Suspended animation in fiction which is indistinguishable from death. In American fiction, the first story to deal with suspended animation is the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a short story by American author Washington Irving published in 1819 as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. In the story, a British subject in the American colonies wanders into the Catskill Mountains in the years before the American Revolutionary War, and finds a group of fairies, whose moonshine he drinks. He then falls asleep for 20 years, and returns to his village in what is now the United States, finding his home town
Rip's Dream adaptation the movie is nonsense … but for film historians it is remarkable." Rip's Dream Rip's Dream ( ) is a 1905 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. "Rip's Dream" is based on two sources: the original "Rip Van Winkle" story by Washington Irving, and the 1882 operetta version of "Rip Van Winkle" (with music by Robert Planquette and libretto by Henri Meilhac, Philippe Gille, and Henry Brougham Farnie). Two elements, the mysterious snake and the village idiot, are Méliès's own creations. Méliès himself plays Rip. His son André appears as a village child carrying a large lantern. (Rip's