Furry Mouse People -> Squishers
People, by and large, love endowing things and creatures around us with human qualities. We do it so often that we have a word for it: Personification. Which from it's Latin roots means "To make like people" conveniently enough. I couldn't think of the number of books I have read where mice, rats, birds and bats are given human qualities and interact out a microcosm of the human condition. Often times where the micro part comes from in fact, a physical scaling down. Mouses in tiny houses and so on.
In fact, we've done this on a non-literary scale in the real world. Dogs. And many other domesticated animals. They're definitely not people, and yet, we've given them something. We've given wolves, dangerous creatures in their own right, and given them that little extra something... That extra capacity for horrific violence, that is so very human. There has not been a single claim of unprovoked wolf violence on a adult human ever, or so I've read. I'll try and find a source. Admittedly I don't believe it, because wolf-eating-people-in-woods don't leave that much evidence behind.
Modern society kills hundreds of dogs every year because that extra level of violence we've given them rages within unchecked and uncontrollable.
Then you have aliens. We're back in the literary world now and probably more comfortable territory for regular TCSM-blog readers. How often do you see movies or read books about aliens who come to us in a position of an insurmountable technological advantage and are peaceful, serene creatures with no ulterior motives. I can think of very few. This is because we find it hard to empathize with such creatures. Humans aren't built to play that way with others. We turn everything into dumbed down copies of ourselves, or failing that, destroy it.
Thus you have stories of conquering aliens. Aliens who see us as nothing but bugs to be squashed. Because that is what we shall be when we leave this rock. Squishers bringing squishiness to all those we find until someone squishes us first.
Wikipedia does really have all the answers I want.
posted by McAnerbot @ 6:14 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
On the topic of personification: Babe ftw!
And on the topic of there not being a single claim of unprovoked wolf violence: Doesn't that Wikipedia link state otherwise? Although it does say wolf attacks are rare, there's an entire page dedicated to all the fatal ones (here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_wolf_attacks).
I believe the capacity for violence has largely been bred out of most dogs. Of course, an animal is an animal, and there will be exceptions. But the large majority of dogs are peaceful creatures. You just only ever hear about the bad ones.
Besides, human contact with wolves is so minuscule compared to the domesticated dog that you can't really say dogs are "horrifically violent" in comparison.
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