Basic Cryptozoology - Wednesday - First Period - 7/30

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

Lucky for her class, Abigail Irene Garrett was in fact in a lovely mood for the day. She had a date set for Friday, there was a play on the island which sounded very interesting, and her patchwork terrier Mike was up on her desk, insisting on getting a scritch from under her hand.

"Today, as I told you last week, I'll be asking each of you to present a few minutes on the subject of a creature, perhaps a cryptid, from your own world. I'll start things off for all of us...

[ocd up!]

Comments

Re: A Creature From Your World

[likethegun]

Sam had looked over the syllabus, and had called Bobby to try to find something he could talk about.

"We have Rakshasa in my world. They're a kind of demon that feeds off of humans, but the catch is that they can't enter a home without being invited. So, they're shapeshifters who make themselves appear in whatever sort of innocent form they need to get close to their potential victims."

Re: A Creature From Your World

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

She put a finger to her lips.

"Another interesting twist. I'm familiar with the Hindi spirits of the same name, and those are shapeshifters, but they are a warrior class and don't so much feed off of humans as eat them.

"Have you encountered them personally?"

Re: A Creature From Your World

[likethegun]

"No, which I have to admit, I'm kind of happy about since they sound hard to kill," Sam said. "But I know someone who has. He's the one who told me about them."

Re: A Creature From Your World

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

"Generally, the best information comes from personal or first hand experience. The older a text, the less contextual information you have to understand what's written. And of course, depending on your source, the information might have been twisted, ciphered, encrypted, or otherwise changed."

"If you'd ever like to discuss some of the beasts I've dealt with, you know my office hours. Any of my students are welcome to access the small library I've brought with me, if you are interested in such things."

Re: A Creature From Your World

[likethegun]

Sam looked a little guilty as he nodded. "Thanks. I think I might just have to do that."

Re: A Creature From Your World

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

She noticed the guilty.

She was an investigator. It's what they do.

"Certainly. Though is something the matter?"

Re: A Creature From Your World

[likethegun]

"No," Sam said quickly. "I just should have picked something I had firsthand experience with. I apologize."

Re: A Creature From Your World

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

She chuckled faintly.

"It's not a problem, Sam. I don't expect everyone to have dealt with the creatures they mentioned today. I only mentioned it as a point to keep in mind.

"And a source with first hand experience is still an excellent resource, especially as you'd know the context of the person giving you the information. No one person is going to experience everything and it's important to learn from others and their mistakes. It's when you get into pure scholarly work where second hand and third hand sources are working off one another or the level of a source is unknown to you personally that things get a bit murky."

She scritched her dog.

"I'm sorry if how I put things made you think differently."