Witchy words by horror writer Robert R. McCammon
Having seen pictures of feral children, those hidden from society and not given the chance of socialization, education, or even humanization, I think it’s okay if we work out a little bit of the wildness. And lest they yearn for the mines maybe we can educate them just a bit?
But I appreciate the sentiment.
I think there’s a valley between uncomprehending magic and comprehending magic. Its actually a central theme in one of my favorite novels.
I think more (but less shitty) education is the solution here. Or de-extincting early hominid super predators so they can manage the stock market and have seizures. Whichever.
Edit: the novel is ‘echopraxia’, sequel to the academic-citations-in-the-back-of-the-book-hard-sci-fi ‘blindsight’. Do not read them out of order. ‘Blindsight’ is better composed, and much better as cosmic horror. ‘Echopraxia’ leans self consciously into the romantic origin and impulse of good cyberpunk-major characters include: self aware dr. Frankenstein, a hive-mind of posthuman monks who think they’ve found god, a post-government spook who literally snorts love, and an absurdly witchy vampire with a zombie army. It remains far enough up the scale of scifi hardness to cite sources you’ll have to go through scihub to check. Central themes include the limits of different ways of knowing, and the blurring of love/horror.
Agreed. One of the coolest things that animals do, including humans, is educate their young. From birds to baboons, offspring watch and learn from adults to become better versions of themselves.
I read McCammon’s Swan Song in 6th grade, terrific post apocalypse novel. Guess I should check out his other stuff.
