🔻
Tantalising hints of the contents of this book have been appearing in Fortean Times over the past year or so, making us eager for its appearance. The wait was worth it. In this large format, lavishly illustrated Fortean primer, the authors have concentrated on establishing and demonstrating the fundamental unity of the whole range of strange phenomena.
Tantalising hints of the contents of this book have been appearing in Fortean Times over the past year or so, making us eager for its appearance. The wait was worth it. In this large format, lavishly illustrated Fortean primer, the authors have concentrated on establishing and demonstrating the fundamental unity of the whole range of strange phenomena. The book takes about 60 categories of Fortean events, giving each a double-page spread . But instead of seeming merely the application of arbitrary labels, these sections serve to link the many facets of Fortean studies.
Thus we start with falls of frogs and fishes leading to rains of blood and organic matter, ice-falls and artifacts from the sky. Invisible assailants are linked to stigmata, both involving mysterious appearances of wounds, which then are linked to animal mutilations, freak plagues and illnesses, shared visions, phantom landscapes. Step by step the whole wonderful (for once the word can be used literally) picture takes shape.
In a preface Rickard and Michell postulate a phenomenalist reality in which such events take place - in a phenomenalist philosophy the event is the subject under study, not its hypothetical cause, which many never be adequately defined in Newtonian terms. However unsatisfactory such an attitude may seem to physical scientists it is logically the only one which can be applied to such phenomena. They are real events which produce a discernable effect on our environment – what other definition of reality can we have?
A word about the pictures in this book. They are excellent. The authors have plundered the nation’s picture libraries, and have come up with some little gems (although the photo at the top of page 90 did me no good when I saw it!). The layout and design is first-rate , and the publishers are to be congratulated on having the courage to resist a sensational cover – but none the less striking for that. Now the statutory quibble: no index! The book is self-indexing to an extent with its mini-chapters, but as the authors are emphasising the unity of phenomena, we need an index to the whole book. That said, an essential book, entertaining and stimulating.
Thus we start with falls of frogs and fishes leading to rains of blood and organic matter, ice-falls and artifacts from the sky. Invisible assailants are linked to stigmata, both involving mysterious appearances of wounds, which then are linked to animal mutilations, freak plagues and illnesses, shared visions, phantom landscapes. Step by step the whole wonderful (for once the word can be used literally) picture takes shape.
In a preface Rickard and Michell postulate a phenomenalist reality in which such events take place - in a phenomenalist philosophy the event is the subject under study, not its hypothetical cause, which many never be adequately defined in Newtonian terms. However unsatisfactory such an attitude may seem to physical scientists it is logically the only one which can be applied to such phenomena. They are real events which produce a discernable effect on our environment – what other definition of reality can we have?
A word about the pictures in this book. They are excellent. The authors have plundered the nation’s picture libraries, and have come up with some little gems (although the photo at the top of page 90 did me no good when I saw it!). The layout and design is first-rate , and the publishers are to be congratulated on having the courage to resist a sensational cover – but none the less striking for that. Now the statutory quibble: no index! The book is self-indexing to an extent with its mini-chapters, but as the authors are emphasising the unity of phenomena, we need an index to the whole book. That said, an essential book, entertaining and stimulating.
- John Rimmer, from MUFOB 8, autumn 1988
No comments:
Post a Comment