Periodically, we peruse the Internet for interesting synchronicities. This one came from here.
It seems to support the contention that in creative venues, scientific research, and inventions, people dip into the same collective soup at the same time and come up with the same ideas.
In 1951 in the month of March, Dennis the Menace was born… twice. With only three days apart (but an identical debut day), both Hank Ketcham (US) and David Law (UK) created their first comics containing a character with an identical name. The two men were unaware of each others cartoons but when the coincidence was made known to them, they agreed to simply both continue writing their strips without interfering with the other. Even more coincidental was the fact that both Dennis the Menace characters wore striped jerseys (as is evident in the comparison picture above.)
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After re-reading the above story today, I remembered that my friend Ed Gorman and I both published novels called HAWK MOON in 1996. Neither of us were aware of the other’s Hawk Moon until the books were published. Other than the title, they had nothing in common, except that both books appeared to be ‘published in secret,’ meaning that they didn’t sell very well.
Rob
Hey, lady, it's not your mind! Rob added something to the post and it must've happened just as you were posting. Sorry!
oh, gee, i came over early this morning and read the post – and thought i'd left a comment – then came back for follow up and see that again my mind had failed me – but i'll blame it on the moon phase! 🙂
in any event, really intriguing about the different books, movies, etc, being in the making simultaneously – and i think it's true that this happens so many more times than we ever know – talk about collective soup!!!
great post!
That collective soup is simmering in a very big pot..If we think that there will be only one noodle in the pot, or one similar idea, we are always proven wrong. Dennis appeared to be a good idea to a couple of creative folks. The universe makes an offer, and there are takers.
Also Hollywood is a whole other soup..believe it or not, sometimes it's just a bottom line enterprise…like the 2 Sherlock Holmes movies coming out soon. The first one out imagines that they will be the hit!
I agree, Nancy. At some point, the tipping point is reached, and a new paradigm is born, a new turn in direction is made.
I think this underlines the possibility of being able to make massive changes in our world by changing the direction of our thoughts. There must be some saturation point in which a whole new direction occurs.
Thanks for the links, guys. We'll check them out. I think this kind of synchronicity happens more frequently than we realize.
Jeanne Peijnenburg invokes retrocausality to describe how "broad imagination" can redefine or even alter past events, resulting in changes to present-day personality and perception.
from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrocausality
Wow…that's really interesting! That kind of reminds me of how similar movies sometimes come out around the same time. The most recent example I can think of is Observe and Report and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Another one is The Descent and The Cave.
I did an internet search and found some more. This site lists several: https://www.filmjunk.com/2007/03/07/when-movies-come-in-pairs-examples-of-hollywood-deja-vu/
If you look around, you can probably find more examples. I think I also remember when the original Scary Movie came out, there was another movie called something like 'Scream If You Know What I Did Last Summer' that was similar, although I think the latter just ended up being a Direct to Video release.
Another thing I found curious that's a little different situation that the above examples, is there are apparently two upcoming movies that aren't connected with each other, but they apparently share parts of a title with something else. James Cameron is coming out with Avatar later this year, and next year M. Night Shyamalan is coming out with The Last Airbender next year. There apparently was a cartoon series called Avatar: The Last Airbender. Shyamalan's movie might be connected to the cartoon…I'm not sure…but his movie doesn't have Avatar in the title. As far as I know, Cameron's movie has nothing to do with either.