Krypton, Shakespeare, and Meme Culture: A Few Words on Words.
Quick, what's the first thing that comes to mind when I say "Krypton?" Chances are, your mind immediately leapt to the defunct home-planet/mortal weakness and Achilles heel of one Kal-el, more popularly known as Superman. If I asked you a hundred years ago, your answer would be very different. In 1898, the element Krypton made it's debut, courtesy of one Sir William Ramsay and his colleague Morris Travers. The name was originally taken from the Greek "kryptos" meaning "hidden." But jump ahead to around 1935, when Superman as we know him today was still in his infancy, and you'd find the word being used more frequently (outside scientific circles, at least,) to refer to Kal's home world, and the fictional, radioactive fallout from its destruction that has entered popular culture as Clark Kent's Kryptonite. Yet again,you may find yourself asking "what the dickens has this got to do with anything?" A lot, actu...