Brigadoon/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • This troper is thoroughly disturbed by the whole "hundred years" thing...
  • Okay, so every Brigadoon day = 100 years. "The miracle" takes place on May 22, 1746 (Wednesday). The play of Brigadoon takes place on May 24, 1746 (Friday). So does it take place in real time on May 22, 1946? Will the seasons ever change in Brigadoon again if they only come back every May?
  • Even more time nitpicking: In a Brigadoon week starting from Miracle Day, it'll be 2446. In three Brigadoon weeks it'll be 3846! Won't things have, ah...drastically changed when they return every century? Will the green hills of Scotland return, or will Brigadoon land on the future apocalypse-nuked lands and wonder what the heck has gone on?
    • Or if someone builds a city over it. Would they end up popping into whatever buildings were built over it?
  • Mr. Forsythe is a real dick to do that to his congregation. Look at poor Harry; he can't ever leave Brigadoon again, can't move on with life, can't get an education, nothing. No wonder he goes berserk.
    • Yeah! Seriously, if the contract has a provision for other people to enter, there should be a provision for people to leave.
      • It was a very illogical choice, really. Why not ask God to keep the evil witches from entering the town. Or ask that the people would be uncorruptable. Or, I dunno, talk to the townspeople instead of taking all of their fates into his own hands.
      • This is not unlike the premise of Population436, tho that town doesn't disappear; it's just been ignored for about the last hundred years.
  • What would happen if every single occupant of Brigadoon left on the same day?
    • I think as soon as the first person crosses the invisible line the whole place disappears before the second person can get there.
      • No, because I'm pretty sure that Mr. Lundie said that the village would dissapear that night after the person left.
        • But what we don't know is, does the person who leaves Brigadoon survive? If everyone leaves at once, could they still live even if the village goes poof?
  • If the Miracle happened less than a week ago for everyone in Brigadoon, why is Mr. Lundie the only one with the whole story?
  • Everyone has to be reminded of the boundaries of Brigadoon every morning? Surely something like that is common knowledge, and parents would take special care not to let their kids wander too far in the direction of the invisible line.
    • Well, it's only been a few days in Brigadoon-time, so they're still figuring it all out.
    • Maybe the line changes pseudo-randomly depending on the surrounding terrain.
  • So how big is the area spirited away every night? Does it just include the farms of everyone who lives in the town proper, or (more likely) the farms of everyone who belonged to Mr. Forsythe's congregation?

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