More Dragons
Passing through Barnes and Noble to peruse some web design books I spied out of the corner of my eye the employee recommendations. Assuming that these were the hardcore readers of the world and well-informed I stopped to see what they thought worth reading.
One prominently displayed book was something about the discovery of the New World by the Old World Europeans revealing the existance of dragons in the Americas. A fabulous source of fiction no doubt.
This prompted the thought that humans really enjoy clinging to familiar ideas and concepts. Sure, dragons, check. Surefire seller I bet. Beyond that I thought about undead monsters needing body parts of the living in order to remain alive. Everything about science screams against mongrel men fashioning parts to replace the old ones, but the fear is evident and seeded deep from an unconscious fear. Reason tells us the dark is merely the absence of light, and temporal at that. Yet it is easy to inspire fears and conjure up demons of the mind. The unknown. It is actual known and retold by legends handed down from our collective ancestors.
The same visit I passed a science magazine depicting the largest known carnivorous, monstrous birds in North America, with a wingspan approaching that of a commercial jet. I envisioned flying whales for some reason. Anyhow, the kernel was there, the notion of a flying beast with feathers and a veracious appetite. If only any humans were alive to witness them, but could the fear be so instinctive as to remain within the subconscious fabric of our collective intelligence as a species? Ironicly the best evidence for transferring thoughts with genes comes from birds building nests. Hardly food for thought, more like a bunch of Rambling Words. Welcome to my blog...
One prominently displayed book was something about the discovery of the New World by the Old World Europeans revealing the existance of dragons in the Americas. A fabulous source of fiction no doubt.
This prompted the thought that humans really enjoy clinging to familiar ideas and concepts. Sure, dragons, check. Surefire seller I bet. Beyond that I thought about undead monsters needing body parts of the living in order to remain alive. Everything about science screams against mongrel men fashioning parts to replace the old ones, but the fear is evident and seeded deep from an unconscious fear. Reason tells us the dark is merely the absence of light, and temporal at that. Yet it is easy to inspire fears and conjure up demons of the mind. The unknown. It is actual known and retold by legends handed down from our collective ancestors.
The same visit I passed a science magazine depicting the largest known carnivorous, monstrous birds in North America, with a wingspan approaching that of a commercial jet. I envisioned flying whales for some reason. Anyhow, the kernel was there, the notion of a flying beast with feathers and a veracious appetite. If only any humans were alive to witness them, but could the fear be so instinctive as to remain within the subconscious fabric of our collective intelligence as a species? Ironicly the best evidence for transferring thoughts with genes comes from birds building nests. Hardly food for thought, more like a bunch of Rambling Words. Welcome to my blog...
respond or e-mail this post:
2 Comments:
so i get done reading this entry the other night, then i crack open my lovecraft short story book i have from the library. i'm starting a story called 'the dunwich horror,' and it has an intro excerpted from 'witches and other night fears' by charles lamb:
"Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimaeras--dire stories of Celaeno and the Harpies--may reproduce themselves in the brain of superstition--but they were there before. They are transcripts, types--the archetypes are in us, and eternal. ... They date beyond body--or without the body, they would have been the same. ... That the kind of fear here treated is purely spiritual--that it is strong in proportion as it is objectless on earth, that it predominates in the period of our sinless infancy--are difficulties the solution of which might afford some probable insight into our ante-mundane condition, and a peep at least into the shadowland of pre-existence."
ha! i don't think chilon would like this kind of talk at all!
Ha, freaking awesome!
I remember the Dunwhich Horror. ooooh, Lovecraft untapped a wellspring of deep-seeded fear when he wrote. I think that is why so much of his subliminally minded stuff roots itself in such similarity and continuity.
Post a Comment
<< Home