Quote:
Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man
Am I the only person here not surprised by this development? Given the diversity of life on our planet, it is hardly surprising that a miniature form of primitive human would evolve given the right environmental conditions.
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SpM -
What surprises me the most is not that three-foot humanoids existed on this planet but that we've actually managed to come up with some concrete evidence regarding their existence in the 21st century, and that I have instantaneous access to all the details on the internet so quickly.
As a child, I devoured every account of an archaeological or paleontological expedition that I could find. I was quite convinced that I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Carter and Schliemann or perhaps of Mary Leakey. Way before the internet, such accounts just weren't instantaneously available to members of the general public who did not have general access to research libraries. Gosh, I even remember when you couldn't get a subscription to National Geographic unless you had been "invited" to join.
I remember pouring through back issues in the library since such things were a luxury in a working class home.
Plus, at that time, scientists had such a more limited view of the past and had less technology available to them. Carbon-14 dating for example, only came about in the late 1940s, and it took a while to perfect. If I had suggested that dinosaurs were warm blooded or that birds and dinosaurs were closely related on the evolutionary tree, most 'experts' would have keeled over laughing. And if I had argued the existence of a three-foot humanoid, I hate to think where I would have been dragged off to!
So I guess I do find such discoveries amazing in the context of how I've seen such things change in my own lifetime.
If Tolkien was alive today, I think he'd agree that we've both gained and lost something in our modern world. We've certainly gained improved techniques for doing such scientific research and the abilty to transmit new ideas very quickly over the face of the earth, hopefully acquiring a more accurate and rich perspective on where we come from. It's quite amazing.
Yet we've lost or are losing touch with other aspects of our past, aspects of who we actually are: the wise grandmother Lalwende describes who could see and accept the boggart at her front door. In one sense, she had closer links to that folk consciousness or mythology that people used to understand their world than we have with all our book learning.
In other threads, people have raised the question of why we can't produce fantasy that rivals that of Tolkien (or T.H. White). Shippey has made an interesting argument that we will not see the likes of such authors again because they were a product of a unique system of education and a world that could still glimpse a boggart at its front door. That world has passed on, and even the formal education that produced a philologist like Tolkien. Shippey may be right or wrong but it is an interesting idea.
Both sides --scientific knowledge and myth--have something to say to us. I only hope we can keep some sense of wonder alive at the same time as we continue to unearth "hobbit" bones and who knows what else in the future!