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This morning, April 12, 2024, the weather was beautiful and I went for my exercise job. The second song that shuffled up randomly on my iPhone was called God moved the waters. It was eerie because the opening lyrics relate to an event on April 14, 1912, the sailing of the Titanic on its fateful cruise from Southampton t for crews from Southampton. Immediately below is linked to the song:
Originally Posted by Blind Willie Johnson God move the waters
Year of nineteen hundred and twelve, April the fourteenth day
Great Titanic struck an iceberg, people had to run and pray
God moves, moves, God moves, ah, and the people had to run and pray
I wonder if anyone has thoughts on the reasons that the Titanic journey and sinking has such fascination in history. I've been singing songs about the Titanic since my years in date camp in 1963. The fascination does not pass with time.
I had a relative that was part of the crew on the Titanic that survived. Interesting, there is a whole Titanic wiki and survivors statements and biographies plus lots of other information are on there.
Synchronicity (German: Synchronizität) is a concept introduced by analytical psychologist Carl Jung "to describe circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection."[1] Synchronicity experiences refer to one's subjective experience whereby coincidences between events in one's mind and the outside world may be causally unrelated, yet have another unknown connection.
I guess it's more spooky than anything else. There's obviously no significance to the fact that I decided to go for a jog on April 14, 2024.
But there was a similar situation in my personal life. My Dad died on January 5, 1973 when I was 15. He had an illness and "officially" was told on December 15, though I really knew a while before. But I digress.
The next weekend, I took myself to White Plains by bus to purchase the January 1973 National Lampoon. I don't know if anyone remembers that magazine but each issue had a theme for satire. Once it was violence, including "Ten Japanese Methods of Self Defense." You get the picture. That month it was "Death." I bought the magazine and didn't look at the cover until I got on the return bus to my town. I thought it was uproariously funny, despite the personal topicality of the subject.
As far as the song goes, it was also unusually relevant, though not planned. Returning to the OP question, why has the Titanic's sinking held the public imagination in its sway more, say, than the similar in time and equally deadly San Francisco Earthquake or natural disasters?
For me it's symbolic of a theme in human progress - the foolproof plan. Was it human/technological error or the power of nature? Then of course, the why, which is the supernatural part of the question if the iceberg is to blame. We mostly notice a convergence of unfortunate events in these things.
I thought of the Titanic when the first automatic driving systems were announced.
But your question covers a personal aspect of the disaster. Those odd little synchronicities that many of us notice rarely have any meaning to anyone but us. What can i assume when I've just said something to DH, turn on the radio and hear the announcer repeat my sentence?
There's a "someone's looking over my shoulder" aspect to those things.
Guess you could read Jung to see what he has to say.
I think the fascination with Titanic goes to three factors.
1) The theme that the penultimate of (pick whatever) technological achievement still can fail and 2) when it does it shows there are still things the designers missed (number of lifeboats/failure to identify the threat in time, or hubris, speed in dangerous conditions, and also that 3) when a calamity / disaster befalls mankind it equalizes humankind showing no preference for socioeconomic status i.e. (we're all in the same boat and going to die sometime and we don't have much of a say in it).
I can't recall the tune or poem but I recall my mom used to recite some ditty about it and cannot recall it now. It got to the aspect of fate showing no favor to the wealthy (Astor, Guggenheim, Straus etc.) aboard the ship. Although in retrospect they did survive at higher rates based on where they were on the ship.
Last edited by ciceropolo; 04-17-2024 at 08:12 AM..
Years before the Titanic sank, two mysterious books were published that seemed to predict the disaster
The Titanic disaster has inspired countless stories.
That's not surprising. A luxury ocean liner sinking into the freezing Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage, dooming over 1,500 people, makes for a tale charged with pathos and danger.
(...)
But two fictional stories written before the disaster are truly remarkable. They include details that bear an eerie resemblance to what happened during the real-life catastrophe. Of course, it's important to note that transatlantic ocean liners were a major facet of travel in the late 19th and early 20th century. But some of the coincidences are uncanny, nonetheless.
The first work was written in 1886 by W.T. Stead, a prominent spiritualist and investigative journalist.
"How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid Atlantic, by a Survivor" tells the story of an unnamed ocean liner that sinks in the Atlantic. In the story, the protagonist is a sailor named Thompson, who grows concerned over the lifeboat shortage on deck. Sure enough, the liner collides with a small sailing ship in a fog.
(...)
In a horrible twist of fate, Stead lost his life in the disaster, and in another strange twist, he reportedly was convinced he'd die by either lynching or drowning.
The second novella — "The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility" by Morgan Robertson — boasted even more startling similarities to the sinking of the Titanic.
The story follows the fictional ocean liner Titan, which ultimately hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks. And the name and circumstances of the plot aren't the only details that fit the real-life disaster — the History of the Net breaks down a number of striking connections between the real-life and fictional ships.
Like the Titanic, the Titan was described as the largest ship afloat at the time. In fact, the sizes and lengths of the ships are quite close, as well as the speed at which they crash into the iceberg. Both liners have a dangerous shortage of lifeboats. In the story, the Titan was both dubbed "unsinkable," and proceeded to sink on a cold April night.
The classic mass tragedy story of technology overridden by human error. Speeding through an ice field. Insufficient life boats and British upper class privilege that kept ones inferiors at a disadvantage even in a life threatening emergency.
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