h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Night - A87782296
Author: Florida Sailor - U235886

This is a Flea Market Rescue;

Original Entry: Night - A87730040
Original Author: Pelegrhino - U14994864

I have tried to keep the original flavour intact, while doing a major re-write.

I hope you will find more humour than my normal, more serious, posts, and still find useful and interesting ideas.

In any event - have at!

FS

I love a <./>writing-fleamarket</.> rescue, well done!

One minor thing you may wish to consider – rather than using tabs at the start, you might want to use and tabs, thus:


In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.


There's not much difference, but looks neater when long sentences, such as 2, go over a single line. Up to you, and generally useful to know if you didn't before.

You've missed out embryos! Babies in the womb usually are rocked back and forth in their mother's tummy during the day, and so sleep then. But when their mothers lie down to go to sleep in the evening, the gentle rocking stops and so that's when they start kicking and wriggling. Oh and pregnant mothers always engage in a strange nesting activity involving vast numbers of pillows that take up approximately 90% of a double-bed, meaning the expectant father has no possibility of rest then either.
I did think you might wish to consider renaming the title to something like 'Mankind at Night' or similar, as the article is definitely dominated by people at nighttime. For this reason the sentence 'We shall talk more about human activity during the night in a later section' seemed a little out of place as the very next section discussed human activity at night.
A couple of commas in odd places such as 'Several pagan religions, such as the Wiccan and Druids conduct, services' – I'd put the comma before, not after, conduct. The phrase 'little desire to participate the your' needs to be clarified.

<BB<

I bet you could find someone who spends more than half their life in the night - certainly if you don't mind seasonal migration you could do it...no acceptable reason for doing this comes to mind but since when has that stopped me spouting an idea

Will look over rest of it when i get a chance

Thanks;

<BB<
Changed to ordered list, that was what I intended

Added a section on Foetuses and carried your interesting observations on pregnancy to the next logical stage. Thanks.

I didn't get into the pillow nest, while interesting is getting a bit afield for me.

Clarified the sentence around the astronomy link, I wanted to get the link in so badly that I forgot we must make the thought clear for those who do not click to the other Entry.

I will think about the Title, but as most of our readers will be human, or at least interested in them I'm not sure it is necessary.

>NBB
I added a footnote just for you.

FS

Hi, FS. This is an interesting take on the subject - I was expecting to read about astronomy etc.

It's interesting to see the sleep habits of different age groups listed together. Perhaps you could add that older folk find it difficult to sleep long at night, although they will take a nap or two during the day. Particularly on retiring, I think many people can't get out of the habit of getting up at 6 am or whenever they always had to get up to go to work. Spot on about the late teens, though. I still have one example of this who sleeps from 6 am to 6 pm, as he demonstrated yet again during the Christmas holidays.


One apostrophe mistake I noticed once or twice "Their parent's house" etc. Should be "parents' " - at least where there is more than one parent, which, I think, you are assuming here.

Thanks TC

You give some very good thoughts;

I was expecting to read about astronomy etc.

OK you and <BB< too, I revised the title - let me know what you think.

It's interesting to see the sleep habits of different age groups listed together.

This is a Flea-Market rescue and I wanted to keep as much of the original flavour as possible, that is why I wanted to take it on.

I really like to do this as it gives me a chance to play with humour, and all of the subjects I select are too serious (except maybe 'Tolerance').

Added quit a bit to the 'senior's' section, I hope I didn't go too far.

>One apostrophe mistake I noticed once or twice "Their parent's house" etc. Should be "parents' " - at least where there is more than one parent, which, I think, you are assuming here.

Only found one, corrected.


FS

Hi FS. The other one is "interrupt their parents(') sleep"

The para on old people is fine, except I am not comfortable about the last bit. Can't explain why. I mean the sentence where you say they will be glad of getting some good sleep at last.

I am trying to find somewhere a quote in English equivalent to the German Der Tod ist des Schlafes Bruder - Death is the brother of sleep. That might put that sentence about death into a less callous light.

Love the bit about haunting people at night, though!

Thanks TC
I moved the sentence about Death to the next section, it fits there better anyway.

Thought about changing sleep to rest, but your German phrase intrigues me, can you elaborate on how it is used, or where it came from? It might make a great footnote.

gotta

FS

Here we are. It's from mythology. Hypnos and Thanatos - Sleep and Death, were half-brothers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnos

And here it says they were twin brothers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanatos

And at the bottom on the painting by John William Waterhouse,is says,

Hypnos and Thanatos: Sleep and His Half-Brother Death, by John William Waterhouse, 1874.

It looks like an author error, some referances seem to say brother, however in the Greco-Roman they are refered to as twin brother, in Greek mythology simply as brother,

However Homer, In Iliad 16. 681 ff :
"Then [Apollon] gave him [Sarpedon] into the charge of swift messengers to carry him, of Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death), who are twin brothers, and these two presently laid him down within the rich countryside of broad Lykia."

Lucifer The Roman God of the Morning Star (Venus) Lucifer or the ‘Son of Morning’a minor Roman God who had his name stolen, might deserve a mention.

Good entry, don't know one particular grammar error appeared to me but - missing full stop next to the footnote on the "Death" paragraph

This is amusing, and much of it is very true to life.

Though with todays 24-hour society, I suspect a lot of people work at night.

You want a quotation about sleep and death? What about Hamlet?
" To die: to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil."

I was a bit troubled by the sentence "It is time to find friends elsewhere - pubs, restaurants and parks" Parks? at night?

Thank you TC

I posted in a hurry this morning, I am aware of the time difference between us and I didn't want to wait a whole day for your answer. That was great and I added the thought and links. (as much as I hate linking Wiki, I may look for other sites later)

>That might put that sentence about death into a less callous light.

I wanted to reply further, but didn't have time this morning. I did not intend this to be callous or humorous, it is one of the profound truths of the entry. This is one of the arguments for euthanasia, and probably the inspiration for Dylan Thomas' "Do Not go Gently into that Good Night". I have met many people over the years who are living in pain, with most of their friends and family gone, who have expressed this very thought. I do not want to expand this further in the Entry, however. Let the younger readers believe that I have shown a bit of bad taste, and let those who understand realize that they are not alone.

If I wanted to add more I might go with - First Corinthians, Chapter 15;

"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory."

But as I said I am contented with where we stand, anything more will become distraction. Thank you to the others for your fine suggestions



Thank you for the thought MVP, there are some very pleasant parks near here, and others you could not pay me enough to walk through. Added a footnote.

FS

Excellent rescue FS!

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Congratulations on an excellent article, FS.