19 Comments
Sep 8Liked by Rebekah King

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit to Saw X pipeline is entertaining! I also appreciate Young Frankenstein’s abnormal brain on display here

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It's such a great sight-gag isn't it?

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Sep 4Liked by Rebekah King

I love the way you approach your topics! Way to go!

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Thank you so much!!

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Aug 30Liked by Rebekah King

The brain is the centre of who we are, so the idea of messing with it is a deep horror. Interesting.

There used to be a mattress/bed shop in Hackney called Happy Nightmares.

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What a bizarre and incredible name for a mattress shop!

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Sep 8Liked by Rebekah King

Hehe, yeah. Me and me mate always laughed driving past it. I was never sure of it was a foreign misunderstanding, or someone with a gothic sense of humour. Either way, it always made me smile.

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I thoroughly enjoy your dives into Wallace and Gromit. I've seen them all so many times but had never connected the rabbit brainwashing with Clockwork Orange. Makes it much more sinister! (I also never figured out what the poor bunnies were supposed to eat after their conversion therapy...)

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Thank you so much! Yes that’s a really good point, I don’t think Wallace had thought that far ahead

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deletedOct 16
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You can do both, lol!

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Aug 29Liked by Rebekah King

Hey there, just wanted to say that I really loved your analysis of horror's obsession with brain experiments. Your comparisons between Were-Rabbit and Frankenstein were so good. Your posts really make me think and expand my horizons. Thank you.

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Thanks so much, I always enjoy your cartoon deep dives too!

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Wasn't trepanning a thing for a while, in the last century? Presumably bits of cerebral tissue would be extracted through the corkscrew effect. Or was it something I read somewhere about Californian beatniks in that book king of the road or woteva by jack Kerouac. 🤔

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I did wonder whether to count trepanning, but I’ve left it out for now because I don’t think the aim was ever to extract brain tissue (not on purpose anyway!) Brains were definitely extracted after death by the Egyptians during mummification and people must have had battle injuries that affected their brain quite drastically, but I’ve stuck quite strictly here to surgical brain manipulations which weren’t really possible until the invention of anaesthetics that made it possible to remove all or part of the scalp (shudder) and then replace it without the patient dying.

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Sep 4Liked by Rebekah King

For the most part trepanning was to release bad “humours” from the brain, not to take whole pieces away.

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Yes absolutely, sometimes when I get pressure headaches I almost feel like drilling into my skull (thank God for Ibuprofen!)

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Right you are Rebekah. Yes, it's a really interesting subject.

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History of Brain Surgury that is. Trepanning - not so keen ⚠️

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On the Road.

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