January 26, 2005

The Works of Charles Fort The man for whom the Fortean Times was named, he was Mulder and Scully before there were internet nerds. Particularly of interest is his Book of the Damned, a collection of facts that science is powerless to explain...or at least was, in 1919. Full text in HTML format.

I find his writing style very interesting and readable. I imagine him speaking aloud on an OTR show, detailing his incredible facts. In fact, I heard about this book in a 1930s episode of Lights Out!, which I recently purchased. Cool stuff.

posted by TenaciousPettle 19 years ago
  • Awesome link.
  • Good stuff. People tend to assume that Fort believed the kind of stuff that appears in the Fortean Times, but if I've understood correctly, his agenda was actually a sceptical one in essence. Wasn't he really saying that science deserves exactly as much (or as little) respect as all the flying saucer/Loch Ness/Atlantis stuff, because in the end, you pays yer money and takes yer choice?
  • Yeah, a lot of the BotD seems to be him pointing out how silly and unscientific the knee-jerk "scientific" explanations for things like rains of toads and UFOs are--that dismissing something out of hand with no evidence to dispute it is just as bad as believing without any evidence at all. He's actually kind of funny, if you like a very dry sense of humor.
  • You can get the complete works of Fort used on amazon for $10 about. the book includes all the following titles: The Book of the Damned, Lo!, Wild Talents, and New Lands. I have had this book for over a decade and recommend it to many others. I am old fashion, in that I like reading a book instead of a screen.
  • speaking of the fortean times, that's one of my fave links, check it out.
  • The Fortean Times print magazine is also interesting, with some great photos and quirky news items.