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February 2002, Week 2

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From:
Donald Larsson <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Sun, 10 Feb 2002 19:23:18 -0600
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Sarah Higley wonders:


> What she and I would like to know is the amount of circulation this word
> and its meaning had beyond Ellison in the film world, if it did.  The
> removal of this third definition from the latest edition of AHD is in
> itself interesting... the invisible man goes back to being invisible. Was
> it a slang term with a short life, or an eccentric use in Ellison's novel?
> The connection of ectoplasm to film has strong metaphoric relevance to
> both our separate works: hoaxes, vanishings, filmic "proof" of the
> paranormal, etc.; it's a potent connection, and we would of course be
> interested in knowing if "ectoplasm" had wider circulation in the forties
> or earlier.

The term was apparently being used by spiritualists just before the
turn of the last century.  One source attributes this use to a founder
of the Society for Psychical Research, FWH Meyers in HUMAN PERSONALITY
AND ITS SURVIVAL OF BODILY DEATH (although it's a posthumous volume,
published in 1903).  Arthur Conan Doyle was using the term as early as
1901.

I'm not sure when it was first used in film, although I recall it being
used freely in the TOPPER films.  I'd also look at things like THE
GHOST BREAKERS (with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard),THE GHOST AND MRS.
MUIR, THE GHOST GOES WEST, and THE CANTERVILLE GHOST.

Good luck!

Don Larsson

-----------------------------------------------------------
Donald F. Larsson, English Department, AH 230
Minnesota State University
Mankato, MN  56001

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