Post by Radrook Admin on Nov 11, 2022 9:42:47 GMT -5
Stranger in a Strange Land?
By Radrook
Can you imagine how it would feel visiting Earth after being raised on Mars or some other planet and never having seen any of the animals here? Actually, there is a novel written about that situation. It’s called Stranger In a Strange Land. It’s about this kid who is raised on Mars and who perceives all the sights and sounds on Earth as unique during his first visit to Earth. The author, Robert A. Heinlein describes his reactions to animals that we take for granted here on Earth and the author allows us to see them through his eyes.
Well, as strange as it might seem, I can personally identify with that protagonist. No, I am not an alien from Mars or some other planet. But my situation was very similar but a bit worse. You see, that kid in the novel would have had easy access to videos of the Earth’s wildlife and would at least know what to expect from them eac. True, they would have seemed much different in person, since he could reach out and touch the texture of their fur, or slide his hand along the scales of a fish. But visually, there was nothing unfamiliar about these beasts.
Unfortunately, I was not that lucky. I was living at the time when having a TV was a rare commodity for people of low income and we were low income. I also lived in the city of New York and rarely went out. So my images of the world and its varied wildlife were very limited. Sure, I might have seen a dog or maybe a cat or canary in a cage now and then, but that was as far as it went. So I really felt like an alien among many things that were new to me but very familiar to other kids back then.
Which brings me to the incident that has been indelibly etched in my mind ever since. You see, as my parents and I were strolling along down this street in the Bronx New York, we encountered this man who was taking pictures of people for a fee. Now, photography for us, was itself a sort of a novelty, but to add even more specialness to the occasion, the man had, what I considered to be, this huge, strange beast tethered to a pole and was charging for the privilege of people having their photos taken seated on it.
Now, the reason that I perceived it as huge was because I was only three years old. The reason why I considered it a strange beast, was because I had never seen it before. So to me, it was a huge four- legged animal whose habits and temperamental disposition, I knew absolutely nothing about. It stood on four legs, was covered in short brown fur, had this head with hair draping to one side of its unusually thick neck. Its face had this long snout, that I didn’t know what it used it for nor what it ate. Then it had these huge round, dark eyes and a long hairy tail which it kept swishing ominously back and forth. To me everything about it triggered fear and an almost irresistible instinct to run. So as soon as I saw it, I froze and started backing away.
But what really horrified me the most, was my parents’ reaction. To my horror and utter dismay, suddenly, despite my fear, they decided that they wanted me to get on its back so a photo could be taken. Naturally, the man taking the photos noticed my fearful reaction and needed to calm me down so that he could make money. So he tried to reassure me by repeatedly saying:
”He isn’t going to hurt you!”
My father, who had grown up on a farm in Las Flores, Puerto Rico, of course, considered it silly.
“Es solo un caballo! Muchacho! Un caballo!" he kept telling me. Which to me was meaningless since I had never seen what he was calling a caballo before. To me, he might have just as well been saying “It’s only a dragon!” since the term was meaningless to me.
As I started to struggle against their determined attempt to get me closer to it, the beast, which was really nothing more than a horse, a pony, as my father had been telling me, gazed at me calmly, and that set me off in dread even more because I thought it was sizing me up to determine where he was going to sink its teeth which I imagined were big, serrated and sharp. So I kept backing away as my parents tried to get me nearer to it to show me that it really meant me no harm.
To be honest, the animal itself was less worrisome than my parents’ behavior. You see, to me their behavior, seemed suddenly hostile. After all, why were they disregarding my fear as meaningless? It only served to add to the terror of what seemed to me as a surreal situation. My entire, once-secure universe built on trust, had been suddenly turned upside down. Why, when I felt that I was facing mortal danger, were my parents, whom I had considered my protectors and best friends, suddenly trying to force me to go near to a beast that I told them I was afraid of? It just didn’t make any sense. In short, at that moment I felt totally alone in the universe and at the mercy of unpredictable forces.
No, I was not able to either understand it or to express it in that way at that time, but now that I look back at my emotion, that is exactly the way that I was feeling. It was similar to one of those horror movies where a person believes himself among friends and suddenly they all turn out to have been deceitful vampires who had cunningly feigned friendship in order to set him up as a meal, and the person suddenly realizes, that he or she a has absolutely no way of escaping.
Well, the struggle went on for what for me seemed an eternity. Then, this Anglo American family approached and I saw the kids calmly petting the beast and having their pictures taken while mounting it.
“You see! He is not going to attack you! If he didn’t attack them, why should it attack you?” my father said.
So after having calmed down, I had my picture taken on that pony as well. I still have the photo of myself at approx age three with my round, sad face and watery eyes and semi-pouting lips while sitting astride that pony’s back, a pony who seemed totally oblivious to my existence. In fact, it looked bored.
Strange how such a thing is very unlikely to happen today with all the TV images that kids see. But back then, I felt like an alien who had just arrived on a strange planet. So to me they had forced me to sit on top of what I had just recently considered a monster. Stranger in a Strange land indeed.
Well, as strange as it might seem, I can personally identify with that protagonist. No, I am not an alien from Mars or some other planet. But my situation was very similar but a bit worse. You see, that kid in the novel would have had easy access to videos of the Earth’s wildlife and would at least know what to expect from them eac. True, they would have seemed much different in person, since he could reach out and touch the texture of their fur, or slide his hand along the scales of a fish. But visually, there was nothing unfamiliar about these beasts.
Unfortunately, I was not that lucky. I was living at the time when having a TV was a rare commodity for people of low income and we were low income. I also lived in the city of New York and rarely went out. So my images of the world and its varied wildlife were very limited. Sure, I might have seen a dog or maybe a cat or canary in a cage now and then, but that was as far as it went. So I really felt like an alien among many things that were new to me but very familiar to other kids back then.
Which brings me to the incident that has been indelibly etched in my mind ever since. You see, as my parents and I were strolling along down this street in the Bronx New York, we encountered this man who was taking pictures of people for a fee. Now, photography for us, was itself a sort of a novelty, but to add even more specialness to the occasion, the man had, what I considered to be, this huge, strange beast tethered to a pole and was charging for the privilege of people having their photos taken seated on it.
Now, the reason that I perceived it as huge was because I was only three years old. The reason why I considered it a strange beast, was because I had never seen it before. So to me, it was a huge four- legged animal whose habits and temperamental disposition, I knew absolutely nothing about. It stood on four legs, was covered in short brown fur, had this head with hair draping to one side of its unusually thick neck. Its face had this long snout, that I didn’t know what it used it for nor what it ate. Then it had these huge round, dark eyes and a long hairy tail which it kept swishing ominously back and forth. To me everything about it triggered fear and an almost irresistible instinct to run. So as soon as I saw it, I froze and started backing away.
But what really horrified me the most, was my parents’ reaction. To my horror and utter dismay, suddenly, despite my fear, they decided that they wanted me to get on its back so a photo could be taken. Naturally, the man taking the photos noticed my fearful reaction and needed to calm me down so that he could make money. So he tried to reassure me by repeatedly saying:
”He isn’t going to hurt you!”
My father, who had grown up on a farm in Las Flores, Puerto Rico, of course, considered it silly.
“Es solo un caballo! Muchacho! Un caballo!" he kept telling me. Which to me was meaningless since I had never seen what he was calling a caballo before. To me, he might have just as well been saying “It’s only a dragon!” since the term was meaningless to me.
As I started to struggle against their determined attempt to get me closer to it, the beast, which was really nothing more than a horse, a pony, as my father had been telling me, gazed at me calmly, and that set me off in dread even more because I thought it was sizing me up to determine where he was going to sink its teeth which I imagined were big, serrated and sharp. So I kept backing away as my parents tried to get me nearer to it to show me that it really meant me no harm.
To be honest, the animal itself was less worrisome than my parents’ behavior. You see, to me their behavior, seemed suddenly hostile. After all, why were they disregarding my fear as meaningless? It only served to add to the terror of what seemed to me as a surreal situation. My entire, once-secure universe built on trust, had been suddenly turned upside down. Why, when I felt that I was facing mortal danger, were my parents, whom I had considered my protectors and best friends, suddenly trying to force me to go near to a beast that I told them I was afraid of? It just didn’t make any sense. In short, at that moment I felt totally alone in the universe and at the mercy of unpredictable forces.
No, I was not able to either understand it or to express it in that way at that time, but now that I look back at my emotion, that is exactly the way that I was feeling. It was similar to one of those horror movies where a person believes himself among friends and suddenly they all turn out to have been deceitful vampires who had cunningly feigned friendship in order to set him up as a meal, and the person suddenly realizes, that he or she a has absolutely no way of escaping.
Well, the struggle went on for what for me seemed an eternity. Then, this Anglo American family approached and I saw the kids calmly petting the beast and having their pictures taken while mounting it.
“You see! He is not going to attack you! If he didn’t attack them, why should it attack you?” my father said.
So after having calmed down, I had my picture taken on that pony as well. I still have the photo of myself at approx age three with my round, sad face and watery eyes and semi-pouting lips while sitting astride that pony’s back, a pony who seemed totally oblivious to my existence. In fact, it looked bored.
Strange how such a thing is very unlikely to happen today with all the TV images that kids see. But back then, I felt like an alien who had just arrived on a strange planet. So to me they had forced me to sit on top of what I had just recently considered a monster. Stranger in a Strange land indeed.