Sunday 20 September 2009

Pedomorphosis, physical deformations and Arts' interpretation

Reading the today's' news I came across with an article for the smallest girl in the whole world.

http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article3278492.ece

By being involved in a subject like pedomorphosis my antennas are very sensitive to these kind of news. Probably because I am hoping to see the word of pedomorphosis to be mentioned somewhere in the articles. In the very begin of the diploma I had found several articles on different physical deformations on human body concerning always the rate of development. It seems to me (and with the minimum medical knowledge) that pedomorphosis has nothing to do with all these deformations. The rate of growth is a totally different mechanism than this of pedomorphosis. All these with the deliberation my insufficient knowledge to the medical issues.

What was interesting from the beginning was the Arts' perception on such kind of themes. There are specific films that they come and go frequently in my mind all this period. Hollywood has work pretty often with aging disorders. Copola's film from 1996 Jack is a great example of a kid turning older faster than normal (in medical terms is called gerontomorphosis and its the opposite of pedomorphosis).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116669/
Another worth noting film is all the "Peter Pan"'s films and as well all the "Alice in Wonderland". (Looking forward to see the new version http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014759/)
A more intellectual interpretation of aging disorder was from Günter Grass at his famous book The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) which was transfer to cinema in 1979
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078875/
The boy is born with an adult's capacity for thought and perception, he decides never to grow up and stops his physical development at the age of three. He is though sexual maturating and develops an adults behaviour(political decisions). The way Grass has perceived his main character reference exactly to the first observations biologists had made to salamanders and their sexual development while in a immature stage of development.
I will keep my eyes open for more films and books that have worked in these subjects.

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