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A Fun Little Nature-Themed Happening. AKA: Too Much Anthropomorphising

Thanks, Zeb. Of course, it may be a conflation of several similar images. It may not be Victorian. It may be purely imaginary!
 
Hmmm... I'm never quite sure what to think about studies like this, to be honest.



Speaking as someone who's never had a maternal instinct in her life (e.g. babies crying make me feel annoyed rather than concerned!) I'm not sure how looking more baby-like would appeal to me... and yet I melt into a puddle of goo at the sight of puppies. So perhaps when they say "baby-like" are they referring to babies of any species as opposed to just human?

I've seen the dog-expression of which they speak, on all the dogs which Mr Zebra and I have owned over the years, and it definitely makes me want to cuddle said dog, so... I dunno.

One thing is for sure... dogs are clever little tykes and they know how to appeal to their owners! :)
My Black dog has recently started growing white eyebrows, this has given him a slightly quizzical look which is rather appealing, particularly when he cocks his head sideways and looks up at you ( sorry this sounds like a certain late royal princess). We are also getting through more Scooby snacks, could this me connected?.
 
My Black dog has recently started growing white eyebrows, this has given him a slightly quizzical look which is rather appealing, particularly when he cocks his head sideways and looks up at you ( sorry this sounds like a certain late royal princess). We are also getting through more Scooby snacks, could this me connected?.

Aww, sweet :)

It could be connected. I'd say the time to really worry is when your eyebrows start turning white as well. At that point, I'd lay off the Scooby snacks if I were you..
 
Have just discovered this thread -- latching on to it not overly late after the preceding post, I hope. Re arachnophobia matters: I have a fairly mild case -- don't mind spiders at all if they're little, but am less-than-keen on big ones. It annoys me -- can "see with my head" that they're fascinating and accomplished creatures which I wish I could like; and no British one can do people any harm (pace a contact of mine who tells of having been bitten by something called a woodlouse spider), and I seldom leave Britain.

I fear that I lack the skill of multi-quoting: please excuse expedient here -- in a 2017 post on page 1 of this thread, Ghost In The Machine writes: "I think Peter Jackson had to analyse his spider fear when they were designing Shelob and he narrowed it down to the way it moves... Tolkien had a lifelong fear of spiders, as he was bitten by a dodgy one, as a baby in South Africa".

(What follows, is about the Tolkien books -- I basically don't "do" the films.) Re the above last: Humphrey Carpenter in his biography of Tolkien, and the Wiki entry on Tolkien, think otherwise. Per those accounts, JRRT remembered from that infant encounter (beast concerned, was a "baboon spider") fear, and running from the spot where the incident happened, but nothing about the actual spider: he claimed not to have any particular dislike of spiders. However, certainly with his writing of Shelob, he would seem very much to "get" where arachnophobes are coming from. When first reading LOTR, I forced myself to read that section of the book throughout; since then, I've done strategic skipping.

I didn't find the Mirkwood giant spiders in The Hobbit particularly cringe-inducing. Though they are, for sure, villains -- with their wish to catch and eat Bilbo and companions -- they struck me as on the comical side, in fact rather jolly in their way.

Funnily enough, on my way to the dental hygienist last month, there was a dad walking his kids to school on the other side of the road, who suddenly stopped, walked back about 5 metres, picked up a snail off the pavement and deposited it on the nearest greenery. I thought it was just extreme Buddhism. I like snails, but wouldn't go out of my way to pick one up. Plus I agree with he previous poster, what if the snail had done with the greenery and just wanted to go somewhere else? Surely he would be hacked off?

The mollusc (is that the right category?) equivalent of zealous Boy Scouts helping old ladies over roads which the old ladies have no wish to cross?

As for arachnaphobia, I was terrified of spiders as a child, but I cured it pretty much instantly on my final teaching practice, when I decided to take the class out for an impromptu bug hunt. As they started saying "Look, miss!" and shoving spiders right under my nose, I realised that any sign of weakness would be my doom. I didn't flinch, just admired the variegated beasties and suggested that they return them to whatever nook in which they had discovered them. Inner Bugmum was screaming and running around flailing her arms about, but Miss just stood there and took it. I've not been that bothered by them since!

There have also previously come my way, accounts by people of their adopting this ploy -- particularly from mothers who were arachnophobic but didn't want to, by example, foster that trait in their children. I'm male, and have never married / had kids, so have never been faced with that particular challenge: don't know whether I could subdue by effort of will, my dislike of large spiders -- however advantageous to me, doing so might be.

Some parents, I gather, are such arachnophobes that "subduing it by will" just ain't going to happen -- however much they might wish that they could. My favourite travel writer, Dervla Murphy, is a case in point -- she has always been petrified of all spiders (with this, and other traits of hers, many people have suggested -- herself not least -- that she seems remarkably ill-suited for her vocation, which she's followed for the majority of her long life, of travelling in wild and remote places).

One gathers from Dervla that her one offspring, her daughter Rachel, just had to take her chances as regards being made arachnophobic by maternal example. One rather gets the picture from Dervla's writings, that Rachel happens to be a naturally highly sensible character -- much in contrast here, to her (delightfully) bonkers mum: Rachel has always been just fine with spiders.
 
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Have just discovered this thread -- latching on to it not overly late after the preceding post, I hope. Re arachnophobia matters: I have a fairly mild case -- don't mind spiders at all if they're little, but am less-than-keen on big ones. It annoys me -- can "see with my head" that they're fascinating and accomplished creatures which I wish I could like; and no British one can do people any harm (pace a contact of mine who tells of having been bitten by something called a woodlouse spider), and I seldom leave Britain.

I fear that I lack the skill of multi-quoting: please excuse expedient here -- in a 2017 post on page 1 of this thread, Ghost In The Machine writes: "I think Peter Jackson had to analyse his spider fear when they were designing Shelob and he narrowed it down to the way it moves... Tolkien had a lifelong fear of spiders, as he was bitten by a dodgy one, as a baby in South Africa".

(What follows, is about the Tolkien books -- I basically don't "do" the films.) Re the above last: Humphrey Carpenter in his biography of Tolkien, and the Wiki entry on Tolkien, think otherwise. Per those accounts, JRRT remembered from that infant encounter (beast concerned, was a "baboon spider") fear, and running from the spot where the incident happened, but nothing about the actual spider: he claimed not to have any particular dislike of spiders. However, certainly with his writing of Shelob, he would seem very much to "get" where arachnophobes are coming from. When first reading LOTR, I forced myself to read that section of the book throughout; since then, I've done strategic skipping.

I didn't find the Mirkwood giant spiders in The Hobbit particularly cringe-inducing. Though they are, for sure, villains -- with their wish to catch and eat Bilbo and companions -- they struck me as on the comical side, in fact rather jolly in their way.



The mollusc (is that the right category?) equivalent of zealous Boy Scouts helping old ladies over roads which the old ladies have no wish to cross?



There have also previously come my way, accounts by people of their adopting this play -- particularly from mothers who were arachnophobic but didn't want to, by example, foster that trait in their children. I'm male, and have never married / had kids, so have never been faced with that particular challenge: don't know whether I could subdue by effort of will, my dislike of large spiders -- however advantageous to me, doing so might be.

Some parents, I gather, are such arachnophobes that "subduing it by will" just ain't going to happen -- however much they might wish that they could. My favourite travel writer, Dervla Murphy, is a case in point -- she has always been petrified of all spiders (with this, and other traits of hers, many people have suggested -- herself not least -- that she seems remarkably ill-suited for her vocation, which she's followed for the majority of her long life, of travelling in wild and remote places).

One gathers from Dervla that her one offspring, her daughter Rachel, just had to take her chances as regards being made arachnophobic by maternal example. One rather gets the picture from Dervla's writings, that Rachel happens to be a naturally highly sensible character -- much in contrast here, to her (delightfully) bonkers mum: Rachel has always been just fine with spiders.

Techy and I were chatting about phobias yesterday. I feel that if someone has a serious phobia that could have them paralysed with fear or projectile vomiting maybe it's better not to tell people about it. They're likely to have a spider dropped in their lap by some wag.

Remember the schoolboys who threw food at a classmate with a cheese allergy? They probably thought he just didn't like it and wanted to wind him up. Not saying a phobia is as serious as an allergy but stupid people's reactions might be same.

We have threads on phobias. They terrify me. :oops:

PS I like spiders.
 
I was avidly reading various threads on here last night and kept thinking I was seeing movement on the other side of the room. It startled me a bit but I ignored it telling myself that I was imagining it on account of being in a fortean mindset.

When I eventually closed the 'puter and looked up ....... there were 2 dussy great spiders running around! There was a time when it would have totally freeked me out but as mentioned upthread I'd cured myself of that response. Still there is something about them and their movement which is disconcerting. In that first split second of observing them it is as if I have to relearn that I'm not afraid of them! :)

Sollywos x
 
It was more a case of 'look how fast I can run from the fireplace to the sofa'. 'Huh you think that's fast look at the speed I can get from under the chair to the telly'!
'uh oh ... that scary big human has spotted us, beat you to safety'!
I've no idea where they are now!

Sollywos x
 
What’s the technical term for that? Phobiaphobia?

It's phobophobia.
Phobophobia is the term for fear of phobia(s). It is more specific to your internal sensations associated with that phobia and anxiety, which usually cause generalised anxiety disorders and panic attacks. People who face phobophobia often have one or more existing phobias and are therefore afraid to develop another one.

SOURCE: https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/what-is-phobophobia.html

(Not to be confused with phobosphobia - the fear of a certain Martian moon.)
 
God I thought I was making a joke.

God knows I knew you were, and God only knows why anyone decided to formally define a fear of fear / phobia itself ...

Or, for that matter, a fear of Phobos (which also seems to be an actual "thing") ...
 
I also seem to remember a picture of a woman with a letter, Scargy. In my memory she's sitting at a table by an open window, reading a letter and crying, with a dog putting its head in her lap. I always thought it was something like 'news from abroad' and represented a loved one dying in a war...

but I may be conflating several similar pictures in my head. In fact, now I can't remember if there was a dog in it at all (but I can't find it by searching, dog or no dog...).
I believe the work you're describing is currently doing the rounds as a meme, entitled 'The Arrival of the Electricity Bill.' :chuckle:
 
I also seem to remember a picture of a woman with a letter, Scargy. In my memory she's sitting at a table by an open window, reading a letter and crying, with a dog putting its head in her lap. I always thought it was something like 'news from abroad' and represented a loved one dying in a war...

but I may be conflating several similar pictures in my head. In fact, now I can't remember if there was a dog in it at all (but I can't find it by searching, dog or no dog...).
Just caught up with this thread and I'm sure I've seen "News from abroad." But I can't find it anywhere either,

Bet when someone finds it there will be a thunderbird pinned to the wall behind her.
 
Just caught up with this thread and I'm sure I've seen "News from abroad." But I can't find it anywhere either,
I've had a quick Google of the phrase News from abroad painting and loads of works came up, and I have to say that the news was generally bad.
 
I've had a quick Google of the phrase News from abroad painting and loads of works came up, and I have to say that the news was generally bad.
But not the one I "remembered" from when I was in that other universe. :)
 
Facebook is reading my mind again: this just came up on my feed.

Francisco Goya
The Young Women (The Letter)
1813-20
181 x 125 cm
Oil on canvas
Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille
 

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I've come back on here because of the recent posts - and I STILL can't find that painting! I'm almost certain that the woman is sitting by an open window, with the postman seen walking away outside, and she's weeping over a letter whilst the dog tries to console her. Now, I'd guess that it's not actually called 'News from Abroad' which is why I can't find it, but I can't see it anywhere!
 
Facebook is reading my mind again: this just came up on my feed.

Francisco Goya
The Young Women (The Letter)
1813-20
181 x 125 cm
Oil on canvas
Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille
See, I was right. That's Thunderbird shit raining down on that umbrella.
 
I've come back on here because of the recent posts - and I STILL can't find that painting! I'm almost certain that the woman is sitting by an open window, with the postman seen walking away outside, and she's weeping over a letter whilst the dog tries to console her. Now, I'd guess that it's not actually called 'News from Abroad' which is why I can't find it, but I can't see it anywhere!
how about this one :)
https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en...e-illustrated-london-news-vol-89/DAE-B8010131
I was channelling EnolaGaia and his skills
 
This is very close, but still not quite 'it'...

The picture I am thinking of has the woman sitting so we see her right profile at a cottage window (I can't remember if there's a table or not), weeping over a letter that's open in her right hand. The dog is a kind of collie cross lurcher thing and it has its head on her knee. It's a lattice window and we can see the back of the postman leaving through it, walking down a garden path, but we can only see his top half, obviously. The woman is wearing a long dress, but quite 'fancy', so not your yokel peasant wear.

I have such a strong mental image of this picture that it makes me think either that it made a very strong emotional impact on me (which means the dog probably looked like one of mine) or that it is totally imaginary and made up of various elements of real pictures!
 
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