#misattribution

[prokopetz]

Now, don't get me wrong, "I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe; if I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other" is a raw line, but I wonder if the folks who quote it misattributed to Mary Shelley would feel any differently about it if they knew it's really from a film adaptation of Frankenstein in which the role of the Creature is played – and the above-cited line delivered – by fucking Robert De Niro.

[dailykafka]

Oh also, as a birthday present to Franz lol. You've probably all heard this quote: "Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly." It's wrongly attributed to Kafka and I recently found the source.

The quote belongs to Anne Rice. She was an American author of gothic fiction, erotic literature, and bible fiction. She is best known for writing The Vampire Chronicles. She later adapted the first novel of the series into a commercially successful eponymous film, Interview with the Vampire (1994).

I found her Facebook post where she talks about her words being attributed to Franz Kafka.

[dragondoodling]

You know, a lot of people have been giving Bill shit for thinking that fear and love are almost the same, but he’s not wrong. This is actually a thing, it’s called misattribution, which is mistaking fear for attraction. Unsurprisingly, many abusers use this as a way to keep their partner under their thumb.

[the-fae-folk]

I’m writing a story where a group of paranormal investigators suspect that a supernatural occurrence (which is not caused by the Fae) might be. I’m asking if there’s anyway that a supernatural occurrence, characterized by unnatural silence during the day and unnatural darkness and loud creaks during the night could be confused for being caused by the Fae. Thanks for helping out!

Generally people who know about the Folk tend to attribute most if not all supernatural occurrences to them in one way or another. It's one of those rather peculiar things that humans do. It's partially the fault of confirmation bias, where people who believe that the Folk are out to get them (regardless of whether or not they are correct) tend to search for, interpret, and favor or recall information and evidence that supports their views or values (or fears). However, in this case it is fed into by apophenia, which is a tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things. To a certain degree, apophenia can be considered a perfectly normal brain function, and in some individuals can even be an effective tool for creativity or problem solving, but taken to an extreme it is considered a psychiatric dysfunction which can cause people to perceive hostile patterns in ordinary actions. I am not suggesting that people are suffering from psychiatric dysfunction; rather I am saying that there is a rather strong pattern of people who are governed by fear and superstition to start to seek out patterns and evidence to support their worldviews, to the point where they are often willing to seek out and attribute patterns and connections that either aren't relevant or aren't even real to the thing that they fear. There are many instances in both folklore and documented historical accounts of disasters and inconveniences being attributed to all sorts of supposed malevolent beings. "My crops have failed despite ideal conditions and I found white stones in strange patterns by the river, so that means it MUST be a faery curse!" This sort of example often ignores other available evidence such as the that farmer's crops were diseased the previous year and crop diseases linger in the soil afterward. The white stones could easily be attributed to children playing near that stretch of river, or creatures (probably corvids) who are going about their business. There is very little logical reason to attribute the disaster to the Fae, and yet a few unrelated occurrences that seem mystical or strange enough are more than enough for someone already paranoid to convince themselves that it's definitely the Fae. We see this same phenomenon happen with witches too, or demons, or ghosts, or angry gods. Certainly if the Fae or any of the others exist in any capacity it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that they might be the cause of such things here and there. We do have folktales that provide examples of what sorts of circumstances might occur for such people who find that the supernatural is angry with them and how they deal with it (or suffer from it) and often what happened to cause it. But the sheer range and volume of accounts of unfortunate incidents being attributed to the supernatural, especially when other evidence to provide better explanations and solutions is available, borders on the absurd.

It's not at all a leap to conclude that if perfectly ordinary circumstances and happenings can be wildly and vehemently attributed to the Fae with very little logical or conclusive evidence, then so can actual supernatural events. Yes, even by professional "paranormal investigators". In fact, I would generally count such persons as being more susceptible to misattribution than most due to the fact that they're actively searching for answers. That's entirely normal. When the Scientific Method is working correctly you will find that scientists are quite often wrong, yet eventually through careful experimentation and analysis they are able to continuously revise their theories to be more accurate. Naturally, this doesn't happen nearly as often as anyone would like. Stubbornness, lack of vital information, a paradigm that hides certain possibilities, something unable to be measured or tested...there are a lot of reasons they might persist in an incorrect conclusion. Its rarely malice, just a facet of life.

Addendum: This really does not cover the many many incidents where such persecution of individuals accused of the supernatural, witchcraft, or magic was actually done out of malice. That topic is much longer and there are entire libraries about it.

[quotent-potables]

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

— Commonly incorrectly attributed to Dr. Seuss. Author unknown (see QuoteInvestigator)

[fifth-from-the-left]

Amazing translation.

But this is actually from Euripedes' Orestes, not Sophocles' Elektra. Pass it on!

(Here's a much more wooden translation of the same passage: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+Orest.+1519)

“Not fabulous.”

Sophocles, Elektra (trans. by Anne Carson)

[partisan-by-default]

Just throwing this 2020 article out there because the picture's now being passed off as current events by idiots.

Looks like it's been "attributed" to at least a dozen events since the original. Mostly by the same few sites as a stock image... but also the idiots.

[tam-o-shunter]

One of my favourite quotes, which is relevant to my headcanons about Edward and Spencer’s relationship, and many other things in life

[prokopetz]

I swear, half the time I find a Tumblr post off-Tumblr it's one of yours.

Please accept my most humble respects, oh Meme King.

Don't give me too much credit; at least half of them are misattributed. Content mills have a habit of taking random funny posts and copying-and-pasting the header of a more popular blog onto them for some fucking reason – hell, I've even seen my Tumblr header crudely pasted onto things which are clearly not Tumbr posts at all!

[dailykafka]

Im resisting the urge to comment "kafka didn't write that" on every post that wrongly attributes some quotes to him…

[petermorwood]

Here's another mis-quote example:

"...a memorable quote from the 1950 fantasy novel "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by British writer C. S. Lewis and the 2005 film of the same name."

Only half of that is true.

The quote is only from the movie, not from the novel - I know this by my Learnings. Also because I pulled @dduane's copy of "Wardrobe" from the bookshelf and checked Chapter XIII "Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time".

Credit for that quote, and all the memes it spawned, belongs with the movie's screenwriters.

Gargoyles was droppin' gems. 💎

[taitavva]

scrapped submission for 2023 shuake week

[pendularium]

christian moral icon hickey ✝️🙏✝️🙏✝️🙏 always thinking of jesus first amen

[lowcountry-gothic]

This is actually the work of Yuko Shimizu, not Shigeru Mizuki. See her Instagram post for this piece.

Shigeru Mizuki

[where-our-stories-start]

"Francesca" by Hozier // "In Memoriam A.H.H." by Alfred, Lord Tennyson // Andrew Garfield // "What Would You Do?" (If/Then) // The Fault in Our Stars (2014) // "For Good" (Wicked) // Fellow Travelers (2023) // "Light" (Next to Normal) // Anonymous

[finnlongman]

I love being on first name terms with scribes. I mean, you can't surname the Ó Longáins, because there are four of them, so you sort of have to be on first name terms, but it does end up sounding very familiar -- particularly when you're recognising their handwriting. "Well the catalogue says this is by Peattair but this is blatantly Pól's work except for those two pages that are Mícheál Óg's. Clearly there has been a mistake."

Of course, I can mostly do this because Peattair is my favourite. His writing is significantly neater than either his twin brother Pól or his father Mícheál Óg, his spellings are very consistent, and his abbreviations are few. I love transcribing his work, it's so easy. Can't tell you if he's neater than his younger brother Seosamh, as I haven't actually had any of Seosamh's manuscripts so far. I had one misattributed to him but it was a mistake; it was only bought from him, and it turned out to be one of Peattair's again.