In Lo! Charles Fort writes about the kind of things—teleportation, spontaneous combustion, the “hive mind”—that have more recently been employed as themes in the Fox television series Fringe. To say Fort writes about “freak occurrences” seems like a misnomer; here he has collected so many reports of crews disappearing from ships, cigar-shaped airships flying overhead, and strange animals seen at sea that such events begin to seem much more commonplace than conventional thought would suggest. Although Fort’s approach to these phenomena is scientific, he frequently calls attention to the limits of science with regard to explaining these events. Indeed, his book can be read as a critique of science, not only insofar as the events he describes call science into question, but also inasmuch as the authorial tone he employs when discussing science is about the snarkiest you’ll read anywhere.Some quotes:“I cannot accept that the products of minds are subject-matter for beliefs.”“I am tired of the sensible explanations that are holding back new delusions.”“I am simply pointing out everybody’s inability seriously to spend time upon something which, according to his [sic:] preconceptions, is nonsense.”“This seems logical, and is therefore under suspicion.”
