Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Could there be a Gnarly Man in current times?
Date: Tue, 7 May 2024 15:39:38 -0400
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 33
Message-ID: <v1e01q$3dv0o$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Tue, 07 May 2024 21:39:38 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="dd3d27c09afad03aae2c274667ae2b43";
	logging-data="3603480"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/il4+lN2WmjJNZjt42ncYtpdDDTcNQfpA="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:gLwy8m/KHOHYTERYfu75KvhKQjg=
Content-Language: en-US
Bytes: 2646

So I’m making my way through The Best of L Sprague de Camp, and I just 
(re)read “The Gnarly Man”. It made me wonder ... well, first a quick 
summary for context:

This story was written in 1939 and is set in 1956. It’s about an 
immortal Neanderthal - basically he stopped aging around the age of 33. 
He most definitely looks the part, and he’s intelligent, articulate, 
knowledgable, knows dozens of languages, etc etc etc, A fundamental part 
of his long-term survival has been to avoid attention - nothing high 
profile or noteworthy, move on to a new place every 10-15 years (sooner 
if necessary), etc.[1]

That said, throughout his 52,000 years, he has pretty consistently been 
part of society, not some sort of loner hiding out in the wilds. Here, 
we initially find him performing as an ape-man in a carnival show. 
During the story he mentions he has also been a blacksmith, a maker of 
false teeth (he says he invented them [2]), a wagon driver (transporting 
goods), a professional wrestler, an archer in a Briton army (vs the 
Romans), a cabbie, and he ran a sawmill. (I may have missed some.)

And this made me wonder:
Given his obvious physical differences, and with modern technology and 
communication being what it is, are there ways he could he stay a member 
of modern society and also avoid attention?

Tony, having some initial thoughts, but curious about yours

[1] Poul Anderson revisits this mode of survival for immortals in The 
Boat of A Million Years. Of course, in Poul’s book, the immortals are 
modern-type humans who don’t look any different.

[2] He also invented soup, by necessity, since his teeth wore out and he 
hadn’t invented false teeth yet.