![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Unfounded myth
2 September 2021 12:40 amIt's so irritating when people promote urban myths ("Did you know that...") without the slightest attempt to check dates, probability or scientific fact.
"Did you know that Jane Eyre is fanfic of Jane Austen's Emma?" (I traced this one back to a fan conspiracy-theory about similar names published circa 2007, but I've seen it repeated several times recently as proof of academic respectability.)
"Did you know that the only reason vampires have no reflection is that mirrors used to be backed with silver?" (Both mirrors and vampires pre-date the silvered-glass process; seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mirrors were backed with tin/mercury.)
I *know*, intellectually speaking, that most people will repeat as gospel truth whatever they read on the Internet, and that the average comprehension age of the great British public is about nine years old. But it's scary to see it in action :-(
"Did you know that Jane Eyre is fanfic of Jane Austen's Emma?" (I traced this one back to a fan conspiracy-theory about similar names published circa 2007, but I've seen it repeated several times recently as proof of academic respectability.)
"Did you know that the only reason vampires have no reflection is that mirrors used to be backed with silver?" (Both mirrors and vampires pre-date the silvered-glass process; seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mirrors were backed with tin/mercury.)
I *know*, intellectually speaking, that most people will repeat as gospel truth whatever they read on the Internet, and that the average comprehension age of the great British public is about nine years old. But it's scary to see it in action :-(
