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Natural History: Difference between revisions

Natural History (view source)

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(Created page with "Natural History is an encyclopedia of sorts written by Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer and naval commander who was born in 23 A.D., and died in 79 A.D. of a heart attack while...")
 
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==Natural History contains examples of the following tropes:==
* [[Arbitrary Skepticism]]: While Pliny freely accepts the idea of Sciapods (see below), even he acknowledges that the "phoenix" sent to Emperor Claudius was probably a fake.
* [[Big Book of Everything | Big Omnibus of Everything]]: A collection of 37 Books, covering zoology, medicine, geography, astronomy, anthropology, botany, agriculture, metallurgy, mineralogy, art history, pharmacology, meteorology, ethnography, and human physiology.
* [[Epistolary Novel]]: The book's preface takes the form a long letter written by Pliny to his friend, Emperor Vespasian. (pages 13-25)
* [[Flat World]]:Subverted, Pliny states that the earth is not a sphere, but that the world's shape is fluid. (page 31)
* [[Floating Continent]]: He dedicates the entirety of chapter XCV (page 130) to the subject of portions of land which float from place to place aimlessly.
* [[Human Subspecies]]: At one point, he describes the Sciapods, a race of one-legged men found in Africa, with feet so large that they can use them as parasols when lying down. He also talks about a race of mouthless men called the Astomi who live off of scents.
* [[Info Dump]]: The sections on Geography rattle off swiftly the locations and layout of various nations and provinces.
*[[Mix-and-Match Critters]]: At one point Pliny describes Papio, a species of ape with a dog's head. When Pliny described this, he may have been referring to the baboon. At another point, he describes a bird which has great horns growing from its head. Like with the Papio, he was probably referring to a real animal, in this case a hornbill.
*[[Mother Earth]]: Pliny documents the (then-contemporary) phenomenon amongst his peers of referring to the earth as female, and terming it "mother". (pages 99-100).
*[[Turtle Island]]: Pristis, a giant fish so large that sailors mistake its back for an island.
*[[Truth In Television]]: Many instances, as this is an encyclopedia, and thus meant to be factual; but a particularly weird example is in chapter XCVIII (page 135), "Wonders of the Sea". "About Messala and Nylæ, there is thrown upon the Shore Dregs like Beasts' Dung". This makes [[Squick | too much sense]] when you consider that the dung of parrotfish disintegrates into sand when it reaches the seashore.
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