There is a meme (see above) about the disproportionate prevalence of "quicksand" as a threat in the media of our youth.
While I remember this trope - and have employed it in adventures I've written for games of Dungeons & Dragons - that's not the 'great danger' I remember most clearly from my youth that now doesn't seem to get a look-in.
That would be: spontaneous human combustion.
I have vivid recollections of reading about this phenomena in multiple Fortean Times-like publications (such as The Unexplained, from the early '80s) and books that I pored over as a youngling, every one seemingly running the same picture of the charred leg of a supposed victim of spontaneous human combustion.
It turns out this case dates back to 1951 and involved the discovery of Mary Reeser's limb (pictured left) in her Florida home, with signs of a very localised fire that had left the majority of the room untouched.
Although the case remains a mystery, the pseudoscience of spontaneous human combustion has been ruled out as a cause.
But when I was a wee bairn (already blighted with an easily-triggered fear of fire because of an early exposure to The Amazing Mr Blunden at the cinema), this image seared itself into my brain.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't directly afraid of spontaneous human combustion, but for the longest time I was really convinced it was both a real thing and happening all the time around the world.
And yet since, probably, the 1990s I haven't heard mention of it.
However, in this age of idiotic conspiracy theories and science-denial, I'm expecting spontaneous human combustion to explode into our psyche once more.
While I remember this trope - and have employed it in adventures I've written for games of Dungeons & Dragons - that's not the 'great danger' I remember most clearly from my youth that now doesn't seem to get a look-in.
That would be: spontaneous human combustion.
I have vivid recollections of reading about this phenomena in multiple Fortean Times-like publications (such as The Unexplained, from the early '80s) and books that I pored over as a youngling, every one seemingly running the same picture of the charred leg of a supposed victim of spontaneous human combustion.
Although the case remains a mystery, the pseudoscience of spontaneous human combustion has been ruled out as a cause.
But when I was a wee bairn (already blighted with an easily-triggered fear of fire because of an early exposure to The Amazing Mr Blunden at the cinema), this image seared itself into my brain.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't directly afraid of spontaneous human combustion, but for the longest time I was really convinced it was both a real thing and happening all the time around the world.
And yet since, probably, the 1990s I haven't heard mention of it.
However, in this age of idiotic conspiracy theories and science-denial, I'm expecting spontaneous human combustion to explode into our psyche once more.
I saw a sign, not so long ago in Grange-over-Sands in the Lake District, that read: Beware quicksand! Which brought back a bunch of childhood fears/memories; the clearest one being Flash Gordon (Sam J Jones) being sucked under, with the camera lingering on the last lock of hair before it's swallowed too
ReplyDeletePretty sure I have never - outside of films & TV - seen an actual "beware quicksand" sign!
DeleteI guess I haven't thought about it much, but the extensive use of quicksand in the stories of my youth is definitely a thing, isn't it? Interesting...now I want to look into the history of it more.
ReplyDeleteAnd spontaneous human combustion...it's only slowly over the course of my life that I've realized it's a thing that people have given a lot of attention to. I appreciate the background!
I guess the blame for my youthful conviction that SHC was a major issue comes primarily from the tabloid-like periodicals and leftfield books I was reading.
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