May-06-2010, 10:36 AM (UTC)
(This post was last modified: May-06-2010, 10:37 AM (UTC) by Nuytsia.)
There's another book for my 'to-read' list!
In relation to the human invention of dragons, werewolves etc, it occurs to me that those mythical creatures also usually have some measure of intelligence not possessed by real world wild animals.
Maybe people were overwhelmed by the sheer randomness of the fact that they could be violently killed in an instant by a wild animal simply to become lunch?
Though I'm not entirely sure why it would be better to be killed by a creature that knew what it was doing!
Maybe another part of it was the need to make sense of why other humans sometimes commit violent acts. (intelligence of a human combined with instincts of a wild animal = werewolf?)
In relation to the human invention of dragons, werewolves etc, it occurs to me that those mythical creatures also usually have some measure of intelligence not possessed by real world wild animals.
Maybe people were overwhelmed by the sheer randomness of the fact that they could be violently killed in an instant by a wild animal simply to become lunch?
Though I'm not entirely sure why it would be better to be killed by a creature that knew what it was doing!
Maybe another part of it was the need to make sense of why other humans sometimes commit violent acts. (intelligence of a human combined with instincts of a wild animal = werewolf?)