"1431 The Year China Discovered America" (1) por Cavin Menzies agarra o leitor por entre as suas 645 páginas e, nos entretantos, ainda se aprende algumas coisas sobre as artes de marear, astronomia e história Chinesa. Não é para ser levado a sério e as criticas destruiram-no por completo (1, 2 e 3) mas vale a pena ler. Recomenda-se.
Achei curiosa a seguinte passagem:
"At the time of the attack on Ceuta, Portugal was still a medieval land, riddled with superstition. Books described the incredible wealth of lands beyond the sea, the extraordinary challenges that awaited explorers and the strange people and monsters lying in wait to attack them. On the way to India there was 'a sea so hot that it boils like water over a fire, and it is all green; and in that sea serpents breed bigger than crocodiles, having wings wherewith they fly, and so venomous that all people run from them in fear... because [the serpent] grew in the boiling sea, no fire can burn it... in that sea is a whirlpool, so terrible that men fear to venture'. India was a land of "wild beasts that are in the wilderness, blue dragons, serpents and other ravaging beasts that can eat all they can get. There are many elephants, all white; some are blue and of other colours, quite numberless, there are also many unicorns and lions and other hideous beasts. In those far-off lands, men had heads in the middle of their chests, their eyes were in their shoulders; They have two small holes, all round, instead of eyes, and their mouth is flat also without lips. 'Women hid snakes in their vaginas which stung the husbands in their penises'."(pp. 387-8)
Imagem extraída daqui
Achei curiosa a seguinte passagem:
"At the time of the attack on Ceuta, Portugal was still a medieval land, riddled with superstition. Books described the incredible wealth of lands beyond the sea, the extraordinary challenges that awaited explorers and the strange people and monsters lying in wait to attack them. On the way to India there was 'a sea so hot that it boils like water over a fire, and it is all green; and in that sea serpents breed bigger than crocodiles, having wings wherewith they fly, and so venomous that all people run from them in fear... because [the serpent] grew in the boiling sea, no fire can burn it... in that sea is a whirlpool, so terrible that men fear to venture'. India was a land of "wild beasts that are in the wilderness, blue dragons, serpents and other ravaging beasts that can eat all they can get. There are many elephants, all white; some are blue and of other colours, quite numberless, there are also many unicorns and lions and other hideous beasts. In those far-off lands, men had heads in the middle of their chests, their eyes were in their shoulders; They have two small holes, all round, instead of eyes, and their mouth is flat also without lips. 'Women hid snakes in their vaginas which stung the husbands in their penises'."(pp. 387-8)
Imagem extraída daquiMais uma vez se confirma que devemos questionar aquilo que nos rodeia e que, quando procuramos explicações, devemos seguir a razão, a lógica e um raciociono indutivo-axiomático. Apenas a ciência fornece explicações válidas. Tudo o mais é especulação, inclusive este livro...
