Comments on Biodiverse Resistance: Changelings

I get what you mean now, like the way Scandanavian...

2008-03-10T20:28:00.000Z

I get what you mean now, like the way Scandanavian 'trolls' look suspiciously like caricatures of Finnish people.

Very interesting: I agree that many of the changli...

2008-02-28T22:40:00.000Z

Very interesting: I agree that many of the changling or even "wildling" or feral children stories are really creating and "other" to seperate those with disabilities from the general population. I am sort of slap-up-side the head I had not made the connection before. There is another catagory, which are the feral or "viscious" chidren which were probably ASD with extreme sensitivity (babies who would strike or bite at 1 or two when picked up - hence, demon or switched children) - also SMA, the second most common hereditary birth defect (1 in 10,000-25,000), is X carried.

I do believe that women were labeled but usually more regarding the mind, and usually later - there are accounts of females who were "addled" or "Simple" but were often described as angels or heaven sent as they spend the day picking flowers - (VOMIT!). However, once you hit puberty, then there is a whole host of ailments special to women usually to do with the imbalance of the mind (like the imbalance of hormones which makes them hysterical, or go MAD!) - but that is another subject for another day.

The British fiction of the pulp period has a LOT of that kind of "Evil Other" - look at the Black Gang title where our villian is a "hunchback Jew communist albino" - now that is a combo - I did enjoy this peice a lot, especially the connnect the dots aspect.

I do feel the need to point out that Action T4 was inspired by American and Canadian programs though taken a step further - one of the more successful and well known (At the time) was the Alberta Eugenics Board, which was created by feminists including my relation (by marriage) the sufferagette, Nellie McClung. Also, because the staff would get depressed after killing children they changed the T4 program so there was a party after each 50th child killed. More of a staff incentive then. Ironically, the T4 program created much of the motivation models that are used in many home care and caregiving organizations today. Just thought it a nice tie in.

most excellent post, lots of intriguing ideas. Tha...

2008-02-27T06:55:00.000Z

most excellent post, lots of intriguing ideas. Thanks for sticking through all 2000+ words, each one was worth it!
I strongly identify with the Neanderthal hypothesis. it gives me a chill of recognition. more research needed, and old "folktales" are a great place to look!

It's known that modern humans coexisted with Homo ...

2008-02-26T22:19:00.000Z

It's known that modern humans coexisted with Homo neanderthalensis in Europe and with Homo floresiensis in Indonesia. The former was (IIRC) about 50,000 to 30,000 years ago and the latter as recently as 12,000 years ago.

Also, it doesn't necessarily have to be different species - present day European, African and East Asian people all look different enough from each other that if someone had grown up not knowing anyone outside their own ethnic group even existed (as presumably was the case in many periods of (pre)history), then one day met someone from a different ethnic group who was significantly shorter or taller, had totally different hair type, skin colour and facial features from anyone they had ever seen, they could quite possibly see them as either another species or a supernatural being...

Not sure about the wolves bit, as dire wolves (Canis dirus) only lived in North America, and most of those folk tales about wolves originated from Europe. Could well have influenced Native American legends (of which i'm fairly ignorant), i guess...

Oh yeah, after writing that part of the post i read some more stories hosted at strangeark.com with the same theme - the 3 by Arthur Machen, of which "The Novel of the Black Seal" (actually a longish short story, not a novel) actually mentions the changeling legend, and features a hybrid human/"fairy" boy with epilepsy and a mental impairment...

Excellent post. I'm not so sure about the 'other h...

2008-02-26T19:23:00.000Z

Excellent post. I'm not so sure about the 'other hominids' theory though. Seems kind of far-fetched. On a tangent, there's a theory that many of the tales of wolves eating people came from experiences with the now-long-extinct 'dire wolves', who were big enough that it's quite likely they did eat people.

Try M.L. von Franz. She's a Jungian who was into ...

2008-02-22T04:34:00.000Z

Try M.L. von Franz. She's a Jungian who was into folk tales and legends, and what they have to impart about the "other." We project onto such things the characteristics that we suppress or reject in ourselves - the shadow of our own personality.

It's an interesting (and chilling) addition to your interesting analysis. Basically, normals are horrified by the "changeling" because he/she represents things that are the rejected part of themselves. A living, breathing representation of what we are ashamed to be.

Nice post!

Yay! Not only that, but I told everyone to go visi...

2008-02-21T19:42:00.000Z

Yay! Not only that, but I told everyone to go visit you in my post today. :)

Hey, thanks :)I was feeling a bit despondent actua...

2008-02-21T17:40:00.000Z

Hey, thanks :)

I was feeling a bit despondent actually after writing a 2000 word post and getting no replies, especially as there were at least 3 people who i thought would be almost certain to reply to it... so you made me feel quite a bit happier this morning :)

Methinks that your post is going into my file of b...

2008-02-21T05:09:00.000Z

Methinks that your post is going into my file of best posts I've ever read . . .