6.0484 Rs: Joyce E-Text Reaction; Photos in Dead Eyes (2/37)
Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 5 Feb 1993 13:10:44 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0484. Friday, 5 Feb 1993.
(1) Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 19:04:02 -0500 (9 lines)
From: Kelly Ann Tetterton <kat6b@minerva.acc.virginia.edu>
Subject: Re: 6.0476 OTA Halting Distribution of E-Joyce
(2) Date: 05 Feb 1993 11:42:18 -0500 (EST) (28 lines)
From: AEVANS@DEPAUW.BITNET
Subject: photos in dead eyes
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 19:04:02 -0500
From: Kelly Ann Tetterton <kat6b@minerva.acc.virginia.edu>
Subject: Re: 6.0476 OTA Halting Distribution of E-Joyce (1/26)
What can the Joyce people hope to gain by this? And how does this
affect Kidd's edition?
--
Kelly Tetterton, Etext goddess
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------44----
Date: 05 Feb 1993 11:42:18 -0500 (EST)
From: AEVANS@DEPAUW.BITNET
Subject: photos in dead eyes
To all Humanists:
Thanks for the varied replies to my query on a "photo in a dead person's eye."
As Judy from Haifa correctly surmised, this image (no pun intended) found in
several late-19th and early 20th century fictional texts derives from certain
scientific experiments conducted on the retina in Germany around 1877-78--where
it was discovered that (in certain circumstances) the dead eye will retain the
image of the last object viewed before death occurred. Soonafter, in France and
England (I'm not sure about Germany) and later in the USA, this "fact" was used
by novelists of various types for various purposes--detective fiction, science
fiction, even propaganda fiction (e.g., T. Dixon's _The Clansman_, as mentioned)
and soon became a "lieu commun" in the arsenal of literary imagination. Somew
hatintrigued by this (admittedly morbid) piece of literary/scientific history
, I
have spent the past couple of months chasing down its origins, its different
manifestations, and its evolution. A modern variant--for those of you who
watched the premier episode of the TV "space opera" last month called SPACE
RANGERS--consists of "reading" a dead person's brain for similar images using
high-tech scanners. I hope to write up a short article on the topic in the
near future. In the interim, any additional references/citations on this
would be sincerely appreciated. To give you a hint of the variety of authors
where this topos occurs: Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Kipling, Verne, Maurice
Renard, James Joyce, Thomas Dixon, Jules Claretie, Stanislaw Lem, Cleveland
Moffett, Richard Slee, et al. Any others out there??
Art Evans aevans@depauw.bitnet