Archive for December, 2011

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Mon 5 Dec 2011

Signs I thought I saw

Posted by PJ under misreading, signs
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Jesus is the Reindeer*

*Reason

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Mon 5 Dec 2011

Earned

Posted by PJ under happiness, quote of the day
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Random quote of the day:

â€œHow little a thing can make us happy when we feel that we have earned it.â€

â€”Mark Twain, â€œEveâ€™s Diaryâ€

Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Sun 4 Dec 2011

The Cottingley Fairies, redux

Posted by PJ under belief, fairies, lies, paranormal, truth
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Here’s a piece of film from the BBC’s Antiques Road Show in which the daughter and granddaughter of Frances Griffiths bring in the photos and the camera to the show and are interviewed by the host. There’s a lovely “surprise ending” to this that left me smiling. Who knows the power of the will to believe?

Thanks so much to frigg for remembering this and finding it for us!

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Fri 2 Dec 2011

The Cottingley Fairies

Posted by PJ under belief, fairies, lies, paranormal, truth
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Some of you may even have read the disclaimer I run at the bottom of all my Random Quotes of the Day:

The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. However, sometimes they do reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

A few of you may have even wondered who these Cottingley Fairies were who sometimes have obstreperous views. Well, one of my favorite history blogs, Beachcombing’s Bizarre History Blog, (endlessly entertaining!) posted a blog entry on them today. Dr. Beachcombing does a more extensive and entertaining write up then I will attempt here and I urge you to take a look. It’s a fascinating story about belief and the will to believe, of lies and being trapped in defense of lies, of the unintended consequences that can erupt spore-like from even the most casual of actions.

Basically, two girls named Frances Griffith and Elsie Wright came home one day in 1917 and told their parents that they’d seen fairies down by the brook near their village of Cottingley in Yorkshire. Their parents mocked them, and it made them mad, so they set about coming up with photographic proof that they had indeed seen fairies. They were so determined to come up with this proof that they cut out pictures of fairies from Edwardian books, mounted them on cardboard, and artfully arranged them in the foliage near the brook so they could interact with them. Everyone was amazed. The local theosophists got ahold of the story and ran with it, then the spiritualists, then (and this is what really condemned the girls to a life of lying) the great spiritualist himself, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who went so far as to write a book on the subject.

Do I believe in fairies?

Certainly not in cardboard cut out ones. A modern eye isn’t as easily fooled, I don’t think, as Edwardians. (But that could just be early 21st century hubris talking.)

Do I believe Frances and Elsie saw fairies that first day and that childish righteous indignation at being mocked for the truth led them to a twisted path of lies?

I believe that anything is possible, especially lies hiding a truth, and truths hiding a lie. I believe in the will to believe and the will to persuade. I believe that things unseen are not so easily reproduced upon command and the temptation to give nature a helping hand is sometimes overwhelming. I believe that is almost as tricksy an answer as the Cottingley Fairies themselves who, as I’ve said, are often obstreperous and contrary creatures.