Post by Preston on Nov 12, 2004 17:26:17 GMT -8
If it's Not a comic-book but a regular book, I prefer to read Nonfiction but it has to be Nonfiction about something Bizarre. And so it is with the book "The Two," the biography of the true-life Conjoined Twins---or,as they were called at that time, the Siamese Twins. Chang and Eng were joined by a ligament at their torso in such an area where they could have been safely separated nowadays, but during their time, medical science had Not yet advanced to that level of skill or knowledge. But so much the better for people at that time who hungered for entertainment and novelty. When the Siamese Twins made their first appearance in America, they were actually treated with skepticism at first, because scientists initially scoffed at such a bizarre abnormality! But once their abnormality was proven, Chang and Eng became enormously popular at Circuses.
So sensational were their appearances that the Siamese Twins heralded a tidal wave of other kinds of freaks such as the Bearded Lady and the Elastic Skin Man and other human oddities. In fact, this book also led up to my getting interested in the classic Tod Browning movie FREAKS, which, to this day, still remains my all-time favorite film.
Each conjoined twin married, each twin having his own wife, which created a sensation that even today's tabloids would envy. That is,how did each husband copulate with his wife if a THIRD person was attached? The answer simply was that the UNinvolved twin would read a book! (Which brings us back to the title of this section which is about books.
)
So sensational were their appearances that the Siamese Twins heralded a tidal wave of other kinds of freaks such as the Bearded Lady and the Elastic Skin Man and other human oddities. In fact, this book also led up to my getting interested in the classic Tod Browning movie FREAKS, which, to this day, still remains my all-time favorite film.
Each conjoined twin married, each twin having his own wife, which created a sensation that even today's tabloids would envy. That is,how did each husband copulate with his wife if a THIRD person was attached? The answer simply was that the UNinvolved twin would read a book! (Which brings us back to the title of this section which is about books.
)