h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Fairies- a More "Scientifical" Point of View - A807581
Author: Fire Bat - U198318

Hope you'll find it interesting.

This entry is a fascinating insight into one possible cause of the various fairy myths in our culture today. The initial introduction is slightly off-putting in its strongly scientific approach, but the central idea is certainly worth considering.

I'm not convinced that this is ready for the Edited Guide - but it's certainly a good read...

-Lucinda (who believes in fairies... sometimes)

By "off-putting", do you mean "making people not want to read the article"? Because if I remmember correctly some of the introduction was originaly an ending comment. I can change it if you think it will help.

By "off-putting", do you mean "making people not want to read the article"? Because if I remmember correctly some of the introduction was originaly an ending comment. I can change it if you think it will help.
Thanks by the way.
Ur.

An interesting article. Prehaps not for the edited guide, but i'm not sure. One point though: is "Scientifical" a word, or should it be "Scientific"?

Its scientific. I forgot to change the title. I'll change it when I'll make some other changes.

Yes, interesting indeed.

I agree that the 'method' section is an obstacle to getting to the meat of the entry.

In fact, it is weighing down the whole piece, leaving the actual main point weaker for the strong emphasis on method.

I think.

Equally, the title is (apparently deliberately) vague, not touching on the real subject matter.

I would recommend a radical title change and reduction of the sprawling 'method' section.

All the best with this and future writing,
spifff

Ok, i have squized the tree subheaded paragraphs of the introduction into one non-suheaded paragraph. I also changed the title, what do you think about it?

And another thing I was pondering whether to change or not- throughout the article i used terms like "the human race", "humanity" and such. I wanted to know if you think i can change all this to a collective noun- "Man" or "the Man"? Because that was the original form but it was torpedoed in the translation.

Hi Fire Bat,

Didn't Tinkerbell appear in the story of Peter Pan? I don't recall any fairies in the traditional sense appearing in Cinderella except the Fairy Godmother and she is usually depicted in a more human form.

Regards

Stuart

Believer in fairies. After all, everyone has to believe in something and Faires are as good a thing as any!

If you use terms like 'Man' to be collective (referring to both men and women), you'll be misinterpreted by a large proportion of readers, according to the latest research. 'human race' is less ambiguous, and probably better, unless it feels very clumsy.

I think that it does feel clumsy. As you can see I used the term Man in the new title and in the corrected second paragraph. Do you think that the title should be "Why did the Human Race invent Fairies (if it did?" or "Why did Humans invent fairies (if they did)?

ack!

The current title uses 'man', which is icky, but I think it's dodgy for other reasons anyway. I'd prefer to see simply "The Invention of Fairies", to be honest.

Other possible changes would be "Why did we invent fairies?" or "Why we invented fairies" or "Why were fairies invented?". Up to you.

For "The basic assumption of this research is that this reason is based on Man's curiousity, the need to explain things he sees and fears."

I'd have "The basic assumption of this research is that this reason is based on human curiousity - our need to explain things we see and fear".

Help any?
-Martin

I've read this entry a few times (usually when I'm in a hurry - I really need to spend longer) and I have a few problems with some of the things.

Tinkerbell, I have no problem with - she's a fairy.

However, the godmother in Cinderella isn't the 'Tinkerbell' type. In the older versions, she's actually the spirit of the heroine's dead mother. She also has the capability of shape-changing as she's also the wizened old woman, gathering sticks in the wood who Cinderella helps. She's also an aspect of the Triple Goddess - Maiden, Mother, Crone.

I need another read of this entry when I've more time.

OK, the use of the term "Man" was discualified and corrected due to the peer disapproval with it. The title was changed too.
About Cinderella's godmother, I didn't know all these things. I also couldn't think of another popular fairie to include with Tinkerbell- any ideas?
Thanks, Ur.

So, what's happening with this?

Caper Plip

Uh, it's sitting in PR waiting for more feedback or a Scout pick. Caper - if you think this entry should be removed from Peer Review, perhaps you should say why?

Well, personally, I think it's a good Entry, but I wasn't too sure on some parts... perhaps I was a tad too hasty... which is why I asked a question rather than asked for all out removal, because I wasn't sure!

Caper Plip

Right, so since this is *peer review*, perhaps you could give the author a little feedback on what parts of the entry you "weren't to sure on", hmm? In that way, the author can improve those parts, and the entry will be better for it.

It's not rocket science.
-Xanthia

Hi Firebat

I found this interesting but I think it has some big logic jumps in it and a few sweeping statements. I think it covers too large a subject matter too thinly. You could perhaps cut down the scope of the piece and flesh it out with a few more examples.

For example:

I'm not an expert, but I would suspect that animism is more complex than the way you treat it here.

Also you talk about mankind creating fairies as basically human like as fulfilling a basic need - but humans have believed in a whole range of mythical creatures, more or less humanoid in shape and behaviour - fairies are just one part of this.

You need to explain why fairies are special or why you have concentrated on fairies.

You could make it more concrete by going into a bit more detail about common fairy stories/beliefs.

For example, howabout covering some of the attempts to prove or disprove the existence of fairies - the one that comes to mind is the business with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was a fervent believer in fairies and was involved in the controversy over the Cottingley fairies in 1917. Put his name and fairies into Google if you're interested - there's loads available.

Sprout