"When I was a teen-ager, I wrote a science-fiction story about Leonardo da Vinci. In it, a young art historian becomes fascinated with Leonardo's otherworldly paintings, with their strange rocky backgrounds, unplaceable landscapes, and enigmatic not-quite-human saints, their single fingers forever pointing strangely upward. To make a long, and rather shamelessly Rod Serlingish, story short, the art historian eventually discovers, in a previously unknown codex, that Leonardo was an alien, that the rocks were the landscape of his native planet, and that the fingers were poinging longingly back home."- From book review by the New Yorker Adam Gopnick
Teachers instructions: Finish Gopniks story
A young historian, around the age of 24 or 25, was always fascinated by the history created by men and women, who would tend to stick out in history. His main fascination surrounded the man called Leonardo Da Vinci. To him, Leonardo Da Vinci was a sort of mystery. The landscapes in his painting were unusual, and unplaceable. All the people in the paintings pointed up to no where, and women with famous smiles stayed forever analysed. This man was a Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. How could one man be so many at once? The young historian knew that there must be an explanation. Later that afternoon the historian went to a private Da Vinci exhibition, the head of the museum would allow him to look at all the pieces he wanted to.
At the end of the exhibition, the historian left with a piece of paper he found in one of the machines that Da Vinci created. For some reason, he had a hunch that this would explain the mystery's of the man, and it did. He found a man who would translate the backwards Italian writing, and began his quest to solve a historic mystery.
After several months, he found that Leonardo was no ordinary man, with other pieces of evidence, he found that Leonardo was no man, but an alien. The rocks in the paintings were the landscape of his native planet, and that the fingers he painted were pointing longingly back home. What was he to do with this evidence now? Leave it to history to decide? No, he is a historian, and he must find the end to this. Were Da Vincis creations simplified versions of more complicated things from his last planet? The alien accomplished more than any normal man would so perhaps his Machines were simplified for the minds of humans. Why did the alien come? The start of embarrassing the twists and turns of history, the historian was setting the world on a scavenge hunt to find a new friend. A new type of creature, smarter than us and perhaps more advanced than us.
Teachers instructions: Finish Gopniks story
A young historian, around the age of 24 or 25, was always fascinated by the history created by men and women, who would tend to stick out in history. His main fascination surrounded the man called Leonardo Da Vinci. To him, Leonardo Da Vinci was a sort of mystery. The landscapes in his painting were unusual, and unplaceable. All the people in the paintings pointed up to no where, and women with famous smiles stayed forever analysed. This man was a Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. How could one man be so many at once? The young historian knew that there must be an explanation. Later that afternoon the historian went to a private Da Vinci exhibition, the head of the museum would allow him to look at all the pieces he wanted to.
At the end of the exhibition, the historian left with a piece of paper he found in one of the machines that Da Vinci created. For some reason, he had a hunch that this would explain the mystery's of the man, and it did. He found a man who would translate the backwards Italian writing, and began his quest to solve a historic mystery.
After several months, he found that Leonardo was no ordinary man, with other pieces of evidence, he found that Leonardo was no man, but an alien. The rocks in the paintings were the landscape of his native planet, and that the fingers he painted were pointing longingly back home. What was he to do with this evidence now? Leave it to history to decide? No, he is a historian, and he must find the end to this. Were Da Vincis creations simplified versions of more complicated things from his last planet? The alien accomplished more than any normal man would so perhaps his Machines were simplified for the minds of humans. Why did the alien come? The start of embarrassing the twists and turns of history, the historian was setting the world on a scavenge hunt to find a new friend. A new type of creature, smarter than us and perhaps more advanced than us.
