Famous Literary Hoaxes

Much fun.  Background & info on literary hoaxes spanning over 200 years (though only by virtue of the two examples that come from the 1700s; the rest are from the mid- to late- 1900s).

Forrest Carter’s The Education of Little Tree
One of the stranger hoaxes. Published in 1977, Forrest Carter’s celebrated memoir about a Cherokee orphan who fights racism and struggles to connect with his heritage was later revealed to have been written by a white Ku Klux Klan member named Asa Carter. (In more recent reprints, The Education of Little Tree was labeled “fiction.”) Carter had previously worked for Alabama Governor George Wallace, penning his infamous inauguration speech, in which Wallace vowed: “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw a line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say: segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.”

(via CBC Arts & Entertainment: “Writing Wrongs,” by Rachel Giese [Jan 12, 2006])

by on January 26, 2006  •  Permalink
Posted by Ben on January 26, 2006

https://www.swordbilled.com/famous-literary-hoaxes/

Quentin Tarantino’s Republic Dogs

A fun play, not actually affiliated with Quentin Tarantino (as you might suspect).

Socrates: Maybe I should frame my theory a bit more emphatically. [Drawing his gun.] Didn’t you ever hear of the face that launched a thousand… boats?

Alcibiades: Uh…

Socrates: WELL?

Alcibiades: Yeah.

Socrates: Well, how’d you like me to launch your face?

Alcibiades: Uh…

Socrates: Ahh, I guess that example cleared up all your objections then. [Points weapon at Aristotle] You don’t have any problems with that, do you?

Aristotle: Hey, man, it’s cool. Cool. Boats are cool by me. I was just on a boat recently.

Read the whole thing here. Mad props to whatever forgotten site I originally got this link from, my apologies.

by on January 25, 2006  •  Permalink
Posted by Ben on January 25, 2006

https://www.swordbilled.com/quentin-tarantinos-republic-dogs/

Sleep, info regarding

Provided by nature.com, scientific articles and such, with titles like “Clues to the functions of mammalian sleepWhat are the memory sources of dreaming?”

by on January 13, 2006  •  Permalink
Posted by Ben on January 13, 2006

https://www.swordbilled.com/sleep-info-regarding/

STRVN. LF. DVD.

And a whole host of other postal acronyms you didn’t even know existed.

(STRVN = Stravenue, LF = Loaf, DVD = Divide)

by on January 11, 2006  •  Permalink
Posted by Ben on January 11, 2006

https://www.swordbilled.com/strvn-lf-dvd/

Panexa

Ask your doctor for a reason to take it.

by on January 11, 2006  •  Permalink
Posted by Ben on January 11, 2006

https://www.swordbilled.com/panexa/

Lies, all lies!

No, really! A recent study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry,found that pathological liars have signifiicant, actual differences in their brains (compared to normal, non-lyin’ folks); namely, the pathological liars had “increased prefrontal white matter volumes and reduced grey/white ratios compared with normal controls”.

My background is weak enough that I don’t quite have a grasp of what this means, and I’m at least marginally uncomfortable with a scientific study showing “abnormalities” with a marginalized/socially unacceptable group of people, but I’m still fascinated by the matter. And eager to see any developments that might come of it.

An interesting side-note in the study: “[l]iars… had significantly higher verbal relative to performance IQ compared with both control groups”. (The “both” controls being mentioned are the standard control & the anti-social non-lying control, FYI.)

(Ref: Yang, Y., et al. (2005). Prefrontal white matter in pathological liars. British Journal of Psychiatry, 187, 320-325.; props also to the Abc.au.net/Reuters article that mentioned the BJP article.; article also referenced in NewScientist: “Liars’ brains make fibbing come naturally,” by Celeste Biever [September 30, 2005])

by on January 8, 2006  •  Permalink
Posted by Ben on January 8, 2006

https://www.swordbilled.com/lies-all-lies-2/

Mad Cow Origins, Part 46

So here’s another thought on the origins of the whole mad cow thing:

BSE may have started in cattle because they ate imported animal feed that included infected human remains from Hindu funeral ceremonies in India, a controversial new theory on the origin of the disease suggested last night.

Obviously there’s lots of controversy regarding the idea, and the origins may well never be known. But speculation is inherently interesting.

(Guardian: “Theory ties vCJD to Indian funerals,” by James Meikle and Randeep Ramesh [September 2, 2005])

by on January 8, 2006  •  Permalink
Posted by Ben on January 8, 2006

https://www.swordbilled.com/mad-cow-origins-part-46/

2006

…will be a crazily discordant year. Ancient prophecies will allegedly be fulfilled, and new ones will be made, daily, in the papers and magazines and things the kids are reading these days. Fish will fall from the sky, but only where they feel like it. Meaningless statistics will litter television commercials, and commercialism will creep even further into stray spots of emptiness in the world. Emptiness will hide in noise.

Blood will be shed unnecessarily. “Shed,” or “spilled,” because that makes it seem passive and non-violent. Tears will flow, but out of necessity. A thing called money will dig deeper into the souls of the converted. War will be abstracted by men talking about principle, and by some women. Hail will crush grains, and glaciers will melt. Asphalt will crack. Buildings will continue to rise up. Las Vegas will find itself caught up in a sudden water conservation movement, or maybe not.

Technology will make tinier and tinier that which occupies us more and more. We’ll be constantly surprised, by everything. We’ll be deluded, by everyone and ourselves.

My one New Year’s Resolution will be to become a pathological liar, and I will fail.

But you will have no way of knowing.

by on January 5, 2006  •  Permalink
Posted by Ben on January 5, 2006

https://www.swordbilled.com/2006/

No One Ever Listens To The Glaciologists

…but they should, perhaps. Despite a whole host of Acronymic predictions via the UN (specifically, the UN’s IPPC) that sea level would not be affected by Antarctic ice, glaciologists are now singing a pretty different song.

(NewScientist: “Antarctic glaciers calving faster into the ocean,” by Fred Pearce [October 18, 2005])

by on December 12, 2005  •  Permalink
Posted by Ben on December 12, 2005

https://www.swordbilled.com/no-one-ever-listens-to-the-glaciologists/

Oh, for a mere mouse

From a once-and-again AP article on Yahoo! News:

LONDON – Aaron Balick expected to find a tiny mouse rustling behind the TV in his apartment. Instead, he found a venomous giant centipede that somehow hitched a ride from South America to Britain.

“Thinking it was a mouse, I went to investigate the sound. The sound was coming from under some papers which I lifted, expecting to see the mouse scamper away,” the 32-year-old psychotherapist said Wednesday. “Instead, when I lifted the papers, I saw this prehistoric looking animal skitter away behind a stack of books.”

He trapped the 9-inch-long creature between a stack of books and put it in a plastic container.

The next day he took it to Britain’s Natural History Museum, which identified the insect as a Scolopendra gigantea the world’s biggest species of centipede.

Stuart Hine, an entomologist at the museum, said it was likely the centipede hitched a ride aboard a freighter, likely with a shipment of fruit.

“Dealing with over 4,000 public and commercial inquiries every year, we have come to expect the unexpected. However, when Aaron produced this beast from his bag I was staggered,” Hine said. “Not even I expected to be presented with this.”

The Scolopendra gigantea has front claws that are adapted to deliver venom when it stings, which can lead to a blistering rash, nausea and fever. The sting is rarely life-threatening, but painful.

(via Yahoo! News, AP: “Briton Finds Venomous Centipede in House.” [August 31, 2005])

by on November 22, 2005  •  Permalink
Posted by Ben on November 22, 2005

https://www.swordbilled.com/oh-for-a-mere-mouse/

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