A book I'm reading now is American Goliath, by Harvey Jacobs. It's inspired by the Cardiff giant, a hoax meant to prove that America was actually the Biblical birthplace of humanity. As supporting evidence, though the connection isn't obvious, a statue was produced which was meant to be a fossilized giant. Again, this is a true story. The book is fictionalized, though. Jacobs was a science fiction writer, and there's an undercurrent of fantasy throughout and many tall tale moments. Still, the whole thing was so over the top to begin with that it can be hard to tell where reality ends and embellishment begins. America had at least been metaphorically considered as a new Israel since before the War for Independence, which probably didn't hurt in finding some believers.
And that's Cardiff, New York. Cardiff, Wales has its own share of bizarre incidents, I'm sure, but this isn't among them.
And that's Cardiff, New York. Cardiff, Wales has its own share of bizarre incidents, I'm sure, but this isn't among them.
2 comments:
I happened across the story of the Cardiff giant myself just a few days ago but on a different website from this one. Although it certainly appears to be ludicrously faked I guess I really can't opine that people were more gullible then than now.
When you mentioned bizarre incidents in Cardiff, Wales I had to have a look to see what stories were told. I found some good ones here.
American Goliath sounds like a pretty cool story - rollicking?
I think boredom might have had a lot to do with the popularity of the fad. Most people worked on farms or in factories and didn't go more than a few miles from home. There was no mass media, so a weird exhibit like this coming to town was a pretty big deal. Now we're glutted with media stimulation. Gullibility, of course, is eternal.
Small world. The story about Cardiff, Wales also involves ancient giants. I'm skeptical about the actuality of such creatures, just because all we know of our ancestors is that most were a lot smaller than us on average, but it's neat that this kind of folklore crops up in Wales.
Kinda rollicking, yeah. It brings in quite a few perspectives.
Post a Comment