The bestiary genre has existed for centuries, introducing and entertaining its readers with compilations of both stories and facts about creatures who are familiar, unfamiliar, real, and imaginary. In some aspects, Henderson’s The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, a 21st century bestiary, is no different, since it still incorporates beasts ranging from the fire-defying salamander to the intelligent macaque. However, in other ways, this bestiary diverges from previous ones. Henderson’s bestiary reintroduces the medieval unicorn as the goblin shark, urging his readers to closely attend to relatively unknown yet striking creatures rather than to imaginary beings. Maintaining the mystical elements of human imagination, which was prevalent in the
…show more content…
The question, “Why should people invest so much energy in a mythical animal?” even emphasizes this amazement that medieval humans felt towards the unicorn, stressing the time and energy that they willingly gave up for their fascination with the beast (307). However, by writing that the goblin shark is “a primeval-looking beast which lives where the sun doesn’t shine, hundreds of meters down in the cold black ocean,” Henderson highlights the uniqueness of the goblin shark, which is comparable to the unicorn (308). Just as only humans can observe a unicorn by the presence of a virgin, the goblin shark also is not easily able to be observed, as it lives not in the ocean blue, which is already outside the realm of human habitation, but “in the cold black ocean,” a new level of unfamiliarity for humans. The shark also has elements of the strange features that once captivated humans’ attention to the unicorn, including the piercing horn. For instance, the text describes that the goblin shark’s “horn is a blade-like snout jutting over extendable jaws lined with thin fang-like teeth” and that “the unicorn is a fierce enemy of the elephant, which it attacks and pierces in the belly with its horn” (308, 306). By characterizing the goblin shark’s horn as powerful through “blade-like shark” and by using aggressive verbs such as “attacks” and “pierce” to depict the unicorn’s, the author encourages the reader to make a comparison between the goblin shark and unicorn’s strength, further augmenting the argument that barely imagined creatures are just as interesting as fictitious
The question, “Why should people invest so much energy in a mythical animal?” even emphasizes this amazement that medieval humans felt towards the unicorn, stressing the time and energy that they willingly gave up for their fascination with the beast (307). However, by writing that the goblin shark is “a primeval-looking beast which lives where the sun doesn’t shine, hundreds of meters down in the cold black ocean,” Henderson highlights the uniqueness of the goblin shark, which is comparable to the unicorn (308). Just as only humans can observe a unicorn by the presence of a virgin, the goblin shark also is not easily able to be observed, as it lives not in the ocean blue, which is already outside the realm of human habitation, but “in the cold black ocean,” a new level of unfamiliarity for humans. The shark also has elements of the strange features that once captivated humans’ attention to the unicorn, including the piercing horn. For instance, the text describes that the goblin shark’s “horn is a blade-like snout jutting over extendable jaws lined with thin fang-like teeth” and that “the unicorn is a fierce enemy of the elephant, which it attacks and pierces in the belly with its horn” (308, 306). By characterizing the goblin shark’s horn as powerful through “blade-like shark” and by using aggressive verbs such as “attacks” and “pierce” to depict the unicorn’s, the author encourages the reader to make a comparison between the goblin shark and unicorn’s strength, further augmenting the argument that barely imagined creatures are just as interesting as fictitious