Nostradamus in popular culture Totally Explained

Everything about Nostradamus In Popular Culture totally explained

The prophecies of the sixteenth century author Nostradamus have become a ubiquitous part of the popular culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As well as being the subject of hundreds of books (both fiction and non-fiction), Nostradamus' life has been depicted in several films, and his life and prophecies continue to be a subject of media interest. In the internet age, there have also been several well-known hoaxes, where quatrains in the style of Nostradamus have been circulated by e-mail. The most well-known example concerns the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Supposed prophecies

Nostradamus enthusiasts have credited him with predicting numerous events in world history, including the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, the atom bomb, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Indeed, they regularly make similar claims regarding each new world crisis as it comes along as there's a tendency to claim that 'Nostradamus predicted whatever has just happened'. These claims rely heavily on the role of interpretation; for example, for the supposed prediction of the rise of Hitler the reference is to Hister, the classical name for the Lower Danube.
One well-known supposed prophecy is that "a great and terrifying leader would come out of the sky" in 1999 and 7 months "to resuscitate the great King from Angoumois". But the phrase d'effraieur (of terror) in fact occurs nowhere in the original printing, which merely uses the word deffraieur (defraying, hosting). On the basis of Nostradamus's by-now well known technique of projecting past events into the future, Lemesurier suggests that X.72

therefore refers back to the restoration to health of the captive Francis I of France (who was Duke of Angoulême) following a surprise visit to his cell by his host, the then Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1525. No fewer than five of the planets were in the same signs on both occasions.

September 11

The September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City World Trade Center led to immediate speculation as to whether Nostradamus had predicted the event. Almost as soon as the event had happened, the relevant Internet sites were deluged with inquiries. In response, Nostradamus enthusiasts started searching for a Nostradamus quatrain that could be said to have done so, coming up with interpretations of Quatrains I.87, VI.97 and X.72. However, the various ways in which the enthusiasts chose to interpret the text were almost universally panned by experts on the subject (compare the relevant sections of the Snopes and Lemesurier websites listed in the External Links section). The nearest that they could come up with was quatrain VI.97

, which in the original 1557 edition ran:
ť Cinq & quarante degrés ciel bruslera,

   Feu approucher de la grand cité neufve, ť Instant grand flamme esparse saultera,

   Quant on voudra des Normans faire preuve: With instant evidently a version of the Latin instanter ('violently, vehemently'), a reasonable English translation (after Lemesurier) would thus appear to be:
ť Five and forty degrees, the sky shall burn:

   To great ‘New City’ shall the fire draw nigh. ť With vehemence the flames shall spread and churn

   When with the Normans they conclusions try.
   'Five and forty degrees' was said to be the latitude of New York City (which is incorrect; New York's latitude is 40°47'), or was interpreted as '40.5 degrees' (even though the decimal point hadn't yet come into use in the Europe of Nostradamus' day). 'New City' was claimed to be New York (even though Nostradamus refers in this way to various 'New Cities' whose names, unlike 'New York', literally mean 'New City', and especially Naples – from Greek Neapolis, 'new city'); and most of the attempts to fit in the 'Normans' seemed contrived at best. After the factual nature of these claims was widely denied, some suggested instead that the first line might refer to the actual angle at which one of the hijacked airliners hit the World Trade Center (which seemed unlikely, even if the rest had fit).
   Lemesurier suggests that the verse is merely an undated projection into the future of the capture of Naples by the Normans in 1139 during a year marked by a notably violent eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius that's recorded in the contemporary Annales Cassini had already revealed (bearing in mind that, in French, faire la guerre aux rochers, or 'to make war on the rocks', simply means 'to struggle fruitlessly') that the reference was probably to Naples and its nearby volcano. Subsequent investigation by Lemesurier

Political and military manipulation

During World War II, leaflets with false Nostradamus quatrains predicting the defeat of France were launched by German planes over European skies. It seems that this operation was mastered by Nazi political secretary Rudolf Hess and that even Adolf Hitler believed in Nostradamus' quatrains. Certainly his propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels did, under the influence of his wife Magda. Subsequently the Allies responded in kind, both with air-dropped leaflets and via the American film Nostradamus Says So.
After Rudolf Hess left Nazi Germany in a mysterious solitary flight to Scotland, probably seeking a peace agreement with the United Kingdom, Hitler issued the Aktion Hess, a mandatory prosecution of any divinator or future-teller in all Nazi-occupied countries.

Entertainment

Film

Nostradamus is the subject of many films and videos, including:

(Catastrophe 1999: Prophecies of Nostradamus); (1974 film by Toshio Masuda)
Nostradamus: The Man Who Saw Tomorrow (1981)
(2000)
(1994) Depicts Nostradamus's rise in influence, because of success in treating plague and his predictions, culminating in his appointment as court physician to Charles IX of France.
depicting angels fighting against disgraceful events and evildoers in the prophecies.

In the light of the facts revealed by the main article's listed sources, none of the above can be regarded as factual or reliable.
Television
The television series Alias prominently features the character Milo Rambaldi, a fictional Nostradamus-like prophet. In the science fiction series First Wave, the protagonists use a previously unknown book of quatrains of Nostradamus to fight back against an alien invasion. Nostradamus was also a regular character on This Morning With Richard Not Judy, played by Emma Kennedy. Each week, Nostradamus would make three predictions for the coming week, and would be rewarded with a new barbecue if he got two out of the three correct. He never managed this feat, although he did find a blossoming love affair with presenter Richard Herring. Seattle sketch comedy troupe Train of Thought mocked Nostradamus in their hit show Train of Thought > Laid Off. Nostradamus appeared semi-regularly on the Warner Bros. animated series Histeria! as an eccentric red-bearded man in stereotypical wizard garb. His speech tends to be oddly accented and filled with malaprops, and he repeats the phrase "Shut up!" inordinately. His voice is provided by Paul Rugg.
   On Mr. Show with Bob and David, an episode contains a sketch Nostradamus (played by Bob Odenkirk) called "Nostradamus and his companion." In it, Nostradamus is a homosexual who falls in love with a fashion designer, played by David Cross. Nostradamus is left behind by his constant chum, who goes on to achieve fame and fortune in the fashion industry. The sketch ends with a school being named after them: "Nostradamus and His Constant Chum Elementary School." 9
   On the FOX TV show, Futurama, One of the episode subtitles is "as predicted by nostradamus".
   In the Halloween special of Invader ZIM, when told of a prophecy, Dib asked if it was from Nostradamus, but the monster only read it off the bathroom wall.
   In the OVA FLCL, the character Mamimi makes a reference to Nostradamus in the fourth episode, Full Swing
   On Chappelle's Show, the sketch comedy show hosted by Dave Chappelle, there's a character called Negrodamus (played by comedian Paul Mooney), an African-American version of Nostradamus who makes various predictions in response to questions.
   In the Nickelodeon cartoon CatDog, the title character(s) find a prediction in a book by the fictitious prophet "Nostradummy" (an obvious reference) that appears to predict that the end of the world would be the next day.
   In the Hong Kong ATV series My Date with a Vampire(series 1), Nostradamus (also referred to as the "French Guy")was held to have made the prophecy of the end of world in 1999, with a third of the world's population turned into monsters, while the rest perish. The antagonist, vampire Yamamoto, sought to make this come true and rule the world, but the protagonists were able to stop this from occurring. This alleged prophecy had only been referred to a couple of times.
   In the Doctor Who story "The Ark In Space", The Fourth Doctor's infamous scarf was said to have been made by Madame Nostradamus, who the Doctor described as "a witty little knitter". Bob Bainborough portrayed Nostradamus in an episode of History Bites, appearing in an infomercial to sell his books, referencing C1Q35, among others, as an example of his prophecy.
   A two-hour documentary on Nostradamus first aired by the History Channel on 28 October 2007 suggests that a book of paintings in the National Library at Rome is The Lost Book of Nostradamus, even though this suggestion isn't supported by any of the reputable sources listed in the main article.
   In the anime/manga seris Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunso), Angol Mois is one of main supporting characters. "She was sent to planet Earth to arrive in July 1999 for Earth's destruction, as predicted by Nostradamus, under orders from her father. She states that during her first appearance she told Nostradamus to deliver a message to the humans warning them of her arrival." However, she was stopped by Keroro and Fuyuki and is currently staying at the Hinata house along with most of the Keroro Platoon.
Music
British singer/songwriter Al Stewart's album Past, Present and Future was a concept album including a song about every decade of the twentieth century. As Al wrote the album in 1973, events from the latter years of the century were covered by the song "Nostradamus", in which some of the prophecies are quoted.
   In 1981, Thin Lizzy Released the album Renegade, and in the song Angel Of Death the lyrics mention Nostadamus
   In 1984, Manfred Mann's Earth Band released the album Somewhere in Afrika, which contains a cover of the Al Stewart song, mistitled as "Eyes of Nostradamus". Composer Robert Steadman has twice used Nostradamus' prophecies in pieces of music: in 1987, quatrains by Nostradamus were juxtaposed with the Latin Requiem Mass text and poems on environmental issues. And in 1999, he set what was thought by some to be Nostradamus's prediction of the end of the world for soprano and chamber ensemble in The Final Prophecy. Marilyn Manson said that his Antichrist Superstar cd, which came out in 1996, was an answer to the Nostrandamus prophecy in which he said that "The 3rd. Antichrist was going to come to the earth in the year 1996". Haggard produced two albums dealing with the seer Michel de Notredame in the dark days of The Black Plague in Europe: And Thou Shalt Trust... the Seer in 1997 and Awaking the Centuries in 1998.
   Rapper Nas refers to himself as Nastradamus and released an album titled "Nastradamus" in 1999.
   Bulgarian guitarist Nikolo Kotzev released a rock opera called Nikolo Kotzev's Nostradamus in 2001, based on the life and times of Nostradamus.
   In 2005, Dutch band Kayak released a rock opera called Nostradamus - Fate of Man. Maksim, the cross-over piano player, plays a song entitled Nostradamus on his third CD. It is composed by Tonci Huljic. German power metal band Helloween's 1996 album The Time of the Oath is based on Nostradamus' supposed prophecy of a world war between 1994 and 2000.
   In 1997, Finnish metal band Stratovarius recorded a concept album loosely based on the life and prophecies of Nostradamus. The album was called Visions.
   In 2006, the popular British heavy metal band Judas Priest announced that they're planning to record a concept album based on the life of Nostradamus. Simply named Nostradamus, the album was released in 2008. The album itself focuses on Nostradamus' actual life and his prophecies.
   The singer Kevin Max mentioned Nostradamus in the song Fade to Red (Antigalaxy).
   The French Canadian band Okoumé have a song written about Nostradamus.
   Dutch stand up comedian Hans Teeuwen made a song around Nostradamus, mostly describing him in his tight green pants (Video).
   "Nostradamus said 'I predict that the world will end at half past six' / What he didn't say was exactly when," are the opening lyrics of "Tinderbox", penned by Bernie Taupin and sung by Elton John. Modest Mouse vocalist Isaac Brock seems to take a stab at Nostradamus in a song called "Education" from the band's fifth studio album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. The verse is as follows: "Good old Nostradamas / he knew the whole damn time / there would always be an east from west / and someone in there fighting".
   Nostradamus is mentioned in the chorus of Casey and Finnegan, a song written by Andrew (last name not known) and released on his website, Songs to Wear Pants To. "Casey and Finnegan, I think we should begin again / As the eve of man begins to fall. / And then there's Nostradamus, in his silk pajamas / Listening to the stars tell him all.
   Austrian composer Otto Schwartz composed a piece entitled "Nostradamus." This piece attempts to convey through music events in Nostradamus' life, as well as notable predictions.
   In the bonus track of Dane Cook's "Harmful if Swallowed" he speaks of how a person would wake up and think he's late, then look at his clock to find out that he's in fact late. He would yell "I HATE it when I'm like Nostradamus and I predict that I'm late!"
Comics
In an Italian Mickey Mouse story (Topolino E La Piramide Impossible), Mickey and Goofy travel back in time and by accident a young boy followed them back to the present. The boy had to go back to his own time and his memory of the future was erased, but before that he grabbed pieces of books. The boy of course became Nostradamus and the ripped pages from books explained his visions of the future. The story was made by Massimo Marconi and Massimo De Vita.
   A Phantom story from 1983 by Ulf Granberg and Jaime Vallvé featured an appearance by Nostradamus.
   In the DC Comics Universe, Nostradamus was an ancestor of Zatara and Zatanna.
   In Scott Adams's comic strip Dilbert, "Nostradogbert" is a pseudonym of Dogbert.
   In Mad Magazine's section entitled the "strip club" a comic strip entitled Middle School Nostradamus appears every so often. Nostradamus is depicted as a preteen in wizard garb who makes predictions of impending despair for the people he's around at inopportune times.
Games
Face released an arcade game Nostradamus. Though the game itself had nothing to do with Nostradamus, the game's title screen showed a resemblance to his son's portrait of him, however he's facing the other direction and looks more older.
   In, the prophecy of 1999 was used as the resurrection of Dracula and added that all born of the day of Dracula's demise are "Dark Candidates" meaning that they'll be next in line to be Dark Lord. This prophecy is referenced again in ; the Belmonts can't wield the Vampire Killer whip until 1999, when Dracula is revived.
   In Chrono Trigger, the Day of Lavos is in 1999 A.D the same year of the prophecy of 1999.
   In Jet Set Radio Future, the game concludes with the name of the Radio changing to have "Future" in the title, but "Not the future like Nostradamus talked about, a new kind of future. In the eroge Nostradamus ni Kiite Miro♪, a girl named Stra (a shortened form of Nostradamus) claims to be the writer of Nostradamus' predictions.
   The prophet Nostradamus appears in the 2003 video game
   In, Nostradamus appears as a adviser to his daughter during the game.
   In Super Ninja Boy for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System there's a prophet named Notruedamus.
Blogging
On the Blog Nostradamus New Predictions, A Commercial Industrial Photographer, named John Le Sainte, dob Dec. 21, 1963 in Cheshire, Connecticut, claims to be an heir of Nostradamus. The blog states that Nostradamus had promised to return in 500 years to the earth with new predictions. John Le Sainte claims in very convincing detail that he's contacted by Nostradamus each night as he sleeps. During which time, the Spirit and Soul Nostradamus leads him into the future to view new prophecies. The next morning, John Le Sainte composes each new Prophecy in the form of a 4 line Quatrain. These new prophetic quatrains are regularly posted to his Nostradamus New Predictions Blog on Blogger.

Further Information
Get more info on 'Nostradamus In Popular Culture'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://nostradamus_in_popular_culture.totallyexplained.com">Nostradamus in popular culture Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
   As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.