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Grottu, King of the Insects (Monsterbus p.172)

This is Kirby at his best.!
  • Exotic locations,
  • learn about the natural world (soldier ants and how they differ from others)
  • learn about the human world (what it's like to live near soldier ants)
  • cold war politics and economics (making secret deals to test atom bombs in poorer countries)
  • atom bombs and their effects (think of the poor villagers, so near the blast!)
  • radiation and its effects (a key Kirby theme)
  • statistics (out of billions of ants only one was mutated. We don't know how many billions died.)
  • a serious puzzle to solve (how can you stop such a creature with the limited tools available?), racing against the clock
  • a thought provoking, realistic solution
  • spectacle! (giant ant, running across rooftops, etc)
  • realistic restraint (don't have an army of giant ants when just one will do)
  • etc., etc.
And so much to think about:
  • All the ant did is what we would have done
  • He must be so lonely
  • Parallels with how humans might think about defeating a more powerful force (machine, emperor, natural force, whatever)
  • The symbolism of sugar as a mindless motivator: we could replace "sugar" with "money" and realise that, in large enough groups, human behaviour can be predicted: on average we will follow money, even if on individual cases we might not. This raises issues of free will: are we any different from mindless atoms? Unpredictable as individuals but predictable as a group?
So much to think about, so many abstract principles that apply to al of life. This is why I call Kirby a prophet. He sees things others do not: true ideas, important ideas, the ideas that guide the future. It's the principles that matter. Sugar and giant ants are merely instances or illustrations of fundamental essential truths.

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