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There was a lot of emphasis on interpreting what the snail represents. I didn't see mention of it possibly being that the snail is just and snail and the imager
by moron4hire 6y ago
There was a lot of emphasis on interpreting what the snail represents. I didn't see mention of it possibly being that the snail is just and snail and the imagery is a commentary on the aristocracy being self-important and braggarts. One might imagine a tin-pot knight going on at length about his great battles and duels, with a scribe in the background chuckling to his friends, "the only armored opponent he's ever seen is a snail".
- thaumasiotes 6y agoThese are gigantic snails.
- krapp 6y agoAre they? Or are the knights just that tiny?
- moron4hire 6y agoScale and perspective aren't exactly precise in any of these sorts of images
- b0rsuk 6y agoScale often represented something else, for example how important someone was.
- moron4hire 6y agoExactly. I think that fits into my theory. These aren't gigantic (and therefore important) snails. These are tiny knights.
- anitil 6y agoOr that it's a sort of early meme - someone thought it was a funny thing to add and others copied it. Maybe like an early Kilroy image. It's funny that we assume historical things must be significant, even though in our day-to-day lives there are plenty of things that are just ... kind of silly. I could imagine people looking at us from the future and wondering what the religious significance of Hello Kitty is.
- b0rsuk 6y ago> It's funny that we assume historical things must be significant, even though in our day-to-day lives there are plenty of things that are just ... kind of silly. No, it's not funny. Literacy was rare and symbolism was literally much more common than text. Imagine how expensive books must be in a society where each book(often in Latin!) must be copied by hand. Who could afford books? How do you express meaning if most people can't read? Historic or mythical events were often shown like a comic book without text, be it on Trajan's column or in any reasonably old European church. Signboards (before shops, taverns etc) were giant pictures too. Pictures have the added benefit they're understood by traveling foreigners and merchants. Hard borders are a modern invention.
- anitil 6y agoI mean there are jokes in the space program ('Burn Baby Burn', 'NOTE: BLACK SIDE DOWN', I'm sure there's more), so I don't know if expense is a limiting factor. I will admit, though, I don't know what I'm talking about - so if you do I'm happy to take your word for it.