Shark Attack at Amity
Submitted by bertie on Sun, 01/08/2006 - 04:53
Tags:
The long arm of coincidence is often spooky, but in this case it is both spooky and horrible.
There was a fatal shark attack today at one of the many islands off the east coast of Australia. And just look at the name of the place where it happened (north-west corner of the island).
nothing special... a place called amity in australia... bound to happen eventually... i think the real surprise is that it took 30 years(if it didn't already happen a dozen times since)
I suppose, faced with such horror, if we don't laugh we have to cry - so levity is a quite legitimate reaction. I don't know when Amity was named (and it's not just the Point that's called Amity, there's a village there too of the same name), but if they named it after Jaws came out we have to say that it's as if they were asking for trouble. But, as I said, I don't know when it was named.
don't get me wrong... it's worth mentioning... i just wouldn't say it's a shock... and i also wouldn't even suggest that the name of a place and a shark attack are at all related or dependent of each other... if you mean they were asking for trouble as in the publicity than you are correct, but using the term life imitating art I would hope is held to a higher standard than a shark attack in shark infested waters around a place called amity... and by higher standard I'm only refering to relevance not decency or anything like that.
no argument intended, by the way. just pointing out it's not as big a coincidence as people make it out to be(i have heard about this story from about a dozen friends now, not just here)
As I have tried to say, the size and impact of the coincidence depends to a large extent upon whether the place was named before or after the Peter Benchley novel with its fictional Amity was published (above I said before or after the movie, but that was...um...incomplete thinking). If the real place, a place known to be frequented by sharks, was named with thumb-in-nose reference to the novel or movie, then the coincidence is a great deal less impressive. Damn! I'm going to have to try and find out when and why the wretched place was so named. I'll get back to you.
Okay, here's the proof that it is indeed an impressive co-incidence. The government of the State of Queensland officially says that the village of Amity was named for its proximity to Amity Point which was itself named in 1824 after a ship, HM Colonial Brig Amity.
Well i'm still not impressed by the coincidence, but good work.
Well, I have to say either you don't have a good grasp of the concept of coincidence or you are a very difficult person to impress.
Hmm...I hope my previous post doesn't sound insulting - if it does, I apologise.
Coincidences do range very widely in probability. I reckon this one is in the moderately low range of probability (or the moderately high range of improbablity) - and, for me, that's enough to be impressive - moderately impressive :-)
no... you are actually correct... I'm just hard to impress... but not surprisingly that also means you'd have to try a lot harder to sound insulting to me... I just don't see a place called amity someplace in the world where there are sharks being that improbable... simple difference in opinion, or at least levels of improbability and which are impressive... like I said, it's noteworthy, but not overly impressive in my opinion.
And we are entitled to our differing opinions - so let's agree to disagree.
(Nice point, btw, about being harder to impress and thus to insult :-)
What if I told you that giant earthworms had surrounded Ville de Parfait in Belgium?
I'd say, "La sagesse consiste en sachant quand éviter le perfection". - I'd say that because I'd be in France :-)
I'd say, "mwaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Captained by The Rt. Hon. Quint?
Creepy! And I was watching Jaws last night too...
Yes, it adds new force to the idea of "life imitating art".