And the same is true for the idea of certain creatures changing "under the influence of the full moon." It represents something pretty specific. Daytime and the sun stand for good moral, socially acceptible behavior, while the moon, and especially the full moon, represent madness, occultism, dark immoral impulses etc. So it wasn't really intended to be taken literally, that they only change at the time of the full moon. It just means they're under the influence of these dark irrational forces that make people crazy. Of course people used these metaphors long before we consciously understood what they meant, or that it was conceptual in nature rather than literal. Even to this day some people have trouble understanding that. The unconscious, which thinks in metaphor and dreamlike imagery, is much older than the conscious part (which is an outgrowth from it) and holds a powerful subterranian sway over our rational daytime thinking. In fact it's probably true to say that nighttime and the moon represent the unconscious, while the sun and daytime stand in for conscious thought and behavior.
And while I'm on a roll—forests, deserts, swamps, the woods, mountain ranges, and simlar rough difficult country represent chaos, the hinterlands of the mind, meaning essentially the unconscious (home of irrational and scary things), while towns, villages, cities etc represent good socially acceptable rational conscious behavior or living. The wilderness is where you're often alone and vulnerable to the wild frightening creatures that dwell there (strange immoral impulses and urges, other people under the same kind of impulses). Oh, and water, especialy large bodies of it and especially the sea or the ocean, are the deep unconscious, where you move entirely to its rhythms (waves), and strange unguessable things lurk beneath the surface that can rise up and swallow you whole or sink your ship. This is just the way the unconscious mind percieves or understands things. And that's why our dreams are filled with symbols and metaphors. Symbols are metaphors really. This is what allows dreams to be analyzed and understood, but also why it's difficult, because we don't fully understand how the unconscious works or what all of its symbols mean. That has to be figured out little by little in each case.
Hmmm ... you'd think that instead nature is where peace and serenity can be found, and in the hustle and bustle of a city we are out of our natural element. It drives us mad. Ever drove in Toronto traffic? But, I get what you mean ... danger lurks in the woods.
I didn't say nature, I listed some of its more dangerous and wild areas. They lived much closer to nature than we do in our insulated and air-conditioned world today, where we're mostly protected from its danger. They couldn't indulge in fantasies of nature as some idyllic paradise, they knew it in its real form, which includes some beautiful areas, but also wild and treacherous ones. If a society wanted to settle down they'd find a pleasant area, not live in one of the dangerous ones, and then they'd do what they could to transform it into a safer and more pleasant place by making roads and trails and clearing out areas etc. The pleasant areas of nature are nice to visit, but they still require some engineering to become really nice places to live, except maybe tropical islands and the like. Plus remember our ancestors originally conceived of gods as protectors against the wild and violent forces of nature, which were among the first things they conceptualized in human-like form as great titanic beings to be feared (the Titans of ancient Greek mythology, or the Frost Giants of the Norse). These were godlike but wild and savage beings that had no regard for mankind and could easily stomp on a village in passing, and would sometimes get angry at us. So we concieved the gods, smaller and more humanized versions, imbued with the same forces of nature (what else could possibly stand against the giants?) and more like us, protectors and guardians against their terrible wrath.
Ever watched the Ghibli film Kamikakushi (aka Spirited Away)? Being "spirited away" is a Japanese myth for people being mysteriously taken away by the gods. Now, if you've ever seen the natural, wild, Japanese landscape, particularly in some of the more mountainous areas, you'd know it's not mysterious at all. Hiroshi wasn't taken by the gods, he fell off a mountainside into the fast-flowing river, or was eaten by a bear.
Plus of course, traffic wasn't so bad in ancient days. Think of a village as a way of people huddling together for protection against some of nature's more terrifying aspects, like wild animals, caves, snakes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, storms etc. You find one of the more pleasant and accessible areas and you build shelters to keep the bad weather and wild animals out, and you make roads and carts etc to facilitate easier travel. Both nature and civilization have their good and bad aspects. I'm not down with all this oversimplification people tend to do.
Forces of nature and wild animals. Those things were their gods and their demons. It isn't like "Our ancestors were such idiots, why didn't they crack open a science book every now and then?" Science and natural philosophy are modes of conscious thinking they hadn't developed yet, they still lived largely in the mode of mythologizing and metaphor that is the unconscious way of thinking. The unconscious is the dwelling place of ghosts, monsters, demons and gods.
It's an interesting discussion, how we personify Nature. It's also true that in a lot of the ancient cultures Nature was revered for its life-giving and nurturing aspects. Think of the "Mother Nature" myth that comes to us today. No doubt, our relationship with Nature is complex. "Man vs. Nature" is an age-old theme in literature.
The Bible is among the most shoplifted books in the US. https://www.donahuenjlaw.com/blog/2020/august/what-is-the-most-shoplifted-book-/
Yes, both the titans and the gods were forces of nature merged with particular human traits. The titans were the terrifying forces and the gods were the nurturing, protecting ones.
I'm enjoying a grapefruit Bubly. As you probably know, all packaging in Canada is in both English and French. Grapefruit in French is pamplemousse. I think pamplemousse is a really cool word.
Indeed, why would anyone refer to it as "grapefruit" pop when you can say, "pamplemousse!" I'm pretty sure the first time we all saw this as kids, we knew what we'd be calling it going forward.
Now imagine the Terminator was a werewolf. The company that makes them is called Wolf Kamuy - "Kamuy" is the Ainu word for "god".
That reminds me of my kids at that age. They each went through that phase of the answer to everything being NO. So I tried something to change that. "It's bed time" "No" "then clean your room" "No" Do you want a cookie?" "No" long pause as they realize what just happened.
ALA's most challenged books of 2022 (as published in the May issue of Publishers Weekly): Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson The Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison Flamer by Mike Curato Looking For Alaska by John Green The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez (four way tie for number 10) A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas Crank by Ellen Hopkins Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson
