I read the short story, the Drowned Giant. This story talked about a massive corpse of a Giant being washed up on the shore near a city and the local population’s reactions to it. Although the main character was a scientific researcher, he didn’t make too many notes of where the Giant may have come from. Instead, it was more of a study of humans. Sci-Fi is a great format to study humans, because like how the author mentions in the end, who’s to say we are the normal ones. Maybe there is a giant looking down at us tiny people. So the genre allows us to step outside of our world and view it more objectively.
At first people's reactions are full of awe, they don’t dare approach the washed-up mass. Then they become curious and start to explore. When they get really comfortable they start to be rough with it. Then the people who want to make money come and cart it away piece by piece. Something that once was beautiful became reprehensible and eventually forgotten. Connections can be drawn to many natural wonders that when left to people, were destroyed. What’s interesting about this “natural wonder”, is that it would have eventually decomposed and faced a similar fate even without the humans. We consider ourselves protectors of beauty and science, so it’s surprising that no one in the story tried to preserve the giant. Ultimately, this story shows that we need to work hard and organize if we want to save natural wonders or the planet even. Otherwise, as individuals, we will eventually abuse it.
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