Unutterably Silly Every Day's a Holiday!

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe;831240
An interesting aside about Frankenstein. In a book I'm currently reading, [URL="http://www.amazon.com/Quirkology-ebook/dp/B001QA4TD2/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2"

Quirkology by Richard Wiseman[/URL], the author states, "The use of electricity apparently to resurrect the dead helped inspire Mary Shelly to write Frankenstein." MobileRead Members, help me out on this one: I may be wrong, but I thought the use of electricity to bring the monster to life was an invention of the film-makers who produced the 1931 movie version. If memory serves me right, Mary Shelly never mentioned by what method Frankenstein accomplished the feat in her book. Am I mistaken?

According to this ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein#Plot


During the rainy summer of 1816, the "Year Without a Summer," the world was locked in a long cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815.[3] Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, aged 18, and her lover (and later husband) Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The weather was consistently too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor holiday activities they had planned, so the group retired indoors until dawn.

Amongst other subjects, the conversation turned to galvanism and the feasibility of returning a corpse or assembled body parts to life, and to the experiments of the 18th-century natural philosopher and poet Erasmus Darwin, who was said to have animated dead matter.[4] Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa, the company also amused themselves by reading German ghost stories, prompting Byron to suggest they each write their own supernatural tale. Shortly afterwards, in a waking dream, Mary Godwin conceived the idea for Frankenstein:

I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for SUPREMELY frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.[5]

[GeoffC]

....galvanised into action one could say .....

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

According to this ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein#Plot


During the rainy summer of 1816, the "Year Without a Summer," the world was locked in a long cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815.[3] Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, aged 18, and her lover (and later husband) Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The weather was consistently too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor holiday activities they had planned, so the group retired indoors until dawn.

Amongst other subjects, the conversation turned to galvanism and the feasibility of returning a corpse or assembled body parts to life, and to the experiments of the 18th-century natural philosopher and poet Erasmus Darwin, who was said to have animated dead matter.[4] Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa, the company also amused themselves by reading German ghost stories, prompting Byron to suggest they each write their own supernatural tale. Shortly afterwards, in a waking dream, Mary Godwin conceived the idea for Frankenstein:

I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for SUPREMELY frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.[5]

Thanks for that. So I guess Mr. Wiseman was correct; Ms. Shelly was inspired by such stories. But even though Frankenstein was inspired by the idea of resurrection via electricity, I don't believe the novel mentioned it. I could be wrong about that; it has been a while since I read the book.

Originally Posted by GeoffC

....galvanised into action one could say .....

Jeeze!

[FlorenceArt]

A little advance warning for a change: apparently the 20th of March will be Obscura Day

[Wetdogeared]

Not a holiday in the sense of a day off, but today is St. Patric's Day.

Green beer all 'round.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

A little advance warning for a change: apparently the 20th of March will be Obscura Day

No events scheduled for my area. Hip, new trends only come to Virginia after they've become cliché in California and New York.

Then again, perhaps that's a good thing.

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

No events scheduled for my area. Hip, new trends only come to Virginia after they've become cliché in California and New York.

Then again, perhaps that's a good thing.

Does that explain your governor?

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

Does that explain your governor?

Not even Charles Darwin could explain our governor!

[kindlekitten]

I refuse to celebrate the observance of the quelling of the Druids

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I refuse to celebrate the observance of the quelling of the Druids

Not even if it involves copious amounts of beer and quaffing?

[recluse]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I refuse to celebrate the observance of the quelling of the Druids

I think the Druids are fine. I've got an aunt from Ireland who appears to be a rabid Catholic, yet lives her life by the "old ways". Banshees, the Sidhe, the stones, all of it. She tells stories that will turn your hair white.

I piss her off by telling her that "RiverDance" isn't Irish, you can't tap dance on sod!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by recluse

I think the Druids are fine. I've got an aunt from Ireland who appears to be a rabid Catholic, yet lives her life by the "old ways". Banshees, the Sidhe, the stones, all of it. She tells stories that will turn your hair white.

I piss her off by telling her that "RiverDance" isn't Irish, you can't tap dance on sod!

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I refuse to celebrate the observance of the quelling of the Druids

They're alive and well and hold positions as archbishops...

(The current archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is a druid: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2172918.stm - and in case the Beeb's spin on it seems a bit wishy-washy, the Druid Network are a bit more effusive about it: http://druidnetwork.org/articles/posidonius.html )

(And I don't celebrate any saints days.)

[happy_terd]

Aren't the druids the reason why we use easter eggs, mistletoe, and christmas trees?

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

Not even if it involves copious amounts of beer and quaffing?

I haven't needed an excuse to drink a beer since I was a young soldier!

Originally Posted by recluse

I think the Druids are fine. I've got an aunt from Ireland who appears to be a rabid Catholic, yet lives her life by the "old ways". Banshees, the Sidhe, the stones, all of it. She tells stories that will turn your hair white.

I piss her off by telling her that "RiverDance" isn't Irish, you can't tap dance on sod!

actually they took their doors off, put them on sawhorses and that is how that form started. look closely at highland dancing, then Irish dancing and notice that the basic steps are very similar, but the Irish dancing tends to be very barrow, forwards and backwards and such.
at least that's what my Highland Dance Instructor told me!!!

Originally Posted by happy_terd

Aren't the druids the reason why we use easter eggs, mistletoe, and christmas trees?

a variety of pagan beliefs led to the variety of rituals we follow today