Cultural References
In 1903 Simplicissimus magazine printed an adaptation of the story by the Austrian author Gustav Meyrink, "The Curse of The Toad" ("Der Fluch der Kröte"). The fable was also published in Meyrink's 1903 collection of tales, The Hot Soldier and Other Stories.
The fable was later applied in Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon story of the same name, in which an amoral but unimaginative man was using an unusual psychic power to win games, do well as a fisherman, and steal booze from others in the bar. He was found out, and when asked how he did it, he replied that he made things "want" other things. His glass "wanted" booze, the dartboard "wanted" darts, and so on. When pressed for details on what the "state of wanting darts" was like, which he had never actually considered before, he created the state in his own head—which caused the darts to fly from the dart board to hit him, luckily non-lethally, in the forehead. Robinson also used the concept in his completion of the Robert Heinlein novel Variable Star.
Read more about this topic: Centipede's Dilemma
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“To begin to use cultural forces for the good of our daughters we must first shake ourselves awake from the cultural trance we all live in. This is no small matter, to untangle our true beliefs from what we have been taught to believe about who and what girls and women are.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)