- If you wish to study a granfalloon, just remove the skin of a toy balloon.
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.
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.
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.
