Fortean Phenomena

[Desertrat56 21,538]

I found this article really interesting.  I did not know much about Charles Forte, but I have had fun with Fortean themed podcasts and articles before.

https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/~coker2/index.files/fortean.shtml

The very strong elements of humor and sharp wit in Fort's books have misled some readers into thinking he did not intend to be taken seriously. Fort would have been a very strange individual indeed if he had not realized the extreme ridiculousness of most of the “authentic reports” he uncovered. He has fun with his material. But as a critic of science he expects to be taken seriously. And it is precisely at that level, as a critic of science, that he fails completely and utterly.

The deliberately absurd scenarios in which Fort delighted in his four “nonfiction” works are the concoctions of a man who perhaps would far rather be writing outright science fiction.

[Tatetopa 17,743]

In those days of my youth when good bookshops had a row or two or magazines, I used to pick up Fate, and Analog, and sometimes Fortean Times.  Heady stuff for a high schooler deep in the heart of Texas.

[Desertrat56 21,538]

1 minute ago, Tatetopa said:

In those days of my youth when good bookshops had a row or two or magazines, I used to pick up Fate, and Analog, and sometimes Fortean Times.  Heady stuff for a high schooler deep in the heart of Texas.

I used to read analog, then started reading Asimov's science fiction magazine.  I had not seen Fate magazine until I was an adult, by then it was not around, just old copies.

[jethrofloyd 3,383]

I used to love reading about a phenomenon of 'rain of fish or frogs' until it was finally scientifically and naturally explained.

[papageorge1 6,078]

Fortean

ADJECTIVE

relating to or denoting paranormal phenomena.

 

Many use comedy and wit but 'comedian' would not be their lead descriptor. Also like me he found real events more interesting than even fiction. 'Truth' can be stranger than fiction.

[onlookerofmayhem 4,571]

"I believe nothing. I have shut myself away from the rocks and wisdoms of ages, and from the so-called great teachers of all time, and perhaps because of that isolation I am given to bizarre hospitalities. I shut the front door upon Christ and Einstein, and at the back door hold out a welcoming hand to little frogs and periwinkles. I believe nothing of my own that I have ever written. I cannot accept that the products of minds are subject-matter for beliefs. But I accept, with reservations that give me freedom to ridicule the statement at any other time, that showers of an edible substance that has not been traced to an origin upon this earth, have fallen from the sky, in Asia Minor."

-Charles Fort

[the13bats 12,553]

I read his books, um, yeah, super- sargasso sea