From the staff report on superstitions incorporated into Huckleberry Finn:
I, perhaps erroneously, took this as likely to have some basis in fact, falling into the kind of folk knowledge similar to Huck knowing about how cows and horses get up off the ground in the scene where he was masquerading as a girl in the old woman’s house. I can think of a logical reason why a woman would float face up. Mammary glands float, being largely composed body fat, which, as you mentioned, floats. Maybe only well-endowed dead women float face-up. Does anyone, perhaps in search-and- rescue, or in the Coast Guard, actually have any experience in this regard.
Hmm. I imagine that silicone sinks. {Having visons of woman being drug to her death by sinking mammaries} … [shakes head, returns to reality] Even if a person did find a well-endowed woman floating face-down, it could be the fault of plastic surgery.
Do chesty women have trouble doing the “dead-man float”, because they keep rolling over? Anyone with big (and natural) breasts willing to comment?
Yet another possibility which occured to me, at the time I read the book:
Folklore has it that a drowned person, of either gender, will float face-down.
When people talk about this loreoid, they say “A drowned man floats face-down”, using “man” in the inclusive sense to mean “person”.
Huck, being young and not very ejikated, hears folks saying this, and interprets it to mean that males float facedown, but not necessarily females.
When Huck sees a body floating face-up, he therefore concludes that it can’t be a male.
Now, I don’t know what the actual folklore of the time was, but if we restrict ourselves to what’s in the book, this is consistent.
… personally, I have never had trouble with the ‘dead man float’. I say no more – you’ll have to take my word for it that that’s a qualified reply. I think that the air in the lungs has more to do with it than anything else. A case where the lungs are filled with water might be different, but I don’t intend to experiment. And without accusing anyone of being a sexist pig (I admit that I too considered this when reading the article), I’d just like to say that I believe there’s a tendency to overestimate in this respect. Even on busty women, the ratio to body volume and/or weight just isn’t that great. Besides, wouldn’t additional fat around the hips and thighs counteract this to some degree?
So, to conclude my utterly unscientific reply: yeah, okay, maybe in a few cases that would make a difference, but probably not often enough to work its way into folklore as a dependable fact.
This is the same folklore that says firing a cannon over water will cause bodies to float to the surface. I think we can safely dismiss it as any source of veracity.
RE:HUKS FLOATERS:
of all the things ive seen in my time or tripped over !
ie this web page!!! IN REFERENCE TO:
[DO DEAD WOMAN FLOAT FACE UP!!}
BUT:THIS SUBJECT REEKS OF A SEWERSLUDGE MUKSHAKE;
I WOULD HAVE SAID MILKSHAKE,BUT THAT SEEMS THE COW DIED ON THE MOON"TITS UP!"
I DID RIP A SIDE A BIT AT THE DARING BOLDNESS OF SUCH A QUIRKY SUBJECT , MIND BENDING COFFIN HUMOR.!
I GUESS ILL TAKE MY LEVITY WITH A GRAIN OF SALT!
DATAMANMAY/03
Sigh. It’s gettin to’ad summer vacation, when school’s out and we get innundated by children looking up words like “mammary.”
OK, dataman, this is an adult site – that doesn’t mean it’s X-rated, it means it’s for conversation, discussion, and topics of interest that are beyond childish schoolboy antics. If you’re going to post again, please be advised:
All caps is considered rude (but you knew that).
Things like sentences and grammar are considered helpful in getting your point across.
HEY DEX:
U AIRED the subject not me and yesterday was first time on your site.CAPS TO ME MEAN NADA*maybe!(BUT I JUST CONSIDER IT LOUDER!)
ill try n remembr!
i didn’t know THIS SITE was physcoanalizing a book written a long time ago,by an adult for children.sounds like tv reveiws,
obviously some of you are looking for more than whats there.
ok that can be considered inteligent but why waste time anilizing things,ie a donut hole,or which way she FLOATS.!!
but if its just for fun what the hay! but if this is actually coming out of a school room,oh my!!!what dephts of depravity must we fall too!
As for me :when i read huckleberyy fin i took it for face value as child!!! a boy on a runaway from home journey! with a :lets tell children" there’s a bit of life to learn along the way theory".basic eh?
i guess i came into the picture a little late,but if your going down a morbid path, how deep is the well?
oh well,silence is golden! further to this i had no xrated content about huks.
as for the boyish pranks attitude: I WASNT TRYING to be immature
but if you want to direct a movei called "night of the living dead"circa 196? i found that show morbid in its day,but hey at least its not looking for annalitacal morbidity in a childrens book!
and there’s an old ghost story we could really dig up!!
on the briter side im not into goth!!!
as for punctuations; people have been bastardizing the english languge for centuries.ie i own a tv no humv have a pc that has a cd etc,etc!
and if your an english major i guess improper punctuations would really burn your bsd!
one more thing:see appollo ; in reference to find the cow on the back side of the moon!
without malice --dataman/may/03,reply
but altogether i did enjoy my first veiw of your web site.
dataman: Good manners suggest that you learn about this site before you start posting here.
Consider this formal warning from an Administrator: your posts are offensive and stupid and contrary to the content of this site. If you want to stay here, then I suggest you take some time to read what this site is about, look at what other people have said, and understand what we’re about here.
dataman, rules of grammar and punctuation aren’t just there to keep the fogies from throwing fits, they’re there so people can understand what you have to say. Following them makes comprehension easier. Not following them makes comprehension difficult. If you can’t write correctly, don’t be surprised if most people don’t want to bother reading what you have to say.
Twain is known for doing things in his popular works for more than just the casual appeal. He was a brilliant satirist, and had a way with the common vernacular of the time. He also incorporated folk lore and common beliefs and understandings in his writings, both to add flavor and authenticity and to serve as fodder for his satire. It is not odd for people to try to figure out what he had in mind, or to try to understand what people actually believed at an earlier time from writings of the period. If that is not to your interest, then feel free to disregard the posts on that topic, or even the site as a whole. But don’t dis what other folks want to do just because it doesn’t appeal to you.
This page is not from a school. People here are having fun - sometimes making jokes, but also and most importantly seeking answers to their questions. Maybe the questions are trivial (in either sense of the word), but to the folks interested they’re still worthwhile, and folks not interested are free to skip it.
Air in the lungs definitely has more to do with it than mammaries or body fat – normally. I’m moderately well-endowed and I like to do what my dad jokingly calls the “dead man’s sink” – you exhale as much air as you comfortably can and allow yourself to sink to the bottom of the pool/lake/whatever, coming back up as soon as you feel you need to breathe again. The trick is to keep yourself very calm so your oxygen demands are low. I know one very well-endowed lady who is able to do it just as well as I can. On the other hand, I also know a lady who is obese and who simply cannot manage it. If you have enough body fat, you just can’t expel enough air to freely sink. However, she might sink if her lungs were flooded; for obvious reasons, she didn’t try that.
I’m with Cicada2003 and calliarcale. When I was a kid (and flat-chested)I had a lot of trouble learning to swim because my parents made me wear a life preserver that kept flipping me over on my back. Now that I’m, erm - well, let’s just say I’ve socked more than one guy for asking for “two pickets to Tittsburgh” - I’m still not what you’d call a great swimmer, but I have no problem staying face-down. 'Course like calliarcale’s acquaintance, I haven’t tried seeing what would happen if I actually drowned.
