Thursday Things: Poison & Fine Print Edition
24 April 2025. Vol 7 No 17. By Dan McGirt. #298
Thursday Things is here! This week we sign a bad deal and get Medieval with poison.
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Where do I sign? Photo by Krycheck Cre on Unsplash
Problemata de venenis
That’s Latin for “problems with poisons”. Which were apparently quite common in the Middle Ages.
Poison in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Murder, and Myth
This is a difficult article to summarize. It’s not an in depth discussion, but it lays out some fascinating breadcrumbs you can follow if you are interested in Medieval poisoning.
From a historical or perhaps literary perspective, of course. Not for any, er, practical uses. There are no recipes for poison here. Just want to make that clear.
The use of poison as a political weapon dates back to antiquity, but it gained particular prominence at the end of the Middle Ages. Examining the regions where poison played a major role reveals several emblematic cases. In Sicily, the figure of Adelaide del Vasto, Countess of Sicily and Queen of Jerusalem, is portrayed unfavourably by Orderic Vitalis, particularly due to her alleged involvement in poisoning cases.
I’m not familiar with Queen Adelaide, but now I’m curious.
Medieval Spain, particularly the court of the Trastámaras, provides another example of political poisoning. F. Ramírez highlights the frequent accusations of poisoning in Castilian power struggles, which aligns with a general trend in European monarchies at the twilight of the Middle Ages. Poison was perceived as a tool of betrayal and a subtle means of neutralising opponents.
Again, not a lot of detail here, but an intriguing starting point for further research.
Far from being merely an instrument of death, poison in the Middle Ages was an object of scholarly reflection, a political tool, and a recurring literary motif. From scholastic medicine to court intrigues and mythical narratives, it serves as a fascinating lens through which to analyse the cultural dynamics of the period. Rather than disappearing with the end of the Middle Ages, the figure of poison persisted across time, maintaining a prominent place in the collective imagination.
Poison is inherently dramatic, so its persistence in myth. drama (how many people did Shakespeare poison. On the stage, that is...), and literature — as well as in political intrigue and crime — is not surprising. Many of our themes and tropes about poison date back to the Middle Ages.
Much more here: Poisons in the Middle Ages: Ten studies on venenum and toxicity
The article concludes with a list of links if you want to dig deeper into Medieval poison:
Related Posts
Hours of entertainment!
Poison? No. This isn’t poison. Why would even ask that? Photo by Nastia Petruk on Unsplash
Selling your soul, 2025 edition
Bargaining with some infernal figure for wealth and fame is an older theme in literature and legend than even poison. In the Faust myth, the not-so-good doctor made a deal with Mephistopheles, trading away his soul for earthly gain. As in most of these stories, Faust later came to regret his bargain.
These days, rueful sellers seeking fame don’t deal with a brimstone-scented devil. Instead, they’re making deals with tech companies. And the contract isn’t explicitly for your immortal soul, but for a digital representation of your image and likeness in perpetuity.
They sold their likeness to AI companies — and regretted it
South Korean actor Simon Lee was stunned when he saw his likeness — at times as a gynecologist or a surgeon — being used to promote questionable health cures on TikTok and Instagram.
He is one of scores of people who have licensed their image to artificial intelligence marketing companies, and then ended up with the unpleasant surprise of seeing themselves feature in deepfakes, dubious adverts or even political propaganda.
"If it was a nice advertisement, it would've been fine to me. But obviously it is such a scam," he said, adding that the terms of his contract prevented him from getting the videos removed.
The result was that he was left him with his digital clone advocating for lemon balm tea to lose weight or ice baths to fight acne.
That does seem to be quite the nightmare. To me, it seems quite a predictable and avoidable nightmare. But I'm not a struggling young actor.1
Yes, it turns out reading the contract you’re signing and thinking through all the implications is a good idea even if the other party doesn’t have visible horns and a pointy tail.
AI technology allows firms to build catalogues of digital models — cheaper than filming actors, but more realistic than an entirely AI-generated avatar — to appear in videos that mostly promote products or services.
… The method is quick and straightforward: half a day's shooting, a green screen and a teleprompter.
The actor has to display different emotions, which will allow the artificial intelligence to make the avatar say all sorts of things, in an infinite number of languages.
Come in for a few hours, make some faces, pick up your check … what could be easier? What could go wrong?
British actor and model Connor Yeates, who signed a three-year contract with Synthesia for €4,600 ($5,240), also encountered an unpleasant surprise in 2022.
At the time, he was sleeping on a friend's sofa, he told British newspaper The Guardian in 2024.
"I don't have rich parents and needed the money," he said.
This seemed like a "good opportunity."
But he then discovered that his image had been used to promote Ibrahim Traore, the president of Burkina Faso who took power in a coup in 2022.
Well, that’s awkward.
The article quotes a lawyer, Alyssa Malchiodi, who warns:
"One major red flag is the use of broad, perpetual and irrevocable language that gives the company full ownership or unrestricted rights to use a creator's voice, image and likeness across any medium,"
Yeah, don’t sign that, kids. If you see words like worldwide, irrevocable, unlimited, or “throughout the known universe” and there is no opt our or end date, you’re dealing with Mephistopheles. Or possibly Disney.
And we thought the old Hollywood contracts were bad.
Another take on this story here: Regrets: Actors who sold AI avatars stuck in Black Mirror-esque dystopia
This deal is totally legit. I promise! Photo by Nika Benedictova on Unsplash
This week’s edition is brought to you by Dan’s Advice: Take control of your digital life.
Thank you for reading!
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I also have a law degree and have spent a lot of time studying contracts, which helps.