Talk:Indian rope trick/Archive 1

Untitled

This entry, one of an unprecedented 52, has won the September 2005 West Dakota Prize, awarded for successfully employing the expression "legend states" in a complete sentence.

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Killings

"It is also believed that sometimes actually two boy assistants were involved, and one got actually killed."
Is there a source for this? It seems very unlikely that boys would continue to be assistants, on the certain knowledge that one of them would be killed each time the trick was performed. I think this would need a reference were it to be kept. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 11:16, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

Moved

Moved the following from the main page: "The name author of The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick is Peter Lamont, NOT Peter Lamot.' It was posted by some annonymous user. --Bhadani 10:28, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Contradiction

This article clearly contradicts itself by saying

"been performed in and around India in about the 1800s. "

and then contains an entire paragraph with accounts of occurrences of it back to Marco Polo. This clearly contradicts the first line.

82.21.206.85 (talk) 18:25, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Another clear contradiction is claiming that the Indian Rope Trick was "almost certainly" a hoax invented by John Elbert Wilkie, while later admitting that Pu Songling wrote an account of a virtually identical magic trick over a hundred years previous. The claim of Wilkie being the the originator is clearly false, so why continue to back it? 124.229.217.158 (talk) 09:38, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

The claim of Wilkie's hoax is NOT FALSE; the claim of Pu Songling's mentioning the trick certainly is. Just click on the link to his book and find the reference to an English translation. He indeed mentions a man who descended from clouds by the means of a rope, but it is a fairy tale, and not a trick. Nor there are any dismembered boys.188.123.240.127 (talk) 21:53, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Space Elevator

Why in the world does this article link to the article on space elevators and the disambig page for skyhooks? 24.218.218.197 (talk) 02:21, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

No idea, but I'm removing it. Viriditas (talk) 12:33, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Nifty Article but...

WHat do you guys think about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnxJAa_Rd3A ???

74.37.134.153 (talk) 14:14, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

The Rope Trick performed by an Irish God

There is an old mythological Irish tale about the God Manannan, who disguises as a clown and actually performs the rope trick. He uses a "thread of silk" instead of a rope, but otherwise it is almost exactly the "classical version" of the "Indian Rope Trick".

Here is the story: http://www.manannan.net/library/Lady%20Gregory/Manannan%20at%20Play.htm (the rope trick is almost at the end).

This seems to indicate that the rope trick is actually an ancient "travelling myth". However this is "original research" on my part and this is not the original form of the story (it is the 1904 retelling/redaction from the "Irish Mythology" by Augusta Gregory), so I just put it here. Maybe someone with a better knowledge of the subject can use it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.65.92.21 (talk) 01:31, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Lost Magic Decoded Oct 2012

FYI they found a fakir in India who could do this trick, in what looked like an open field near a village. The rope was 20 feet long and a small child was able to climb up, although the fakir didn't chop him up. They were calling the legend "confirmed" after acknowledging a long history of skepticism, including faked videos of the Indian rope trick using reversed footage.

It would seem the article is in need of a slight rewrite, maybe a mention of confirmed, contemporary video of the trick being performed. 75.108.157.56 (talk) 21:39, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

The article already explains that a number of magicians can do part of the trick.

The part that's legendary is the boy's disappearance, the limbs, and the reappearance. APL (talk) 22:07, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

No the part that was being questioned was whether or not someone could climb up the rope. That was what the rewards were being posted for in the early 1900s. People can make a small, short rope suspend in the air using magnets and other methods but no other sources can make a 20 foot rope climb slowly in the air, out of a basket, in an open field (actually it would appear there are a couple, just not on video AFAIK). Unless you can provide other such sources please revert my edit. 75.108.157.56 (talk) 14:12, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

Nonsense. The rope coming up is a pretty routine trick. You've got a hidden mechanism in the "open field" and a false bottom on the basket. It requires a little engineering, but it's still standard conjuring stuff.

The part that beggared belief was that the boy could disappear from plain sight, while visible to the audience from 360 degrees around.

The article explains this. That's why Karachi didn't get the prize money, because his attempt to recreate the (then fictional) trick did not include the part that seemed most impossible. APL (talk) 18:27, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

There was a challenge in 1935 that wanted a 10 foot rope to suspend in the air well enough to be climbed and photographed. The only other criteria was that the rope had to be supplied by a third party. This is in the wikipedia article (at least it is now, before you go and remove it). Clearly there are variations as to what the "trick is" -- the first section even explains this.

To add -- I altered the section /* The trick */ to add this version of the trick, with citation. The rest of the article is spent bashing the Indian rope trick in general and I feel it's appropriate to mention that fakir still perform this version of the Indian rope trick, in it's traditional form, before the article goes into full bashing mode. Seeing how the section is devoid of citation and is inaccurate anyway (the rope isn't "hurled" into the air, indeed the fakir barely touches the rope) I see no reason why this edit is inappropriate. I still feel the introduction is ambiguous / biased, as only the most extreme version of the trick is questioned, so I would like you to reconsider a couple edits there. 75.108.157.56 (talk) 15:36, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

There isn't really a "Traditional form". The trick started as a completely fake newspaper article. Then, once it became legendary, real performers started doing the non-impossible parts of the trick. APL (talk) 18:27, 30 June 2013 (UTC)

Your edit has spelling / grammar mistakes and 'you also vandalized another contributor's edits'. Please stop going out of your way to censor my small contribution; you're causing a mess not just for me but for everyone else. Thank you. 75.108.157.56 (talk) 13:40, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

File:Thurston, the famous magician - East Indian Rope Trick.jpg

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Thurston, the famous magician - East Indian Rope Trick.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on March 18, 2014. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2014-03-18. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. Thanks! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 01:29, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Picture of the day

An advertisement for a 1927 enactment of the Indian rope trick by stage magician Howard Thurston. This form of stage magic is said to have been performed in and around India during the 19th century, though the factuality of this has been disputed.Poster: The Otis Lithograph Co.; Restoration: Adam Cuerden