Educating beats Ignorating
One of the chapters of Mooge is called Pickling and Preserving and at its heart is the discovery of the properties of alcohol. Now, on the face of it, this does not appear to be a sensible theme to explore for a children’s book. Normally, I would agree, but when writing about the advancement of early humans it needs to be viewed differently. And I write this as someone who hardly touches king fluid.
It is important to remember that the production of alcohol is a natural process which occurs through the fermentation of things like fruits and grain, caused by the breaking down of sugars. Humans will have witnessed this chemical process very early in our development. The smell will have caught their attention and perhaps even some intriguing bubbling. Their eating habits would have been much less fussy than ours today and the consequences of consuming fermented fruits may have given them an experience to inspire awe. Indeed, some scientists believe it became central to early societies as part of religious ceremonies, where out-of-body (drunk) sensations gave the user the sense they were contacting beyond the human realm. Professor Patrick McGowan, a biomolecular archaeologist, goes as far as suggesting alcohol production for religious purposes incentivised hunter-gathers to settle down to grow the grain and thus formed a key building block for civilisation.
However, the main reason I think alcohol is worthy of mention in Mooge and for classroom attention is its health benefits and its importance in the human journey towards civilisation. As well as some nutritional value in some of the beverages brewed, alcohol, of course, kills bacteria. Options for what you drank or how you drank it were very limited in prehistory. Humans did not possess any knowledge of the microscopic world or concepts of public health. As human numbers and communities grew and people began to settle in one location, the problem of waste mixing with drinking water increased illness and mortality, putting the communities’ very existence in question. Whether people recognised a correlation between alcoholic drinks being safer to consume than their local source of water, or it was a fortunate coincidence drinks containing alcohol became so dominant at this stage of humanity’s development, I do not know. But it provided some stability to mortality rates, allowing communities to grow still larger and civilisation to eventually flourish. Therefore, we can say alcohol had a pivotal role in the human story and deserves to be celebrated as such. It is still central in a discreet manner in many things we take for granted, beyond an adult tipple - check out this fact sheet:
This does not mean we ignore the dark side of alcohol. The damage excessive misuse of the substance has caused over the ages is horrifying and there will be children attending school today who are suffering due to a parent’s addiction or behaviour when drunk. However, now we understand the microscopic world and can take a public health approach, prevention is best and educating the young the best means to achieve a better attitude towards alcohol. The Pickling and Preserving chapter deliberately leads the story to the benefits of alcohol, with Flair learning it kills the bugs and can be used to keep their food for longer. While Mooge accidently gets drunk, it is not a pleasant experience for him, and, for the astute among you, it is the one and only lesson he takes away from the whole book: ‘I’ll never touch another drop!’ It is the only moralistic chapter within the book, which I’ve deliberately avoided elsewhere (there are too many books preaching at children), and I consider it an essential tale to tell. For we will always do more damage by hiding part of the story, than explaining the full story.
Nate Wrey