CIVILIZATION AND MONSTERS: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan, by Gerald Figal. Duke University Press, 1999, 290 pp., $49.95 (hardback); $17.95 (paperback). In his prologue to "Civilization and Monsters," Gerald Figal defines Meiji modernization within the context of the fantastic and supernatural elements found in folk beliefs and practices. As he sees it, these "objects of fantasy and folk belief -- ghosts, goblins, monsters, and mysteries of every sort -- played fundamental roles in the constitution of modernity in Meiji Japan."