“No friends. Nothing else to do. Nothing to fill the cold hour.”

February 21, 2017 9:35 PM

One of them had to die, so the other could live a normal life. They did everything together, until one, or the other, wrote "We have become fatal enemies in each other's eyes. We feel the irritating deadly rays come out of our bodies, stinging each other's skin. "

Jennifer Gibbons died in 1993 at the age of 29.

The Gibbons twins were the subject of a 2007 opera

posted by the man of twists and turns (12 comments total)

This reminds me in an odd way of the central conceit of Vonnegut's Slapstick, although the timing seems wrong for him to have heard of it.

A very sad story in any case.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:34 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Whew. What a weird story. I've seen sibling rivalry; I've known twins with private behaviors; I've read about folies à deux, with which this seems to share some elements; but this has all those turned up to eleven. Thanks.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:41 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

The book "The Thirteenth Tale" takes somewhat inspiration from them.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 11:50 PM on February 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

...as does the song 'Discomania'. "Which one of us am I?"
posted by robself at 12:38 AM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

I vaguely remember watching the unnerving BBC dramatisation of their story (The Silent Twins) shown back in 1986.
posted by misteraitch at 12:40 AM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

The story doesn't say they were averbal; it explicitly mentions many occasions when they spoke.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:35 AM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

Came here to say what i_am_joe's_spleen said ....
posted by oheso at 5:19 AM on February 22, 2017

The Manic Street Preachers wrote a curiously affecting song about these two girls, called Tsunami.
posted by Encipher at 5:24 AM on February 22, 2017

Such a sad story. There's also a book on the Gibbons twins: "The Silent Twins" by Marjorie Wallace. (Edit: this is mentioned in one of the articles.)
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 6:17 AM on February 22, 2017

Yes, I googled the story too and found lots of idealization about Jennifer's and June's inner monologue but no source material. Source material is a reasonable request in this day and age.

Well, there's a book, a documentary, and this well-reported New Yorker piece by Hilton Als. That link was in the the article. So . . .
posted by listen, lady at 7:02 AM on February 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

I Found a Rare Copy of June Allison Gibbons’ Outsider Novel: On the Unusual Case of the Infamous "Silent Twins" and Their Literary Aspirations - an article by Kelsey Osgood.

A snippet from the 1986 Silent Twins film.
posted by misteraitch at 1:28 PM on February 22, 2017

Their story haunts me and fascinates me. Thank you for the post.
posted by Athanassiel at 8:46 PM on February 22, 2017