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More "Things"
- GenresMonsters
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
40 people want to read
About the author
Ivan T. Sanderson
111 books38 followersScottish biologist, mostly known for his writings on cryptozoology and the paranormal.
Sanderson published three classics of nature writing: Animal Treasure, a report of an expedition to the jungles of then-British West Africa; Caribbean Treasure, an account of an expedition to Trinidad, Haiti, and Surinam, begun in late 1936 and ending in late 1938; and Living Treasure, an account of an expedition to Jamaica, British Honduras (now Belize) and the Yucatan.
Sanderson published three classics of nature writing: Animal Treasure, a report of an expedition to the jungles of then-British West Africa; Caribbean Treasure, an account of an expedition to Trinidad, Haiti, and Surinam, begun in late 1936 and ending in late 1938; and Living Treasure, an account of an expedition to Jamaica, British Honduras (now Belize) and the Yucatan.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 10, 2019
Another book of my youth, semi-skimmed at recent bedtimes. Exactly like "Things", this is a collection of short pieces that Sanderson wrote for FATE magazine, ARGOSY, The Saturday Evening Post, etc.. The pieces are pithy and succinct (or as succinct as Sanderson's tortuous prose style will allow) and varied, covering a variety of fortean topics: survival of dinosaurs in Africa; strange footprints; survival of the giant, flightless, prehistoric Moa bird in New Zealand; Sasquatch; giant skulls; frozen mammoths, CHARIOTS OF THE GODS type hokum, etc.
As a repeat from my "Things" review: Sanderson is an odd writer - he is more on the rationalist science side of things than any paranormal/space brothers/new-agey (or for that matter, paperback hack) side, but he seems to be committed to envisioning himself as continuing the work of Charles Fort (as many writers in this area did). But Sanderson also seems to want to uphold Fort's cranky and obstreperous tone when writing on topics that science has ignored or "damned", and the problem with that is that Fort could get away with his huffy tone because he was of his time and part of a general "common sense"/Mencken-like zeitgeist of quasi-journalists who liked rattling the pompous proclamations of scientists, puncturing windbags with the needle of humor. Sanderson, meanwhile, is of the space age and not as funny and, honestly, strives too much to make the odd ideas he's investigating comport within scientific strictures with little actual support (he "theorizes" as if all data, most of it anectodal, were scientific, from which suppositions can be made, and is prone to overuse absolutes in place of generalizations).
This volume give us the perennial "dinosaurs in Africa", as well as some posited bipedal dinosaur (something like a velociraptor, perhaps?) living on the beaches and backwater marshes of Eastern Africa, an investigation into strange footprints in Florida which Sanderson argues are proof of a wayward Giant Penguin (!) (later claimed as a hoax - see wikipedia here, despite Sanderson wasting many pages arguing, in the moment and with his selective absolutism, why they *can't* be hoaxed), reports of African natives sleeping underwater, an anecdotal report of giant skulls found while clearing an Aleutian Island for landing strips (which Sanderson loopily spins out into an idea about 20 foot tall humans who lived in the ocean and ate kelp!), the perennial "Frozen Mammoths" of Siberia (which Sanderson, again loopily, seems to want to argue were "flash frozen"), the predecessor of the whole Von Daniken "Biblical murals show UFOS malarky", animal ESP, dowsing, a "time slip" personally experienced by Sanderson and his wife and, also, his attempt to trump the Bermuda Triangle concept with his absurd (and awfully named) Vile Vortices (see my review of Invisible Residents for my thoughts on that)
But, to say it again, Sanderson has a strange style that almost seems constantly struggling with itself as you read, often spinning off into tangents, overstating claims with hyperbolic language or just dead-ending itself.
Still, as a kid, this was a fun read and it was interesting to look at again.
As a repeat from my "Things" review: Sanderson is an odd writer - he is more on the rationalist science side of things than any paranormal/space brothers/new-agey (or for that matter, paperback hack) side, but he seems to be committed to envisioning himself as continuing the work of Charles Fort (as many writers in this area did). But Sanderson also seems to want to uphold Fort's cranky and obstreperous tone when writing on topics that science has ignored or "damned", and the problem with that is that Fort could get away with his huffy tone because he was of his time and part of a general "common sense"/Mencken-like zeitgeist of quasi-journalists who liked rattling the pompous proclamations of scientists, puncturing windbags with the needle of humor. Sanderson, meanwhile, is of the space age and not as funny and, honestly, strives too much to make the odd ideas he's investigating comport within scientific strictures with little actual support (he "theorizes" as if all data, most of it anectodal, were scientific, from which suppositions can be made, and is prone to overuse absolutes in place of generalizations).
This volume give us the perennial "dinosaurs in Africa", as well as some posited bipedal dinosaur (something like a velociraptor, perhaps?) living on the beaches and backwater marshes of Eastern Africa, an investigation into strange footprints in Florida which Sanderson argues are proof of a wayward Giant Penguin (!) (later claimed as a hoax - see wikipedia here, despite Sanderson wasting many pages arguing, in the moment and with his selective absolutism, why they *can't* be hoaxed), reports of African natives sleeping underwater, an anecdotal report of giant skulls found while clearing an Aleutian Island for landing strips (which Sanderson loopily spins out into an idea about 20 foot tall humans who lived in the ocean and ate kelp!), the perennial "Frozen Mammoths" of Siberia (which Sanderson, again loopily, seems to want to argue were "flash frozen"), the predecessor of the whole Von Daniken "Biblical murals show UFOS malarky", animal ESP, dowsing, a "time slip" personally experienced by Sanderson and his wife and, also, his attempt to trump the Bermuda Triangle concept with his absurd (and awfully named) Vile Vortices (see my review of Invisible Residents for my thoughts on that)
But, to say it again, Sanderson has a strange style that almost seems constantly struggling with itself as you read, often spinning off into tangents, overstating claims with hyperbolic language or just dead-ending itself.
Still, as a kid, this was a fun read and it was interesting to look at again.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews