A granfalloon, in the religion of Bokononism invented by Kurt Vonnegut in his 1963 novel Cat's Cradle, is defined as a "false karass". That is, it is a group of people who outwardly choose or claim to have a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual association is actually meaningless in terms of fulfilling God's design. The most common granfalloons are associations and societies based on a shared but ultimately fabricated premise. As examples, Vonnegut cites: "the Communist Party, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Electric Company, the International Order of Odd Fellows -- and any nation, anytime, anywhere." A more general and often-cited quote defines a granfalloon as "a proud and meaningless association of human beings." Granfalloon was illustrated in the book as referring to Hoosiers, who are apparently Indianans, especially those who play basketball. In the same book, he introduced such terms as foma ("lies") and wampeter, all terms of Bokononism. --Bokonon Bokononism is the fictional religion practiced by many of the characters in Kurt Vonneguts novel Cats Cradle. ... Bokononism is the fictional religion practiced by many of the characters in Kurt Vonneguts novel Cats Cradle. ... Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Cats Cradle (ISBN 038533348X) is a 1963 science fiction novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ... A karass is a group of people who, unbeknownst to them, are collectively doing Gods will. ... The term God (capitalized in English language as a proper noun) is often used to refer to a Supreme Being. ... In modern usage, a Communist party is a political party which promotes Communism, a sociopolitical philosophy based on the particular interpretation of Marxism put forth by Vladimir Lenin. ... The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a sororal association dedicated to historic preservation, education, and patriotic endeavor. ... The General Electric Company, or GE, (NYSE: GE) is a multinational technology and services company. ... The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is a fraternal organization derived from English Odd Fellows orders of the mid-1700s. ... For publications of this name, see also Nation (disambiguation) The most popular modern ethical and philosophical doctrines state that all humans are divided into groups called nations. ... FOMA, officially short for Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access, is the brand name for the 3G services being offered by Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo. ... In the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut, a wampeter is an object which is the focus of a karass; that is, the lives of many otherwise unrelated people are centered around a wampeter (e. ... Bokononism is the fictional religion practiced by many of the characters in Kurt Vonneguts novel Cats Cradle. ...

Granfalloon in the Castlevania series

There is a boss in the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn video game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night named Granfalloon. In keeping with the rest of the game's heavy horror theme, including other bosses such as Dracula, Medusa, and the Grim Reaper, Granfalloon is a giant floating ball of naked, hairless human bodies (in other words, "a proud and meaningless association of human beings"). It attacks by shedding these bodies, which shamble toward your character in an attempt to obstruct and damage him. Defeating Granfalloon involves destroying the outer layer of bodies to reveal an inner core with tentacles that shoot lasers, then destroying the inner core. In the original Japanese version of the game, the monster was known as Legion, most likely a reference to the New Testament demon who was "composed of many." When the monster reappeared in subsequent Castlevania games, this name was kept even in the English language localization. Castlevania (キャッスルヴァニア) is a video game series, created and developed by Konami. ... Image File history File links The Granfalloon, a boss from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... Flag Ship from the video game Gorf In video games, a boss (sometimes called a guardian) is a particularly large or difficult computer-controlled character that must be defeated at the end of a segment of a game, whether it be for a level, an episode, or the very end... The original PlayStation was produced in a light grey colour; the more recent PSOne redesign sports a smaller more rounded case. ... The Sega Saturn (Japanese: セガサターン, Sega Saturn), a video game console of the 32-bit era, was released on November 22, 1994, in Japan and May 1995 in the United States; 170,000 machines were sold the first day of the Japanese launch. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SOTN) is a Japanese action-adventure game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and published by Konami for the Sony PlayStation video game console. ... Horror can mean several things: Horror (emotion) Horror fiction Horror film This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Bela Lugosi as Dracula United States stamp Dracula is a fictional character, inarguably the most famous vampire in literature. ... Medusa was a gorgon from Greek mythology, the sight of whom turned people to stone. ... Death, personified is an anthropomorphic figure or a fictional character who has existed in mythology and popular culture since the earliest days of storytelling. ... The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... Legion is a demon, and can be found in the Bible in Mark 5:9 and Luke 8:30. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Software localization is a process of translating software user interfaces from one language to another and adapting it to suit a foreign culture. ...

Granfalloon Technique

In social psychology the concept stems from Henri Tajfel's research on the minimum group paradigm, in which he found that strangers would form groups on the basis of completely inconsequential criteria, such as the toss of a coin. Subjects within such meaningless associations have consistently been found to act towards other members as if they were kin or close friends. The granfalloon technique is a method of persuasion in which individuals are encouraged to identify with a particular granfalloon, such as a pressure group or political campaign, as a means of securing for that group the individual's loyalty and commitment through adoption of its symbols, rituals and beliefs. The imagined communities of Benedict Anderson form a similar concept. The Imagined Community is the concept strongly supported by Benedict Anderson which states that a nation is socially constructed and ultimately imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group. ... Benedict Anderson is a professor of International Studies at Cornell University, who is best known for his work titled Imagined Communities, in which he systematically describes the major factors contributing to the emergence of nationalism in the world during the past three centuries. ...