Savage girls and wild boys: A history of feral children by Michael Newton,
Faber and Faber, 拢12.99, ISBN 0571201393
IN HIS search for wild children, Michael Newton looked 鈥渋n the fault line
between disgust and desire鈥�, and discovered children raised by animals or locked
away for many years in solitary confinement. They had all been deprived of adult
human contact.
When 鈥渟aved鈥�, they become mirror images of Robinson Crusoe, savages
shipwrecked in the midst of civilisation. The romantic ideal of the noble savage
from a vanished Eden, for example, Tarzan, 鈥淗ollywood鈥檚 all-American savage
Englishman鈥�, contrasts starkly with the reality of those children whose souls
have been effectively murdered.
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Some histories are partial or mythical, such as Romulus and Remus suckling
from the she-wolf, but others are well-documented modern cases like that of
Genie, the girl locked in a Los Angeles bedroom for 13 years. The stories are
nearly always tragic, and often disgusting to our civilised human norms. The
majority of these children are mute, bestial and egocentric. Genie covered
herself with her own spit, defecated anywhere and masturbated continuously. She
learned some vocabulary, but never grammar, supporting the idea of a critical
period for language acquisition.
Newton has created detailed historical backgrounds about the children and
their would-be rescuers, but the whole is somewhat unfulfilling.
In Savage girls and wild boys by his own embarrassed confession, he admits to
having 鈥渙nly a weak grasp on hard and fast conclusions鈥� and so sadly leaves
unanswered fundamental questions like 鈥淲hat is human nature?鈥� and 鈥淲hat part
does language play in creating our humanity?鈥�