Welcome to the Mandrake family home page.
This is the online home for the Mandrake family, part of the Vonnegut Artificial Family Utopia. If you can't find the information you are looking for here, or you want to know more about the Mandrakes or life in general please email Cody because he knows all that stuff, he does.
About Mandrakes • Member Info • Utopia Home
About Mandrakes
Mandrakes have an impressively rich history — they have been used in medicine and in religious rituals/pagan ceremonies for millenia. The first mention I know of occurs in the Biblical book of Genesis, where Jacob is *ahem* sold for an evening for a bunch of mandrakes, which then cure one of his wives of her infertility. Which then allowed him to have more children, and propogate the race. We owe it all to mandrakes. So it goes.
Listen: the Mandrake family was formed in early 1999 (or possibly late 1998, my memory is sketchy), and it is populated by humans who are sick of the lack of common decency found in the modern world. We believe people should just be nicer to each other — think how much better your day would be if everyone you met was friendly and helpful, instead of self-serving and rude. The artificial extended family idea that we follow was presented in the book Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. He explains it all like this:
Why are there so many divorces and failed marriages today? Well it used to be that when a two people got married they wouldn't just get each other, they'd get huge extended families on both sides. There were tens or hundreds of relatives you could talk to about everything, pals who wouldn't get so mad at you all the time. Now there are very few large extended families so we don't have as many people to talk to. When a married couple fights they may think they are fighting about the house, or sex, or the kids, but what they are really saying to each other is this: you are not enough people.
The extended family system removes this constraint on life — when you join a family like Mandrake you suddenly gain many relatives who will listen to you talk about everything, and many pals who won't get so mad at you all the time.
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Scientific Stuff: the official latin name is Mandragora Officinarum. Mandrakes are also known as Satan's Apple, Dudaim, or Circe's Apple, depending on which nut you ask.
And still more: It is a member of the Nightshade family of plants, and the root of the Mandrake is said at different times to cause everything from uncontrollable sexual desire to complete insanity. Which, if you think about it, are never really all that far apart.
It also looks eerily like a pair of legs.
This page created and maintained by Cody Mandrake-7 Farthing.
All content is copyright (©) 1999-2000 Cody Farthing and The Mandrake Family. Don't steal it or Pete will break your legs.
Last update: 11.7.2001
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