Turtle Diary - Revision history

Eb: /* something called Original Therapy */

2026-10-07T17:23:56Z

something called Original Therapy

Eb: /* God's going to step in and put things to right in a couple of years .... We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time */

2026-10-07T17:21:58Z

God's going to step in and put things to right in a couple of years .... We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time

Eb: /* the astronauts on Skylab-2 have got two spiders with them */

2026-10-07T17:21:23Z

the astronauts on Skylab-2 have got two spiders with them

Eb: /* God's going to step in and put things to right in a couple of years .... We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time */

2026-10-07T17:19:25Z

God's going to step in and put things to right in a couple of years .... We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time

Eb: /* An important witness in the current American government scandal */

2026-10-07T17:17:46Z

An important witness in the current American government scandal

Eb: /* We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time */

2026-10-07T17:12:18Z

We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time

Eb: /* Chapter 20 */

2026-10-07T17:10:32Z

Chapter 20

Eb: /* The Man in the Zoo */

2026-10-06T04:06:28Z

The Man in the Zoo

Eb: /* The Book of Common Prayer open at At the Burial of the Dead at Sea */

2026-10-06T04:02:43Z

The Book of Common Prayer open at At the Burial of the Dead at Sea

Eb: /* Chapter 49 */

2026-10-06T03:58:05Z

Chapter 49

@@ Line 209: / Line 209: @@
 === something called Original Therapy ===
-This isn't as far as I know a direct depiction of any actual New Age practice at the time, but the idea of changing your breathing to induce an altered state, and thereby making contact with some kind of preconscious experience, may have been inspired by Leonard Orr's version of {{wp|Breathwork (New Age)|"breathwork"}}. Orr's idea of "rebirthing" is more specifically referenced later when a character is shown "doing a natal".
+This isn't as far as I know a direct depiction of any actual New Age practice at the time, but the idea of changing your breath (or in this case having it squeezed out of you) to induce an altered state, and thereby making contact with some kind of preconscious experience, may have been inspired by Leonard Orr's version of {{wp|Breathwork (New Age)|"breathwork"}}. Orr's idea of "rebirthing" is more specifically referenced later when a character is shown "doing a natal".
 The Original Therapy scene was sadly—but not surprisingly, since it's a much broader comic setpiece than anything else in the book—omitted in both adaptations of ''Turtle Diary''.

@@ Line 187: / Line 187: @@
 === God's going to step in and put things to right in a couple of years .... We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time ===
-Assuming the novel takes place [[#An_important_witness_in_the_current_American_government_scandal|in an earlier year]], this is a true description of {{wp|Unfulfilled Watch Tower Society predictions#1975:_The_worldwide_jubilee|multiple statements in Jehovah's Witness publications}} beginning in the late '60s. As with many religious groups whose apocalyptic predictions did not come true, membership in the Jehovah's Witnesses dropped after 1975 but did not disappear, and the predictions were moved forward.
+Assuming the novel takes place [[#An_important_witness_in_the_current_American_government_scandal|in an earlier year]], this is an accurate description of {{wp|Unfulfilled Watch Tower Society predictions#1975:_The_worldwide_jubilee|multiple statements in Jehovah's Witness publications}} beginning in the late '60s. As with many religious groups whose apocalyptic predictions did not come true, membership in the Jehovah's Witnesses dropped after 1975 but did not disappear, and the predictions were moved forward.
 == Chapter 23 ==

@@ Line 203: / Line 203: @@
 === the astronauts on Skylab-2 have got two spiders with them ===
-It was Skylab-3<ref>{{cite article|author=Helmenstein, Anne Marie|date=July 3, 2019|title=Spiders in Space on Skylab 3|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/spiders-in-space-on-skylab-3-606024|publication=ThoughtCo|accessed=January 31, 2021}}</ref> (although the numbers don't refer to different space stations, just a series of missions on the same station), and this is more evidence (like the Watergate reference) that either a good deal of the novel was written in 1973 or it takes place then.
+It was Skylab-3<ref>{{cite article|author=Helmenstein, Anne Marie|date=July 3, 2019|title=Spiders in Space on Skylab 3|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/spiders-in-space-on-skylab-3-606024|publication=ThoughtCo|accessed=January 31, 2021}}</ref> (although the numbers don't refer to different space stations, just a series of missions on the same station); this is another reference placing the book [[#An_important_witness_in_the_current_American_government_scandal|in 1973]].
 == Chapter 25 ==

@@ Line 187: / Line 187: @@
 === God's going to step in and put things to right in a couple of years .... We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time ===
-Besides being more evidence that the novel takes place a couple of years before it was released, this is a true description of {{wp|Unfulfilled Watch Tower Society predictions#1975:_The_worldwide_jubilee|multiple statements in Jehovah's Witness publications}} beginning in the late '60s. As with many religious groups whose apocalyptic predictions did not come true, membership in the Jehovah's Witnesses dropped after 1975 but did not disappear, and the predictions were moved forward.
+Assuming the novel takes place [[#An_important_witness_in_the_current_American_government_scandal|in an earlier year]], this is a true description of {{wp|Unfulfilled Watch Tower Society predictions#1975:_The_worldwide_jubilee|multiple statements in Jehovah's Witness publications}} beginning in the late '60s. As with many religious groups whose apocalyptic predictions did not come true, membership in the Jehovah's Witnesses dropped after 1975 but did not disappear, and the predictions were moved forward.
 == Chapter 23 ==

@@ Line 145: / Line 145: @@
 === An important witness in the current American government scandal ===
-Although ''Turtle Diary'' was published in 1975, it's likely that Hoban was either writing this earlier and referring to the Watergate affair, or just assuming that Watergate-type events would be a permanent fixture of US politics from then on. I'm not sure the specific quote William describes is real, but I'm guessing it's meant to be G. Gordon Liddy; it would be in character with Liddy's grandiosity and homophobia.
+Although ''Turtle Diary'' was published in 1975, there are multiple remarks ([[#God.27s_going_to_step_in_and_put_things_to_right_in_a_couple_of_years_...._We.27ve_been_interested_in_the_year_1975_for_some_time|Chapter 20]], [[#the_astronauts_on_Skylab-2_have_got_two_spiders_with_them|Chapter 24]]) suggesting that Hoban wrote much of the novel in 1973, or at least that it takes place then.
 == Chapter 16 ==

@@ Line 183: / Line 183: @@
 This bilingual pun probably isn't etymologically accurate. Shark in French is "requin", which sounds a little like "requiem", and "requiem" comes from "to rest" in Latin. But it's not clear that the words really are related; "requin" is thought to be from a different word that means showing your teeth.
-=== We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time ===
+=== God's going to step in and put things to right in a couple of years .... We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time ===
 Besides being more evidence that the novel takes place a couple of years before it was released, this is a true description of {{wp|Unfulfilled Watch Tower Society predictions#1975:_The_worldwide_jubilee|multiple statements in Jehovah's Witness publications}} beginning in the late '60s. As with many religious groups whose apocalyptic predictions did not come true, membership in the Jehovah's Witnesses dropped after 1975 but did not disappear, and the predictions were moved forward.

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:10, 7 October 2026
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	This bilingual pun probably isn't etymologically accurate. Shark in French is "requin", which sounds a little like "requiem", and "requiem" comes from "to rest" in Latin. But it's not clear that the words really are related; "requin" is thought to be from a different word that means showing your teeth.		This bilingual pun probably isn't etymologically accurate. Shark in French is "requin", which sounds a little like "requiem", and "requiem" comes from "to rest" in Latin. But it's not clear that the words really are related; "requin" is thought to be from a different word that means showing your teeth.
		+
		+	=== We've been interested in the year 1975 for some time ===
		+
		+	Besides being more evidence that the novel takes place a couple of years before it was released, this is a true description of {{wp\|Unfulfilled Watch Tower Society predictions#1975:_The_worldwide_jubilee\|multiple statements in Jehovah's Witness publications}} beginning in the late '60s. As with many religious groups whose apocalyptic predictions did not come true, membership in the Jehovah's Witnesses dropped after 1975 but did not disappear, and the predictions were moved forward.

	== Chapter 23 ==		== Chapter 23 ==

@@ Line 123: / Line 123: @@
 === ''The Man in the Zoo'' ===
-The 1924 ''New York Times'' review of this novella called it "delightful" and described its theme like so: "a man lives side by side with lower animals, and appears not wholly to advantage."<ref>{{cite article|date=June 15, 1924|title=David Garnett Displays Modern Man in a London Zoo|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/06/15/101602000.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0|publication=New York Times}}</ref>
+The 1924 ''New York Times'' review of this novella called it "delightful" and described its theme like so: "a man lives side by side with lower animals, and appears not wholly to advantage."<ref>{{cite article|date=June 15, 1924|title=David Garnett Displays Modern Man in a London Zoo|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/06/15/101602000.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0|publication=New York Times Book Review}}</ref>
 === The turtle in Lear's ''Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò'' looks like a hawksbill in the drawing ===

@@ Line 355: / Line 355: @@
 === ''The Book of Common Prayer'' open at ''At the Burial of the Dead at Sea'' ===
-In Church of England tradition, the liturgy for burial at sea is mostly the same as burial on land, but instead of "commit his/her body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust", the text is: "commit his/her body to the deep, to be turned into corruption, looking for the resurrection of the body, (when the Sea shall give up her dead)".<ref>{{cite article|title=Prayers to be used at Sea|publication=Book of Common Prayer|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/prayers-be-used-sea|accessed=October 5, 2026}}</ref>
+In Church of England tradition, the liturgy for burial at sea is mostly the same as burial on land, but instead of "commit his body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust", the text is: "commit his body to the deep, to be turned into corruption, looking for the resurrection of the body, (when the Sea shall give up her dead)".<ref>{{cite article|title=Prayers to be used at Sea|publication=Book of Common Prayer|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/prayers-be-used-sea|accessed=October 5, 2026}}</ref>
 === her Postal Savings book ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:58, 6 October 2026
Line 352:		Line 352:

	{{wp\|Belisha beacon\|Belisha beacons}} are lamps at pedestrian crossings.		{{wp\|Belisha beacon\|Belisha beacons}} are lamps at pedestrian crossings.
		+
		+	=== ''The Book of Common Prayer'' open at ''At the Burial of the Dead at Sea'' ===
		+
		+	In Church of England tradition, the liturgy for burial at sea is mostly the same as burial on land, but instead of "commit his/her body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust", the text is: "commit his/her body to the deep, to be turned into corruption, looking for the resurrection of the body, (when the Sea shall give up her dead)".<ref>{{cite article\|title=Prayers to be used at Sea\|publication=Book of Common Prayer\|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/prayers-be-used-sea\|accessed=October 5, 2026}}</ref>

	=== her Postal Savings book ===		=== her Postal Savings book ===