(Episode: “The Curse of Anubis”)
Synopsis: A political plotter thinks he can unite all Arab peoples around a stolen Egyptian artifact. Unfortunately for him, the theft gets the attention of Team Quest and of an ancient mummy, whose animated, revenge-focused existence fails to raise a single scientific eyebrow during the entire episode.
Tip 8: There’s nothing wrong with a little book-learning once in a while, even if you are an Intrepid Adventurer.
Gather around, troopers! Today we learn about the pathetic fallacy.
In addition to being one of those terms that sounds like an insult when shouted fast enough, the pathetic fallacy is usually used to describe nature imitating mood in art. Every crooner in a music video who ever sang sad songs to his girl in the rain was standing right in one of those things, as was nearly everyone in Wuthering Heights most of the time.
But, as its Wikipedia page reminds us, the phrase was sometimes used less to describe the devices themselves—the Rain of Sorrowful Tears, the Storm of Emotional Unrest, the Unseasonably Sunny Day of Joy—than the effect. How the sky seems less bright when you’ve just been dumped, for example.
Or how spooky the moon looks when you’re being stalked by an unearthly revenant bent on retrieving its sacred artifact. You know.
Next time: Honestly, The Bride of Frankenstein. I swear!
Next time on TQfM!: We mine similar ground to this great work of the canon.
