REVENGE OF THE MOTHMAN

[defrog]

Not to alarm any of you, what with all the famous people dying and stuff.

But yes. Another major pioneer of modern pop culture is gone. 

I speak of course of John A. Keel. He died last week.

You know him, of course, as the guy who wrote the definitive (or at least most entertaining) account of the Mothman. In fact he wrote a lot about Fortean phenomena – one of the benefits of which is having Frank Frazetta artwork on yr covers.

 

Okay, you can also get that benefit by being Edgar Rice Burroughs or being in a band named Molly Hatchet.

But you see what I’m saying.

Anyway, I admit The Mothman Prophecies is the only book of Keel’s I ever read (and no, I didn’t see the film version with Richard Gere). But it’s a classic example of the genre of Fortean/paranormal books that were all the rage when I was an impressionable lad – most of them by Charles Berlitz or Erich von Däniken.

Sure, they’re not very scientific. But they are among the best collections of urban legends and anecdotal folklore ever recorded. And it’s a lost art – one that requires dedication and legwork and creative writing skills to make it even remotely believable. Nowadays any fool can start a blog or go on Fox News and spiel off any old conspiracy that strikes their fancy – and get a thousand people to agree with them.

So hats off to Keel.

The truth is out there,

This is dF