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Springheeled Jack

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#3
Zinjanthropos Online
Thought of that song when I saw this thread.

He bounces up
He bounces down
He bounces in
From town to town

He’s jumping here
He’s jumping there
In fact he’s jumping
‘Bout everywhere

Jump so high
Ain’t coming back
No trampoline for
Spring-heeled Jack
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#4
Yazata Offline
He was famous in the 1800's in London. Certifiably weird.

As to what he was, I have no idea.

A piece of popular folklore, some bit of collectively reinforced imagination?

Or something real and strange?

I would prefer the latter be true.
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#5
Magical Realist Offline
I sometimes surmise the possibility of what may be called collective tulpas--projections of the local society of some fantastic being that expresses the fears and anxieties of that time. The Ghost Rockets of 1940's Sweden, some ufos, and even Bigfoot all show signs of being of this nature. The beings or objects typically have an incorporeal nature yet leave physical traces on the environment. In the far distant future science will know about this ability of our societal consciousness to create these sorts of beings that typically arise in a time of hysteria and then just fade away.
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#6
C C Offline
(Nov 6, 2019 03:19 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: I sometimes surmise the possibility of what may be called collective tulpas--projections of the local society of some fantastic being that expresses the fears and anxieties of that time. The Ghost Rockets of 1940's Sweden, some ufos, and even Bigfoot all show signs of being of this nature. The beings or objects typically have an incorporeal nature yet leave physical traces on the environment. In the far distant future science will know about this ability of our societal consciousness to create these sorts of beings that typically arise in a time of hysteria and then just fade away.

Explanatory ideas can trail away into odd consequences if pursued (The Consciousness Deniers)...

If the magical "neuromancy" roundaboutly attributed to brain patterns by illusionist materialists can evoke private manifestations just via their executing a pretending stance that something is present which isn't, then what could a China brain-like network of humans do in terms of conjuring elaborate forms in that public space which multiple human minds usually agree upon? Additionally, would there be a limit to the number of phenomeno-ontological levels (going beyond just the one that harbors these everyday appearances of ours) that all this belief slash pretending enacted by complexly interconnected performances could summon into parallel pseudo-being? What else would human imagination be generating -- is Zeus engaging in his lascivious antics in a not-place, not-when?

Out of their minds and the force of their imagination, men have created countless beings, from demons and monsters of legend to comic-strip characters. What if their world were real--if dragons, devils and Don Quixote hobnobbed with Dagwood Bumstead and Charlie Brown? Such a world would have its facinations..and its dreadful perils--if it existed. Horton Smith found out that it did..and that he was right in the middle of it!

[...] The central premise of Out of Their Minds (by Clifford D. Simak) as that imaginary creatures maintain an existence in another universe, and have for some reason begun to cross into the sensory field of Horton Smith. An old friend of his has also experienced these phantasms, and attempted to couch these encounters into a modern theory of evolution. Namely, these manifestations of the imagination are a previously unseen next stage of evolution, preparing to imminently take our place. This explanation is mailed to Horton in Pilot Knob [his hometown] as a bundle of papers in a manila envelope. Kathy happens to read these papers, and is drawn into experiencing these deadly creatures as well.

Does this hang together very well, and build a case for questioning the roles of our beliefs and legends? Not particularly. My central issue with Out of Their Minds is that I’ve already read Eden and Solaris, two Stanislaw Lem classics. When Lem shows us the futility of attempting to comprehend the incomprehensible, he engages us intellectually as well as emotionally. The alien is truly alien, but the humans involved try really hard to understand them – or at least their own place in the newly expanded universe. Simak’s novel, with its Don Quixote, Snuffy Smith, etc., falls short of Lem’s standard. It eventually becomes a sort of romantic adventure, with a few chase scenes at the end; the intellectual journey peters out. The ending in Washington DC, where the Devil and Horton confront the vapidity of popular culture with cabinet members, goes in an unusual direction but will not please every reader. Still, this modestly ambitious novel is fun and raises some interesting questions....

[...] Out of Their Minds (1970) is a short fantasy novel, published around the time SF critics started to regard Simak as past his prime. It imagines a universe filled with the mythical beings imagined by endless generations of humans, which collides for some reason with our own existence. It has been reprinted several times and translated into a least five other languages, indicators of a healthy audience for the old grandmaster.

https://gapingblackbird.wordpress.com/20...d-d-simak/
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