Who Was Frances Wright

What were Walt Whitman's influences?

Whitman saw himself as a new poet, the “true” American poet, casting himself off from the literary canon. However, many different influences flowed into his work.As a child and youth, three major figures touched him: Thomas Paine, Friends preacher Elias Hicks, and Scottish-born writer and lecturer Frances Wright.Ralph Waldo Emerson was a mentor, not so much in style as in sentiment, especially in his quest to create a literature unique to the United States.He finished school at age fifteen, but his education continued. He attended countless stage productions, read vociferously from popular to high-brow literature. As a printer, then as a journalist, news flowed into (and out of) him. He absolutely loved Walter Scott, especially Scott’s “The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,” a collection of Scottish folk ballads. “How much I am indebted to Scott no one can tell. If you could reduce the Leaves to their elements you would see Scott unmistakably active at the roots.”He also read James Fenimoore Cooper, absorbing the romanticization of the American frontier, George Sand, Homer, Shakespeare (to name just some examples), and scientific works, including Humboldt’s Kosmos.

What are some frightening true events that have yet to be adapted into a film or TV series?

The kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart in 1933 is a mostly forgotten yet quite important moment in American justice.Hart was the heir to a department store fortune in San Jose CA. He disappeared while on his way to pick up his father and chauffeur him to a meeting. A ransom demand was soon afterward made, and after several days two men were arrested and confessed under duress that they had kidnapped and killed Hart by throwing him off a bridge.A hue and cry went up for vigilante justice, including a call from the local newspaper for mob violence. The governor refused to make any move to quiet nerves, or to call out the National Guard to keep order. When Hart’s body was discovered, a crowd of thousands gathered at the jail, rammed open the doors, and lynched the suspects by hanging them. The whole incident was covered by live radio reports and extensive newspaper stories. No one was ever prosecuted for the lynchings despite literally thousands of witnesses.Several films have been made loosely based on the story, but nothing too specifically linked to the crimes has been done. The facts were documented in the book Swift Justice by Harry Farrell.

What are France's most remarkable contributions to the modern world?

The other answers are great, but to throw in some more:Aviation (Montgolfier brothers, Robert brothers)Moving pictures...                                       Read it on the Web.

On “House of Cards,” why don't Frank and Claire have sex with each other? They do have a sex life, but not with each other.

*I hope the amount of images wont cause any issue.I saw Frank and Claire having sex once: specifically when Zoe, the young and way beautiful reporter was hinting Frank into having sex with her, by sending him a message. She had asked him to have sex earlier in the morning and he answered that during the night he will call her, presumably for getting together and have sex. Claire realizes this and asks Frank if he will answer, as if it were perfectly ok for Frank to go with another woman and have sex. But Frank refuses and says, in front of Claire, this:“No, I am done with work today” (Although he knows he would have sex with Zoe, and that that’s the reason she is calling)Then, Claire and Frank look at each other with a knowing look and rush to their bedroom, to have sex.Hence: Frank prefered Claire over young cute Zoe.But the key is that although Frank and Claire did have sex, the series creators never ACTUALY showed that scene to us, instead they just finished the episode right there, as if normal husband and wife sex were not thrilling enough; as if they did not want to bore us with it.As if they were saying:“We will skip it, because well… you know…. it is the kind of sex you have with your own wife or husband, nothing shocking there”I imagine that from then on, they decided that only thrilling or dramatic sex scenes were worthy of being portraited. Hell, they only showed Frank having sex with Zoe two or three times, and only when it had a very dramatic point to it.So, it seems to me that it is implied that Frank and Claire do have “normal” sex with regularity, but the series creators do not show it to us oftenly because it is not so thrilling, because, they are married, so not big deal there; they show sex only when it is shocking or dramatic in some way.For instance, there have been other couples that aparently have sex in a regular “normal” way and they have never showed them to us having sex.

What is statistically the scariest movie on Earth? I don't mean the popular ones like the Shining or The Conjuring, but literally the world’s scariest movie?

Statiscally? That’s hard to determine, but we can determine what the scaries tmovies are based on the atmosphere, tension, character development, and, of course, how people and critics have rated them.Based on these criteria, I’ll mention some of the scariest movies out there:Night of the Living Dead (1969)The ExorcistRosemary’s BabySuspiria (the original, not the remake that has yet to be released)The Thing (the one directed by John Carpenter)Alien (think about the atmosphere of this movie: a spaceship in the middle of nowhere. Back then, people had never seen the alien creature before, making this movie extremely scary for its time)The ShiningThe Blair Witch ProjectSession 9Paranormal ActivityBabadookSinisterThe WitchHereditary (this one is recent, but it is absolutely great)A Quiet PlaceSilence of the lambs (not strictly horror, but scary anyhow)An American Werewolf in London (the one directed by John Landis. Despite being comedy-horror, it could be really scary from time to time)