Giant squids are GNARLY. I watched a couple shows on the science channel
about those last week. They've not only had pieces of them hauled onto
boats and washed onshore, but someone caught an infant one that was 6 feet
long. They also had a whale carcass on the beach that had sucker wounds
that were 6" diameter.
The only other "giant" beast found in about every single culture (save
islands without forests or large mountains) is the "wild man" beast,
sasquatch, yeti, etc. It is theorized that either they exist and are as
solitary a beast as gigantipithicus and just as secretive, or that it is a
racial memory of the megafauna we breifly shared the earth with thousands
of years ago. In australia there was an enormous landbound reptile
(imagine a smaller version of the mutated beast from that terrible movie
"alligator") that would easily inspire hundreds of years of tale-telling of
"dragons". As the landmasses were once joined, it's possible that this
creature existed breifly in Asia and Europe before the ice age took over,
and while humans were around, and spawned enough stories of this massive
fearful beast to last to today's time in the form of a fearsome "dragon".
____________________ Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.
Bettie: no we don't go again... it's a waste of hard drive space... and we
dimply hard delete that shit
____________________ The earth turns on a tilted axis - just doing the best it can.
Hohenheim of Light~Full Metal Alchemist
Moinlen_Drigenu
Member
Posts: 71 Registered: 18/6/2004 Status: Offline
posted on 27/8/2004 at 04:20 AM
quote:hence the reason I
clarified my post... though I must admit... it reinforces my point about a
certain level of intelligence being required here... I have checked with
seceral other members... the progression was logical, and obvious...
[Edited on 8/26/2004 by feralucce]
That brings us back to
the point that nobody thinks the same way, so how can you presume that we
knew what you were talkin about.
Yah gnarly is a good word for those giant squids. They are cool, sooo
mysterious, yet there is proof that they exist, unlike a lot of other beast
out there.
[Edited on 27/8/2004 by Moinlen_Drigenu]
____________________ "It is said that we loose ourselves in rage, I think I find what is
missing, when it happens."
"These scars are just for show, it's the ones inside that you have to worry
about."
"When I get into a fight, all I think is..."KILL HIM"..."
I wanna see a full grown one. I don't care to see a sasquatch, but it
would be cool. My sister in law's husband is TERRIFIED of sasquatch. He
refuses to go camping ANYWHERE in washington.
____________________ Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.
W0rmW00d
Fanatic
Posts: 355 Registered: 5/8/2004 Status: Offline
posted on 27/8/2004 at 06:16 PM
i think i might have been unlcear.
the dudes mentioned by feral are indeed crazy amalgamations and gigantic
non-reptile creatures from all around the worlds cultures, but they are all
very different. there isnt a consistency which was what i was pointing out
about the dragon myth.
kali is a humanoid deity, although i can see where all the others come in
she seems a little out of place, apart from the six arms of course. just a
side note there, am i missing something?
sasquatch i dont think of as a gigantiform (isnt that a great word)
creature. at under ten feet there have been humans that big. also a big
hairy man in the woods is an easy myth to place. it could be as simple as
sometimes people go to live in the woods. occasionally hey are big,
sometimes they are hairy too.
on another note, what do people think of the racial memory thing? it is a
neat explanation but i have always been slightly skeptical about the idea
of a memory 'hardwired' into a species' brain.
____________________ Eritis sicut Deus scientes bonum et malum.
And the third angel sounded, and a troll army did descend upon the world.
I think racial memory does exist, not totally hardwired into our genes, but
does come into play as prevalent "theories/myths" in every culture.
Perhaps racial memory isn't exactly what I mean, but it is close enough. I
DO believe in "collective unconscious" and sort of "shared" consciousness
between people or creatures not within communications reach of each other.
Perhaps this is more to play that racial memory. I remember reading a
study how scientists had three islands, two with identical primate
populations. The islands were good distances apart, and non human primates
well, can't communicate and can't really swim. The main food source were
sweet potatoes, and one day one primate watched the scientist washing a
sweet potato in the ocean to salt it and clean it, and within a week that
one monkey had the whole island doing the same. Prior to the one "monkey
see monkey do", NONE of the primates on either island were washing the
potatoes first, and within 3 months of each other with NO contact between
them, BOTH primate populations were washing potatoes instead of eating them
dirty.
As for "wild men" and gigantipithicus, GP wasn't that TALL, but they were
LARGE, much larger than the tallest human. The "wild man" myth isn't just
wild hairy Mowglies at peace with everything in the jungle but Khan, but
"missing links" or "subhuman" intelligent wildlife. This too could be just
another "racial memory" or "collective unconsciousness" or stories of where
we came from brought to life through tale telling that evolved into a man
beast, not quite human but smarter than the average super intelligent
chimpanzee. If I ever run into one, I'll let you know. If it doesn't run
off with me to mate, that is
____________________ Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas.
W0rmW00d
Fanatic
Posts: 355 Registered: 5/8/2004 Status: Offline
posted on 30/8/2004 at 11:33 PM
or, of course, wash you in sea water and eat you, precipitating copycat
behaviour by the yeti, abominable snowmen worldwide, and Mr. Sasquatch.
i personally do not beleive in the shared consciousness as such and think
there must be an explanation out there as yet unknown (obviously), but that
is an interesting story. i shall think on this and get back with a possible
alternate explanation if i can think of one better than my usual 'possible
electromagnetic interference' idea which i think ive expounded elsewhere on
this site. dont hold your breath though, im sure that the other people who
have studied it were cleverer than me. or at least had better resources to
study.
____________________ Eritis sicut Deus scientes bonum et malum.
And the third angel sounded, and a troll army did descend upon the world.
BlueLinn
Fanatic
Posts: 246 Registered: 31/12/1969 Status: Offline
posted on 10/11/2004 at 02:32 PM
... I thought the discussion was about dragons? well, moving from mythology
to reality one can assume that the komodo dragon plays an intricate part in
this progression. or even the crocodile and aligator, or celocanth
(spelling?) prehistoric creatures still alive today may proove that
mythology has some standing in reality.
the krakken or the giant squid, more mythology to reality.
.... and feral, when you mentioned kitsune that just threw me for a loop,
mostly because a kitsune from japanese mythology was a fox demon who would
take over the body of a young maiden in order to cause havoc upon the human
race... it was more of a shape shifter than anything else.
____________________ When the world is over, will we wonder how it began?
Linn: *what? I was referring to fantastic creatures... I know what kitsune
are... but I was just pointing out that there are fantastic creatures in
all the culture's involved..
____________________ The earth turns on a tilted axis - just doing the best it can.
Hohenheim of Light~Full Metal Alchemist
SindelChaos
Occasional Poster
Posts: 46 Registered: 31/12/1969 Status: Offline
posted on 10/11/2004 at 07:25 PM
Hahahahaaa, It's funny that I found this. I had been burdened since the
beginning of September until two days ago, by this guy that was staying
here who believed he was a dragon. His feet smelled like a dragon's ass.
I don't know
why or if he even realizes it, but after he left it took two cans of
airfreshner/deoderizer, half a container of tropical breeze carpet
cleaner/deoderizer, some incense and some candles to get that room smelling
decent again. It's like the stench stained everything in the room he
stayed in and everywhere he walked he left a trail of this stench. It was
soooo nasty.
So, to answer your question. A real dragon, physically, is a symbol of
power and enchanted beauty. Mentally, it's
that creeps smelly feet.
brissteni
Coward
Posts: 5 Registered: 17/12/2004 Status: Offline
posted on 21/12/2004 at 10:22 AM
quote:What does a dragon
symbolise for different people?
my first assosiation is fourteen year olds newly goths who like dragons and
chocolate and the moon and bad poetry.
:)
Starlight
Extreme Fanatic
Posts: 618 Registered: 27/9/2002 Status: Offline
posted on 23/12/2004 at 03:42 AM
quote: What does a dragon
symbolise for different people?
Whether it be nothing, something of a myth, or something else.
When I was a child, one of our family friends brought some books and his
beliefs about dragons with him for a visit. He believed that dragons were
able to shift into the background of forested areas and mountains, and that
they are all around us if we know how to look for them. I don't remember if
he meant they were chameleon-like, or if they were able to morph into the
landscape somehow, but I loved dragons from as far back as I can remember.
His talks about them only fed my interest in them.
I think of dragons as perhaps interdimensional creatures of some sort.
Mythical, legendary, and real all at the same time. I think they symbolize
freedom and strength. I think they are very protective by nature. Fierce
against their foes, and protective of their friends. I don't they are
essentially good or bad, as there are both good and bad ones in different
myths and legends. So I think since they are generally perceived as either
very large creatures or creatures that can grow to a large size, they
symbolize a fierce strength and command respect.
____________________ "When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never
tried before." ~Mae West
Cobweb
Coward
Posts: 6 Registered: 24/12/2004 Status: Offline
posted on 24/12/2004 at 10:34 PM
I have mixed feelings. I see the Chinese style of dragon as being bad luck,
mostly because my Chinese sign is the Dog, and the Dragon is supposed to be
a bad mix for me.
I see the European version to be misunderstood. To me, it's the gentle
beast. The one with the ability to cause great destruction, but is really
quite peaceful.
I actually have a necklace, which I used to wear all of the time, which was
given to me by my uncle. He gave me a dragon wrapped around a lapis
pendulum. His nickname was "Dragon" in Korean.
____________________ "Mommy says scabs are nature's Band-Aid."