Tag Archives: Fortean

William Gibson: Fortean!

Cyberpunk Fortean William Gibson

 “I’m Totally a Fortean!” (Audio)

“It’s always a pleasure to return to Austin, which in some weird way was definitely the epicenter of my literary career, such as it’s been.”

On Thursday, September 6th, I had the pleasure of finally seeing William Gibson in-the-flesh. Despite his being sick with a cold (he offered to infect any attendees with it who might’ve had such a Cronenbergian desire) Gibson read an interesting piece from his new book, Distrust That Particular Flavor, and regaled the audience with his observations on a few subjects including fashion.

It’s weird, really weird reading any of this stuff because I never read any of it before. I never read it to an audience. These were written for magazine publication. The weirdest of these, I think, the one that is most mysterious to me is an essay called Dead Man Sings that I wrote in 1998 for ASAP, which is a Forbes magazine giveaway or something. … they got in touch with me and said ‘we’d like you to write something’ and I said ‘what’ and they said ‘it doesn’t matter … [write] what you feel like.’ I’d never really gotten that before … so I really took it to heart and I sat down and sort of channeled this thing I’m about to read you and with no idea where it was coming from or really what it was about. I realized, when I was going through all these pieces, this is the one I’ve gone back to more in my writing and as sometimes happens, I think that this thing which I wrote without understanding – I wrote it in a weird kind of trance – because it didn’t matter and it had given me permission to say whatever I wanted to say, which I had never had before in non-fiction. … So this thing just came out, what I’m about to read to you, and its probably the one thing in this book that I discovered more in, over the years, since I wrote it, I suspect in some way its been the program for a lot of the fiction I’ve written since.

The essay Dead Man Sings (published as “Dead Man Speaks apparently) that Gibson read for us that evening is certainly evocative of much of what makes Gibson’s writings so telling and important. Distrust That Particular Flavor coverThey grapple with the effects of technology on our culture and our experiencing of memory and history. It reminded me of a video I’d recently seen of him (filmed many years ago inside a moving car) in which he reflects on one of the details he mentioned in the essay, that is the invention of the sound recording and that period of time when there were still humans (backwoods Appalachian Americans in his example) who were being recorded for the first time and the fundamental difference (to his hears) of those recordings to everything since.

We live in, have lived through, a strange time. I know this because when I was a child the flow of forgetting was relatively unimpeded. I know this because the dead were less of a constant presence, then. Because there was once no rewind button. Because the soldiers dying in the Somme were black and white, and did not run as the living run. Because the world’s attic was still untidy. Because there were old men in the mountain valleys of my Virginia childhood who remembered a time before recorded music.

Dead Man Speaks

After the reading (and towards the end of his face-time with us and before beginning the autographing line) there was an opening for me to ask him a question that had been on my mind for a while… But before I asked the question I wanted to show my sincere feelings for the words he’d written a couple of years ago when he posted the following to his twitter feed:

“Very sad to learn of the death of @mactonnies. Whip-smart young Fortean surrealist dudes are too thin on the ground to begin with.”
twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/5096995349

As I began expressing my thanks the look on his face gave me the impression that he hadn’t understood what I was saying – perhaps it was just the idea of someone thanking him for a “tweet” (let alone one from three years ago) that struck him as odd. Once I’d shifted my comment to a question he gave a not surprising to me reply which I’m happy to add to the public record:

SMiles Lewis: I’d like to thank you for your 2009 tweet which consisted of kind words on the passing of Mac Tonnies. There’s things in your book Pattern Recognition and other books that make me ask this question: Are you now or have you ever been a Fortean?

William Gibson: Oh, I’m totally a Fortean! I’ve been a Fortean since I was… actually I’d have to find out. I’ve been a Fortean ever since Ace Books republished Charles Fort’s three great weird philosophical books about strange shit that he’d found in old old newspapers. And I continue to be … That’s Charles Fort for those of you who don’t know him. If you wanna have a really strange experience go find The Book of the Damned by Charles Fort which was published in the 1920s and has two sequels. It’s kind of the mother of all X-Files stuff.

 

Copies of FATE Magazine Donated by Craig Woolheater

Our recent lecture event featuring British Fortean Cryptozoologist Jonathan Downes attracted many attendees from across Texas. Among those making the trip from out of town to meet and hear Jon Downes speak was Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy member Craig Woolheater. Besides helping coordinate the non-profit field research and annual public education events for the TBRC, Craig has also recently become the owner and manager of two very popular anomaly oriented websites, Cryptomundo.com and UFOmystic.com

Before Mr. Downes’ lecture on the Texas Blue Dogs and Chupacabras, Craig handed me a gift bag filled with archival goodies – classic copies of FATE Magazine.

Craig, Jon, the Downse’s hosts Richie and Naomi, I and others met up for conversation over TexMex cuisine before bidding our friends from across the pond a fond farewell.

Among the copies of FATE magazine are:

  • 1973 January – December (excepting September) issues 274-285
  • 1974 February – December (excepting July) issues 287-297
  • 1975 January issue 298

Craig Woolheater and Jonathan Downes after TexMex cuisine

Fate, Issue 298, Vol. 28, No. 01, January 1975
Fate, Issue 297, Vol. 27, No. 12, December 1974
Fate, Issue 296, Vol. 27, No. 11, November 1974
Fate, Issue 295, Vol. 27, No. 10, October 1974
Fate, Issue 294, Vol. 27, No. 09, September 1974
Fate, Issue 293, Vol. 27, No. 08, August 1974
Fate, Issue 291, Vol. 27, No. 06, June 1974
Fate, Issue 290, Vol. 27, No. 05, May 1974
Fate, Issue 289, Vol. 27, No. 04, April 1974
Fate, Issue 288, Vol. 27, No. 03, March 1974
Fate, Issue 287, Vol. 27, No. 02, February 1974
Fate, Issue 285, Vol. 26, No. 12, December 1973
Fate, Issue 284, Vol. 26, No. 11, November 1973
Fate, Issue 283, Vol. 26, No. 10, October 1973
Fate, Issue 281, Vol. 26, No. 08, August 1973
Fate, Issue 280, Vol. 26, No. 07, July 1973
Fate, Issue 279, Vol. 26, No. 06, June 1973
Fate, Issue 278, Vol. 26, No. 05, May 1973
Fate, Issue 277, Vol. 26, No. 04, April 1973
Fate, Issue 276, Vol. 26, No. 03, March 1973
Fate, Issue 275, Vol. 26, No. 02, February 1973
Fate, Issue 274, Vol. 26, No. 01, January 1973

Anomaly Archives Presents Fortean Cryptozoologist Jonathan Downes

The Anomaly Archives Presents: Fortean Cryptozoologist Jonathan Downes

Saturday, March 20th 1:30-3:30pm CST 

12593 Research Blvd., Suite 302, Austin, Texas 78759

“Cryptozoology’s answer to Hunter Thompson” – Nick Redfern

 [Jon Downes at Loch Ness in 2005]  

The Anomaly Archives welcomes British Fortean researcher Jon Downes to Austin, Texas for a lecture on all things anomalous, Fortean, cryptozoological and UFOlogical. Please join us at the Anomaly Archives lending library (located at 12593 Research Blvd., Suite 302) from 1 to 5pm, Saturday, March 20th for an enlightening lecture from one of the world’s leading cryptozoological field investigators.

This lecture event is FREE, however, a $5 donation is respectfully requested for those wishing to help support the Anomaly Archives in its non-profit community education, outreach and research efforts. 

Jonathan Downes is the Director of the British-based Center for Fortean Zoology, the world’s only full-time group dedicated to the investigation of unknown animals, including Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Ogopogo, and the Abominable Snowman. 

In both 1998 and 2004, Jon traveled to the island of Puerto Rico in search of the deadly, blood-sucking creature known as the Chupacabras – a beast that has been linked with a large amount of UFO activity, including UFO crashes, on the island.  

Jon will be speaking about his two expeditions, findings, theories and conclusions as to what the creature may be. Jon will also reveal the very latest news on his quest to find out the truth concerning the so-called Texas Chupacabras. 

Are the beasts of Puerto Rico and Texas one and the same? Or, is something even stranger going on? Don’t miss this rare chance to see Jon Downes expose the truth of this strange and sensational mystery.   

Jonathan Downes is the author and co-author of numerous books on the subjects of Fortean phenomena, especially cryptozoological critters such as Owlman, the Monster of the Mere and others. Besides his research, writing and activism, Jon Downes is also an accomplished film maker having worked on over 7 films. He also produces a regular online video series for the Centre for Fortean Zoology called On The Track (Of Unknown Animals).

 

 


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