MovieChat Forums > FairyTale: A True Story (1997) Discussion > So... were people just stupid back then,...

So... were people just stupid back then, or what?

posted 18 years ago by goddessio
18 replies | jump to latest

I mean, you can take one look at the pictures and say, "oh, paper cutouts." Not even a smidgen of doubt. They don't blend in as natural objects AT ALL. They're flat and bright white. The hoax confession was rather redundant, IMO.

The pictures were shown pretty quickly in the movie -- presumably so the audience won't have just that reaction. Modern audiences who are comfortable with high tech 3D computer graphics would just snort and laugh at how fake they are.

The one excuse I could make for people of that era is that they weren't as familiar with photography as we are. So I'll concede a bit of ignorance. Still, it's not like they hadn't seen sheets of paper before. Hello? Bright, white, flat sheets of paper?

People can't possibly have been that gullible. Yet they were. Why? It boggles my mind.

Any theories?

[–] nbreyfogle-1 12 years ago

People are stupid TODAY.

One of the most consistently demonstrated qualities of the human mind throughout all of human history is that of self-deception; delusion. People still exhibit massive stupidity today. Some still insist today that these obviously faked fairies were real, for instance.

Such stupidity boggles the rational mind, but it does exist, and in high numbers of childish adults.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Molly-31 10 years ago

It's a popular notion to believe that people in former times were "stupid" or "gullible". Actually, most people were just as intelligent, even cynical, as they are today, but they had to go with the information they had.

This film gives the impression that people flocked to Cottlingley by the thousands and that millions more succumbed to total brain-dead belief. It would be more accurate to say that for the general public, their reaction to the photographs might have been dismissal or curiosity, but for the most part it was not a matter of supreme importance. Most people would have looked at the hair styles and clothing and immediately recognized them as paper cutouts. (I certainly did, when I was twelve, and I believe in fairies, I just don't think they look anything like anyone thinks.)

Even most believers would have treated it like Catholics first hearing about the visitations at Lourdes; well, if it's real, we will find out in time.

Not even every member of the Theosophical Society (the metaphysical study group shown in the film) believed the photos were real. It is true that at the time the Modern Spiritualists were experimenting with telegraph, photography and other relatively recent inventions, to see if it were possible to contact the next world. They believed it might be done, without necessarily believing anyone had actually done it. These groups had more of an experimental motive, not blind faith.

You've got me?! Who's got you?!