Whispers of the Past: Ghostly Tales from Towns County, Georgia

https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/introduction-to-the-second-edition-pp-vi-xxix/

DOI: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_LordA.The_Singer_of_Tales.2000

Digital edition of Albert Lord's The Singer of Tales, second edition

Given the propensity for technologists in the late 90s and early 00s to have rose colored glasses with respect to their technologies, it's nice to see at least some nod to potential misuses and bad actors within the design of future tools.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/idle_hands_are_the_devil%27s_workshop

Proverbs 16:27 "Scoundrels concoct evil, and their speech is like a scorching fire." (Oxford, NSRV, 5th Edition) is translated in the King James version as "An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire." The Living Bible (1971) translates this section as "Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece."

The verse may have inspired St. Jerome to write "fac et aliquid operis, ut semper te diabolus inveniat occupatum" (translation: "engage in some occupation, so that the devil may always find you busy.”) This was repeated in The Canterbury Tales which may have increased its popularity.

Bizarre...

Fairy tales in The Master and Margarita

Chaucer use of they for singular