[HN Gopher] Jumping Frenchmen of Maine
___________________________________________________________________
Jumping Frenchmen of Maine
Author : samclemens
Score : 69 points
Date : 2021-04-18 18:18 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
| lsllc wrote:
| Sounds like something from Monty Python!
| bsurmanski wrote:
| There's a song titled "Jumping Frenchmen of Maine" by the
| instrumental post-rock band "El Ten Eleven". They're my goto
| coding music
| heikkilevanto wrote:
| He's a lumberjack, and he's all right
| seanhandley wrote:
| He's like a spring that's wound up tight.
| standardUser wrote:
| Reminded me of the fainting goats...
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT-UGTQd6zQ
| subpixel wrote:
| You might get jumpy too if this was your day job:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIKCjQdxtO0&t=61s
| treeman79 wrote:
| Wouldn't be surprised if men were in an abused situation. Far
| from others, social norms go out the window.
|
| Was in a situation were saying "no" came with severe
| consequences.
|
| At a certain point you mentally shut down and do what your told
| no matter what. Logic / morality is not part of it. Stress from
| it comes out in odd ways, verbal / physical ticks, etc.
| inglor_cz wrote:
| The late William Burroughs mentioned similar syndrome from
| Malaysia, Latah, in his Naked Lunch. It was weirdly obsessive
| (not that the book is easy reading by any means - it must be very
| hard to translate).
|
| I wonder if he saw a real Latah in a real world, or just read
| about them and his brain digested that knowledge together with
| some drugs.
| curiousllama wrote:
| > One theory is that it is a genetic condition ... It may also be
| a culture-bound syndrome or a formed habit.
|
| Nobody's proposed the theory that the non-jumping lumberjacks
| just got hit by trees?
| Smaug123 wrote:
| What, then, makes Maine's trees so peculiarly bloodthirsty?
| zikzak wrote:
| I've only cut down a few trees but I've seen them bounce or
| fall in odd ways. I was taught to get the hell out of the way
| of falling trees as a kid because of this. If you cut them
| for a living there's endless knowledge around how to fell
| them safely but they are still dangerous. A large evergreen
| has boughs that are like massive leaf springs when they hit
| the ground, big trees can twist as they fall, or kick out.
| It's really dangerous, especially with hand tools like axe
| and saw.
| echelon wrote:
| I wonder if they could conduct genetic analysis if they could
| identify any of the afflicted and their gravesites. Or
| descendants willing to participate in a genetic survey (though
| the gene may have since died out).
|
| This would be interesting to understand and see if it bears
| causal or mechanistic relation to the similar disorders from the
| article.
| csours wrote:
| I'm surprised this isn't linked to
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania
|
| Also, 'swooning'
| sprainedankles wrote:
| Interesting...I've collected and read a lot of old Maine books
| over the last few years, and now I'm trying to remember if any of
| them mentioned this sort of behavior in passing. The qualities of
| lumberjacks that worked deep in the Maine woods were fascinating
| (and surely, at times, exaggerated), and I know at least a few
| descendants of Northern Maine Frenchmen...perhaps I need to give
| them a shout (ha).
|
| Purely speculative: but I wonder if the daily lifestyle of a
| lumberjack, which was largely built around routine, rhythmic work
| and minimized social interaction (spending months in the woods at
| a time), coupled with shy tendencies to begin with (lots of
| lumber camps were completely male and had French/English language
| barriers = minimal small talk with coworkers), could've resulted
| in those kinds of reactions. I know that for me, it's easy to
| fall into a "trance" while doing manual labor for hours at a
| time, so I'd be curious if the amount of time they spent in that
| trance could've dampened their...social skills? Social reaction
| mechanisms? I don't know. Either way, pretty interesting. I'll
| have to search for some more references!
| marcinzm wrote:
| I wonder if reacting instantly to a command was also a positive
| survival skill when large trees could fall on you. People
| further away could see danger that you were too close to
| properly notice. If you didn't instantly do what someone said
| then you could end up dead.
| msrenee wrote:
| I thought about the survival aspect too. I'm a very jumpy
| person, especially when tired. I like to think it's due to
| heightened survival instincts. When I get surprised, there's
| often a 2-3 second period where I'm not consciously in
| control of my body. Usually all that happens is that I jump
| and take a couple quick steps the other direction before I
| come back into control. I have, however, found myself on the
| opposite side of a fence more than once and recently came
| around in position to vault a 5-foot tall barrier. During
| those few seconds, I've usually already identified who or
| what it was that startled me, but I'm not able to process
| that information or stop moving away. It's weird and a huge
| source of entertainment for friends, family, and coworkers.
| caycep wrote:
| I think it's considered a variation on hyperekplexia; if I
| recall, Marie Saint-Hilaire at BUMC did some case series and
| research into this.
| antattack wrote:
| If one jumps to the side - everyone follows, no one is waiting
| for 'timberrr!'
|
| Makes sense, if you're a lumberjack
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-04-19 23:00 UTC)