That’s an interesting take on it. I was going along a similar train of thought of ‘anything miniature is cute’. I just didn’t interpret it as parental. I took it as ‘Miniature things are barely worth it but are growing extremely fast. Throw it back and eat it when it is ten times the nutritional value in a couple of weeks!’ My surprise would then be that we experience even in response to things that are not a ‘mini-burger’. I’m not going to benefit from eating clippy unless I am iron deficient and I embed him in an apple for a while to rust before I eat it!
That’s an interesting take on it. I was going along a similar train of thought of ‘anything miniature is cute’. I just didn’t interpret it as parental. I took it as ‘Miniature things are barely worth it but are growing extremely fast. Throw it back and eat it when it is ten times the nutritional value in a couple of weeks!’ My surprise would then be that we experience even in response to things that are not a ‘mini-burger’. I’m not going to benefit from eating clippy unless I am iron deficient and I embed him in an apple for a while to rust before I eat it!
Your comment made me wonder about the dietary availability of rust, which seems rather low—the paperclip might not even be useful then!