…and this is a 
An unholy Frankensteinian fusion
Category: Weblogs • Weirdness
Posted on: January 28, 2008 9:30 AM, by PZ Myers
We're about to witness a monstrous event here on Scienceblogs.
Omnibrain: weird neuroscience from an inveterate smart-ass.
Retrospectacle: Parrots and hair cells with Shelley passing out the cookies.
Both are young graduate students in neuroscience, and both have decided to shut down their blogs…and restart them as one freaky hybrid. They aren't going away, they're anastomosing.
There is one obstacle. They don't know what to call this brand new twisted experiment in blogging, so they're running a contest to name the new blog (they don't mention it, but they're also going to need a redesigned banner), and they're giving away prizes for the best name: a free subscription to Seed, books, and a hodge-podge of other random science stuff.
I'm no good at the blog-naming biz — look at what I came up with for this one! — but all this talk of Shelley and Frankenstein brought to mind some obvious epithets: "abhorred monster", "hideous progeny", etc. I think they like their proposed merger, so those won't do. So I searched on a full text version of Frankenstein and found the only place where the brain is mentioned in the whole book:*
To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death. I became acquainted with the science of anatomy, but this was not sufficient; I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body. In my education my father had taken the greatest precautions that my mind should he impressed with no supernatural horrors. I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition or to have feared the apparition of a spirit. Darkness had no effect upon my fancy, and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm. Now I was led to examine the cause and progress of this decay and forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses. My attention was fixed upon every object the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human feelings. I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted; I beheld the corruption of death succeed to the blooming cheek of life; I saw how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain.
Maybe I'm just morbid, but I think "Food for the worm" is an excellent name for a blog.
Somehow, I don't think I'll win any prizes. You people better take over.
*By the way, the next chapter contains the account of the revivification of the monster. It's not very dramatic — no lightning bolts, no creaking chains in an old castle, no grisly stitchery of corpses. Frankenstein just does it, leaving the method unexplained.
Comments
You could merge the names: Retro Brain ... or Omnispectacle. Mua ha ha!
Posted by: I don't think I'm owning up to this one | January 28, 2008 9:40 AM
Blogenstein: It works, bitches.
Posted by: Mike Fox | January 28, 2008 9:43 AM
Try "Inheritance of the Worm," it's more poetic. In fact, I may just have to use it for one of my own projects... :-P
Posted by: Aaron | January 28, 2008 9:46 AM
Frankenstein, in book or movie form, is usually seen as an indictment of a man trying to play God, therefore affirming the rightness of theism and belief. I take it more as a condemnation of a god who created a flawed man and tries to avoid the responsibilities inherent in such; Dr. Frankenstein is actually the murderer of his friends and loved ones, and not the poor Monster, who is only doing what his master made him to do. I see Frankenstein as a rationale for atheism--maybe Percy Shelley's influence on his wife's work?
So... hmmm... Pity the Hideous Progeny?
Posted by: Will E. | January 28, 2008 9:48 AM
inveterate smart-ass
First read as "invertebrate smart-ass".
I suppose "two heads are better than one" would be unwieldy.
By the way, it's pronounced Fronkensteen.
Posted by: Moggie | January 28, 2008 9:48 AM
Frankenstein just does it, leaving the method unexplained.
In the best tradition of intelligent design.
Posted by: TomS | January 28, 2008 10:05 AM
...because she hadn't seen the film when she wrote the book!
Posted by: Thony C. | January 28, 2008 10:22 AM
The dramatic "life" scene was taken from the 1926 movie Metropolis - a fine work indicting capitalism and showing the path towards enlightenment and communism.
Yes, I like old movie perhaps a bit too much.
Posted by: Claire | January 28, 2008 10:25 AM
There's always the name Greg Laden decided not to use: Pharyngul-b
Posted by: Reginald Selkirk | January 28, 2008 10:37 AM
Me likey The Golem Thinks
Posted by: True Bob | January 28, 2008 10:44 AM
Blucher!
Posted by: Epikt | January 28, 2008 10:45 AM
Braaaaiiiinnnssss?
Posted by: Andrew | January 28, 2008 10:52 AM
"Uncommon Dissent"?
Posted by: Geoffrey Alexander | January 28, 2008 10:52 AM
How about "parabiosis", which is the joining of the vascular systems of two organisms.
See here.
Posted by: Jeb, FCD | January 28, 2008 11:08 AM
"Parabiosis"? No, no. "CHIMAERA!"
Posted by: ajay | January 28, 2008 11:20 AM
With the whole Frankenstein/Shelley thing and the rebirth theme, I like the name "Re-Animated."
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | January 28, 2008 11:35 AM
How about Retro-Omni?
No, that sounds like a tricked-out Dodge subcompact (is that what Omnivores eat?)
How about Retro-Brain?
No, that sounds like an IDiot Cretinist (sorry, creationist) blog.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.'
SpectaBrain?
Wait, I've got it. "OmniSpectacle"?
No. That sounds like the same car with a presciption windshield.
I give up.
Posted by: Billy | January 28, 2008 11:49 AM
"Hindbrain". Or maybe even "Hinder Brain".
Posted by: Bob Newman | January 28, 2008 11:59 AM
The Diary of Herbert West? ;-)
Posted by: Kseniya | January 28, 2008 12:01 PM
It's going to be awkward if there ends up being more comments suggesting names on this blog than on Omnibrain.
Posted by: Rey Fox | January 28, 2008 12:05 PM
hah.. It won't be awkward at all. That's why we encouraged PZ to post this - we knew you guys would do a whole lot of good brainstorming. We'll be checking this thread with interest.
Posted by: Steve Higgins | January 28, 2008 12:09 PM
2brains1vat
Posted by: Ken Cope | January 28, 2008 12:20 PM
No. Then it would be written with ie, not with ei. Also, st is always "sht" (except exceptions -- but this isn't one).
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | January 28, 2008 12:20 PM
Uh-oh. Someone who hasn't seen Young Frankenstein.
Don't you know that's one of the requirements for internet use? You were supposed to take a test that covers YF, The Princess Bride, every Monty Python episode ever, the complete works of Douglas Adams, and a measure of vasocongestive response to photos of Natalie Portman before they ever allowed you on the webosphere.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to write you a ticket.
Posted by: PZ Myers | January 28, 2008 12:25 PM
No, DMOM, I'm afraid that really is Fronkensteen.
Posted by: Ken Cope | January 28, 2008 12:34 PM
That was my reaction as soon as I read the phrase. Didn't even reach the end of the quote. The Charnel-House also has a certain ring.
Posted by: W. Kevin Vicklund | January 28, 2008 12:36 PM
Brainstuff
Posted by: Ced | January 28, 2008 12:43 PM
Ooops...I don't meet the minimum requirements posted by PZ. Let's see...I've seen YF, bits of the Princess Bride, some Monty Python, read most of Douglas Adams (once...) but Natalie Portman leaves me cold. Do I have to turn in my secret decoder ring?
As for the name...I kinda like "Anastamosis"...medical people like to join things together.
Posted by: Dawn | January 28, 2008 1:07 PM
Don't you know that's one of the requirements for internet use? You were supposed to take a test that covers YF, The Princess Bride, every Monty Python episode ever, the complete works of Douglas Adams, and a measure of vasocongestive response to photos of Natalie Portman before they ever allowed you on the webosphere.
Hmm... maybe purchasing albums by They Might Be Giants and Frank Zappa, too? At least that's what I gather from the internets. I fail, miserably, on all accounts. But I did know the "Fronkenshteen" joke, and usually get references to dead parrots, 'alibuts, and knights who say "ni."
Posted by: Will E. | January 28, 2008 1:17 PM
David, the name Frankenstein is Germanic, but the character of Victor Frankenstein in the novel is a francophone from Geneva. I'm not sure how that would translate into pronunciation, though, but it wouldn't be standard German, that's for sure. (In fact, in the novel, the Creature learns to speak Parisian French, and there's a tiny bit of humor during his meeting with Victor on the glacier, and he has trouble understanding Victor's coarse Swiss dialect.)
The novel is well worth reading, and bears little resemblance to any of the motion-picture adaptations. If you read it, try to find the 1818 edition, not the 1831 revised edition. (Both are all over the internet; just check which edition you're looking at.) When she wrote the first edition, she was a card-carrying British Radical and a freethinker. (Her parents were the atheist William Godwin and the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.) There's not even a hint of the "tampering in God's domain" business in the 1818 edition, which was published anonymously. There are whole industries built around trying to figure out the "message" of Frankenstein. My take is that it's about a man who thinks he's some kind of genius-martyr, but is actually a psychopathic asshole. His great sin is not tampering in God's domain, but in being a thoughtless, self-centered jerk, oblivious to the people who love him.
As she grew older, Shelley rebelled against her upbringing and became a monarchist and Christian. So, when they wanted to publish a new edition of Frankenstein under her name, she tweaked it to add some of the God stuff. However, even that is not near as suffocating as what's been done in films, etc.
Posted by: HP | January 28, 2008 1:21 PM
"every Monty Python episode ever"
Actually, just Holy Grail should have you pretty well covered.
Posted by: Rey Fox | January 28, 2008 1:26 PM
I'm usually the guy referenced in this Onion article, the guy with the Zappa catalog, along with every Firesign Theatre line that ever went out over the ether, but then, I collect a lot of spoken word and audio strangeness. That should just clue you that I skew old for the webosphere. I mean, I'm not just older than PZ, I'm older than Wilkins.
Oh, and PZ, you left out MST3K, which usually include Firesign Theatre lines that get blurted out when something funny should be said. It's kind of like comedy tourettes. It's mostly harmless.
Posted by: Ken Cope | January 28, 2008 1:28 PM
Shouldn't there be a reference to Thomas Willis in the name, for the cognoscenti?
I suggested "You talkin' to me, Willis?" but with little hope of success.
Posted by: Linkmeister | January 28, 2008 1:30 PM
"There's not even a hint of the "tampering in God's domain" business in the 1818 edition"
How about peppering in God's lo mein?*
* This one's on the advanced internet user test.
Posted by: Rey Fox | January 28, 2008 1:30 PM
Ken Cope you are a sick sick man..
Posted by: Steve Higgins | January 28, 2008 2:08 PM
Frankenblog
Brain and Brain, What Is Brain?
Posted by: Donnie B. | January 28, 2008 2:09 PM
Um, just a minute, let me make a Venn-diagram with the constraints..., okay, I get "Weird Science".
Nope, the control would be Kelly LeBrock.
How about the mongrel "Grey Parrots Matter"?
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson, OM | January 28, 2008 2:10 PM
How about:
Neuropsychedelia
?
Posted by: s1mplex | January 28, 2008 2:29 PM
"the wonders of the eye and brain" has a nice ring to it
Posted by: phio gistic | January 28, 2008 2:31 PM
Oh, yeah, there are only men on the internet. I forgot. (Disappears in a cloud of smoke, weeping quietly to the tune of "The internet is for porn.")
Posted by: phio gistic | January 28, 2008 2:35 PM
Thank you Steve. Here's another: Autocerebroscope
Posted by: Ken Cope | January 28, 2008 2:43 PM
Phew reading through the comments and I didn't see the one I thought of immediately.
I present you with "Abby Normal"
Posted by: Mercurious | January 28, 2008 4:31 PM
Considering the "death" of two blogs and their subsequent merged "resurrection," how about "They rise again"?
Paying homage to the immortal bard and Macbeth's line, "There was a time that when the brains were out a man would die, but now they rise again."
Posted by: chezjake | January 28, 2008 4:48 PM
c'mon, you guys! PZ's "Food for the Worm" if fucking AWESOME!
Posted by: Mark POV | January 28, 2008 5:13 PM
is*
Sorry.
Posted by: Mark POV | January 28, 2008 5:14 PM
"Bird Brains"? "The Merged Bird/Brain Blog"? Sigh...I agree that "Food For the Worm" is pretty damn good.
Posted by: YSTH | January 28, 2008 5:49 PM
While I think 'Food for the Worm' is fantastic, I'd have to chime in with one I used for a RPG Adventure title:
"Dissolution of the Chordates".
Posted by: Marc Mielke | January 28, 2008 8:31 PM
Ken Cope, do you have the Goon Show memorized as well?
I like Hindbrain, 2brains1vat, Grey(Parrots)Matter
Posted by: Monado in Savannah, GA | January 28, 2008 10:01 PM
Nothing memorized really, more than the Ying Tong Song. I've got a couple of double CDs worth, Tales of Old Dartmoor--Spike Milligan solo (I'm Walking Backwards, for Christmas) and Peter Sellers solo.
Goons were too late a discovery for me; I could probably recite most of the Bonzo Dog Band catalog from memory, though.
Posted by: Ken Cope | January 28, 2008 10:16 PM
"Maybe I'm just morbid, but I think "Food for the worm" is an excellent name for a blog."
naaa
Food FOR Worms
that's it.
Posted by: Kevin | January 28, 2008 10:56 PM
Well YSTH beat me to it. I swear "Bird Brains" was the very first thing I though of.
Don Smith, FCD
Posted by: uh, Clem | January 28, 2008 11:41 PM
what about...
NeuroLinguisticParrots
:-D
whatever they call it, I know it'll be good!!
Posted by: thumpthumpeyes | January 28, 2008 11:51 PM
Why not pay tribute to Mr. Bungle and name it Retrovertigo?
Posted by: Rey Fox | January 29, 2008 2:03 AM