![]() ![]() But, after quicksand peaked, it became a joke. In quicksand’s early years, the movie scenes featured quicksand as a very serious threat. It rose in the ’40s, skyrocketed in the ’60s, and then fell out of favor.Įngber found a pattern in the data. Comparing this number to the total number of movies produced allowed him to show that quicksand had a lifecourse. He found a source of data - compiled by, of all things, quicksand sexual fetishists - that included every movie scene that involved quicksand from the 1900s to the 2000s. But they understood that it was something that people used to be afraid of: “My dad told me that when he was little his friends always said ‘look out that could be quicksand!'”Įngber became fascinated with what happened to quicksand. They were more afraid of things like aliens, zombies, ghosts, and dinosaurs. “I usually don’t think about it,” said one. ![]() Interviewing a class of fourth graders, writer Dan Engber discovered that most understood the concept, but didn’t find it particularly worrisome. But these days, quicksand can’t even scare an 8-year-old. It held a vise-grip on our imaginations, from childish sandbox games to grown-up anxieties about venturing into unknown lands. “For many of us, quicksand was once a real fear,” write the producers at Radio Lab: ![]()
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