L.Q.: As Bob Dylan once said: you’ll have to wait and see. 

T.I.: [Laughs] Thanks Lexi, I guess I’ll head over to the Green Dragon now and buy a T-Shirt. Six bucks? A real recession special, not to mention the fact that they blow the architects’ shirts away.

L.Q.: I’ll see you there.