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Think to new worlds : the cultural history of Charles Fort and his followers / Joshua Blu Buhs.

Buhs, Joshua Blu, (author.).

Summary:

"How a writer who investigated scientific anomalies inspired a factious movement and made a lasting impact on American culture. Flying saucers. Bigfoot. Frogs raining from the sky. Such phenomena fascinated Charles Fort, the maverick writer who scanned newspapers, journals, and magazines for reports of bizarre occurrences: dogs that talked, vampires, strange visions in the sky, and paranormal activity. His books of anomalies advanced a philosophy that saw science as a small part of a larger system in which truth and falsehood continually transformed into one another. His work found a ragged following of skeptics who questioned not only science but the press, medicine, and politics. Though their worldviews varied, they shared compelling questions about genius, reality, and authority. At the center of this community was ad man, writer, and enfant terrible Tiffany Thayer, who founded the Fortean Society and ran it for almost three decades, collecting and reporting on every manner of oddity and conspiracy. In Think to New Worlds, Joshua Blu Buhs argues that the Fortean effect on modern culture is deeper than you think. Fort's descendants provided tools to expand the imagination, explore the social order, and demonstrate how power was exercised. Science fiction writers put these ideas to work as they sought to uncover the hidden structures undergirding reality. Avant-garde modernists-including the authors William Gaddis, Henry Miller, and Ezra Pound, as well as Surrealist visual artists-were inspired by Fort's writing about metaphysical and historical forces. And in the years following World War II, flying saucer enthusiasts convinced of alien life raised questions about who controlled the universe. Buhs's meticulous and entertaining book takes a respectful look at a cast of oddballs and eccentrics, plucking them from history's margins and spotlighting their mark on American modernism. Think to New Worlds is a timely consideration of a group united not only by conspiracies and mistrust of science but by their place in an ever-expanding universe rich with unexplained occurrences and visionary possibilities"-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780226831480
  • ISBN: 0226831485
  • Physical Description: 386 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
  • Publisher: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2024.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
First must we think to new worlds -- Budget of paradoxes -- The motor of history -- The mermaids have come to the desert -- The cosmic aquarium -- Future history.
Subject: Fort, Charles, 1874-1932 > Influence.
Fort, Charles, 1874-1932.
Fortean Society.
Science writers > United States.
Science fiction, American > 20th century > History and criticism.
Science in literature.
Authors, American > 20th century > Biography.
Genre: Biographies.

Available copies

  • 3 of 3 copies available at NC Cardinal.
  • 1 of 1 copy available at Iredell County Public Library. (Show)

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 3 total copies.
Sort by distance from:
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Troutman Branch Library 813.52 BUH (Text) 33114018658609 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Franklinton Branch 813.52/Buhs (Text) 72350000126293 Adult New Nonfiction Available -
Lenoir Library 509 Bu (Text) 50669013225454 Adult Nonfiction Available -

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5050 . ‡aFirst must we think to new worlds -- Budget of paradoxes -- The motor of history -- The mermaids have come to the desert -- The cosmic aquarium -- Future history.
520 . ‡a"How a writer who investigated scientific anomalies inspired a factious movement and made a lasting impact on American culture. Flying saucers. Bigfoot. Frogs raining from the sky. Such phenomena fascinated Charles Fort, the maverick writer who scanned newspapers, journals, and magazines for reports of bizarre occurrences: dogs that talked, vampires, strange visions in the sky, and paranormal activity. His books of anomalies advanced a philosophy that saw science as a small part of a larger system in which truth and falsehood continually transformed into one another. His work found a ragged following of skeptics who questioned not only science but the press, medicine, and politics. Though their worldviews varied, they shared compelling questions about genius, reality, and authority. At the center of this community was ad man, writer, and enfant terrible Tiffany Thayer, who founded the Fortean Society and ran it for almost three decades, collecting and reporting on every manner of oddity and conspiracy. In Think to New Worlds, Joshua Blu Buhs argues that the Fortean effect on modern culture is deeper than you think. Fort's descendants provided tools to expand the imagination, explore the social order, and demonstrate how power was exercised. Science fiction writers put these ideas to work as they sought to uncover the hidden structures undergirding reality. Avant-garde modernists-including the authors William Gaddis, Henry Miller, and Ezra Pound, as well as Surrealist visual artists-were inspired by Fort's writing about metaphysical and historical forces. And in the years following World War II, flying saucer enthusiasts convinced of alien life raised questions about who controlled the universe. Buhs's meticulous and entertaining book takes a respectful look at a cast of oddballs and eccentrics, plucking them from history's margins and spotlighting their mark on American modernism. Think to New Worlds is a timely consideration of a group united not only by conspiracies and mistrust of science but by their place in an ever-expanding universe rich with unexplained occurrences and visionary possibilities"-- ‡cProvided by publisher.
60010. ‡aFort, Charles, ‡d1874-1932 ‡xInfluence.
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