Talk:Comprachicos
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Comprachicos has had a peer review by Wikipedia editors which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article. |
What categorization should we apply to this intriguing, but disturbingly bizar, topic? Crime seems obvious, but I suspect there's more to this topic from a historic/psychological/entertainment/.. view.
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[edit] Perkeo, the Dwarf from Heidelberg
Victor Hugo mentioned in "The Man Who Laughs":
Doctor Conquest, member of the Amen Street College, and judicial visitor of the chemists' shops of London, wrote a book in Latin on this pseudo-surgery, the processes of which he describes. If we are to believe Justus of Carrickfergus, the inventor of this branch of surgery was a monk named Avonmore--an Irish word signifying Great River. The dwarf of the Elector Palatine, Perkeo, whose effigy--or ghost--springs from a magical box in the cave of Heidelberg, was a remarkable specimen of this science, very varied in its applications. It fashioned beings the law of whose existence was hideously simple: it permitted them to suffer, and commanded them to amuse.
Could this information about Perkeo's physical condition be confirmed anywhere else? Unfortunatelly I can't read German to research in loco. Stella.
[edit] Is this for real?
From the content of the article, it sounds more like legend.
[edit] All the marks of Victorian fablery
From what I have read of this topic, this has all of the basic marks of Victorian fablery - association with Gypsies and China are clear red flags, mostly because any idiot born in the 19th century who had a tall tale to tell would immediately ascribe it to one or both of the two, being classic exotic outsider groups. Add to the fact that the practice is aimed at children, and you've got a textbook baseless horror story.
I would understand if this article were treated as if its concept had the same factual legitimacy as, say, blood libel stories. And a treatment of comprachinos in legend and literature would be fine. But as it stands, the majority of this article concerns a legend, plain and simple, and treats it as fact.
I find the fact that this article was written, edited, and rewritten by no fewer than a dozen different people over the course of close to a full year to be mind-boggling. Even a passing knowledge of medicine or cultural history could tell you the anecdotes presented as fact are risibly impossible, and clearly fabricated anyway; that it's taken until June 1 for anyone to even question whether or not it is real is astounding.
Suggest someone with more of an interest in the topic rewrite it as a discussion of comprachicos in literary culture, instead of treating them as a historical fact.
[edit] This is still happening
I don't know why this page says it's a myth. It's very common even today for gypsies to mutilate children so they can be sent to beg for money on the street. This can be confirmed by the police in Slovakia and Romania where gypsies have been arrested for this
- Ah, so obviously it's true. ∴ Therefore | talk 02:58, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Can someone clear up that last paragraph?
I have no idea what's going on there--I'm guessing it's talking about Ayn Rand (since that was mentioned in the peer review), but I haven't read any of her writing so it just seems to have flown in out of nowhere. It could probably also benefit from a "The term in other works" header as well. --140.103.97.225 09:58, 21 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] This is real
Disfiguring in child beggars happens for real. I saw myself a person with so twisted legs (soles of feet facing upwards) that the could no way grow natural. I'm not sure if this happened for a child, or when he was adult, actively or by preventing proper care. But it is not a myth.
Here is example of a link from China daily: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/chinagate/doc/2004-03/01/content_310589.htm And another: http://www.adb.org/media/Articles/2002/417_Disability_Poverty/
Sure it could have happened naturally, if you count malnutrition or some kind of childhood injury as natural. The previous revision of the article proposed a broad spectrum of events corraborated only by folklore. Upon examination of those articles, neither posits the existence of any groups that deliberately alter the growth or bone structure or what have you of youths, but rather discusses the problem of the disabled becoming homeless or dependent on begging (quite common in underdeveloped societies, including industrial Britain and the US). I would approve of a revision or reconstruction of the article in the event good, solid evidence could be provided for the practice happening, but until it is, the article is more factual and valuable in exploring it as folklore. ACK-47 01:18, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
The disfigurement sounds very much like a severe case of club foot. This is a genetic defect, "natural" if you will, and can only be corrected by multiple surgeries, preferably at an early age. It can be assumed a child born to poor parents would not have the funds to undergo such surgeries. Anonymous 01:33, 18 December 2007 (EST)
[edit] What would actually happen
What would actually happen if you kept a creature permanently encased so it couldn't grow in the natural way? Didn't any of the pit of despair lot ever try it out? --Sam Blanning(talk) 22:11, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Contradiction
The Man Who Laughs says that Victor Hugo coined the term in his novel The Man Who Laughs, but this article says the term is older. Some sources would be nice. —RuakhTALK 23:01, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
