Talk:Sword swallowing

Citations & Questionable Sources

The introduction currently says there are only about 100 sword swallowers in the world. This does not seem realistic and is directly contradicted by the British Journal of Medicine article which says they contacted 110 sword swallowers from only 16 countries for their study:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7582/1285

The article also says "many deaths and serious medical complications have arisen from attempting this feat."

While I wouldn't disagree with the theoretical dangers of sword swallowing, the only official reference is the medical journal article, which notes several anecdotal cases of injury revealed by the survey and the following in the introduction:

"As we found only two English language case reports of injury resulting from sword swallowing, we explored the technique and side effects of this unusual practice."

The journal article gives no reference to anyone dying, much less "many deaths" (which seems like a POV phrase anyway). Without references I'm tempted to assume "many deaths" is just a part of sword swallower legend. As it's currently written, the introduction looks like a spiel to make the act more impressive and elite.

-Silasthecat —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.238.139.172 (talk) 00:26, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Interesting...needs expanding

Interesting article; my only critique would be that it seems to be a little skewed. While there certainly aren't many sword-swallowers out there, they do exist and I think calling it 'almost a lost art' is a little POV. In addition, there is nothing about the actual act of swallowing...how is it done? What are the effects? What exactly are the dangers? Since I'm not at all knowledgeable on the subject, I'm not even going to think about editing this article and I don't think it warrants a 'needs expanding' header; I'm just posting this as food for thought.

184.17.174.220 (talk) 03:05, 6 November 2016 (UTC)I found something else that seemed very subjective in this article, specifically the description of the Great Victoria Troupe image. "The Great Victorina Troupe: originators and presenters of the most marvelous sword swallowing act on earth." Not only is "earth" not capitalized, but the idea that the Great Victoria Troupe is the most marvelous sword swallowing act on Earth is subjective.

American Centered/Biased

agree with the above, but the thing that annoys me most is the american centrist view of the author(s), you do not need to be american to stick a knive up your throat, but the article leads you to think it happened last in the US. A related link to fellatio would be good to.

"A related link to fellatio ..."? Ya gotta be kidding! It would never have occurred to me to relate sword swallowing to any kind of sex. It seems to me that anybody who would relate it to sex is someone who relates everything to sex. Why not a link to nutrition, or iron in the diet? It makes as much sense. 140.147.160.78 15:30, 5 January 2007 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza

It'd make more sense to link to articles on gag reflex and vomiting disorders. Gotta say though... I've seen quite a few of the performers listed on the page... most of the girls make an issue of the fellatio thing. They generally say they're awesome at it. GideonYoung (talk) 14:00, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Many of the performers listed are European or Australian. It could do with more events from other countries, but it's not totally amerocentric. GideonYoung (talk) 14:00, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Comparison

perhaps one of the oldest forms of still extant performance art, predating by 1500 years the beginning itself of Western scientific thought.

This does not seem very related. A better comparison would be the beginning of theater or some kind of music. --Error 01:52, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

POV?

I'd like to see some citation for:

However, from the founding of the Holy Inquisition in 1231, it and other forms of religious persecution slowly spread in their influence throughout Europe. Sword swallowers along with jugglers, magicians, prophets and other performers, found themselves increasingly the target of religious persecution, being condemned and executed as heretics, witches and practitioners of the dark arts.

It sounds like the sort of easy explanation that's true because "everybody knows" it. "Everybody knows" that the Catholic Church has tried to supress everything good and worthwhile in every culture it contacted. 140.147.160.78 15:23, 5 January 2007 (UTC)Stephen Kosciesza

I am the Stephen Kosciesza named above--now here as a registered Wikipedian. It's five years later, and the statement still had no backing. So I take it to be just a politically correct anti-Catholic statement that is here because it's true because everybody knows it's true. (It sounds like something that's right up there with the idea that Columbus knew the world was round, in defiance of the Church teaching that it was flat; everybody knows that's true, but it's absolutely false.) So I've removed it. Uporządnicki (talk) 18:48, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Guinness World Records

I added a section on Guinness World Records, similar to the Fire eating page. Those are what I found, feel free to expand. Jppcap (talk) 23:41, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

New possible world record.

There is a person who claims he broken the world record for the longest sword swallowed, surpassing Natasha Veruschka. Here is the footage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbYI0iLnvOY — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.154.42.172 (talk) 19:40, 12 January 2021 (UTC)