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The Gnarly Man: Difference between revisions
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Visiting a freak show, scientist Dr. Matilda Sandler takes an interest in the ape-man "Ungo-Bungo", who appears to exhibit genuine atavistic features. After the show she goes backstage and meets the man behind the role to ask if he will agree to be examined for scientific purposes. Ungo-Bungo, who calls himself Clarence Aloysius Gaffney, proves affable but reticent about his past and reluctant to submit to examination. In time, however, he warily consents in return for surgery to correct some old injuries.
Eventually it comes out that Gaffney is actually Shining Hawk, a Neanderthal Man over 50,000 years old, whose aging process was frozen early in life when he was struck by lightning. He had survived by his wits on the periphery of human society since the extinction of his own kind, using a succession of false identities and getting by as a blacksmith or in menial professions like his present one. He has been a witness to much of history from the margins, making little personal impact on
Gaffney's caution proves well-founded; not only does Sandler develop an unwelcome crush on him, but the revelation of his secret brings out the worst in some of the scientists to whom it is confided. Discovering that the surgeon who is to perform his operation secretly intends to dissect him, he skips out. Later, from an undisclosed location, he sends his apologies and regrets to those who have befriended and aided him.
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* [[Older Than He Looks]] He appears to be in his 40's
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Science Fiction]]
[[Category:Pages Original to All The Tropes]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gnarly Man, The}}
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