This will go back to way before Rabelais but we have this innate fear of GIANTS.
Which has, in recent times, turned into a whole slew of youtube “truthers” positing the “FACT” that, once upon a time, this world was inhabited by giants. Who did Giant things. Like building Giant buildings. Or eating teeny tiny babies as an hors d’oeuvres. Or drinking the blood of Englishmen as an aperitif.
And various other stuff.
Let’s go back to the 15th/16th century.
I have a book of Rabelais’ poetry and also Gargantua & Pantagruel.
This man was a one-off weirdo with a brilliant mind and an enormous wit. He may also have been a spiritual adept.
At first glance, this very long book is all about pleasures and riches and fame and all these other 3D things we crave…even today.
It’s all about doing as you want, living to the fullest, grasping at all and everything in your reach.
Gargantua has entered the collective unconscious. Giants of industry. Giants of finance. Giants of cinema. Giants of the stage. Everything is now GIANT. A conglomeration of the small, the individual, the unique and the peerless. All mushed together and served to us as, well, as unique and peerless. The best of the best.
My arse.
Over 600 years have passed since Rabelais and nothing has changed. Stand out from the crowd and you will be smothered BY THE CROWD.
“There are more of them than us.”
P.S. No. I’ve never Read To The End.