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Wild Talents
"Wild Talents" captures Charles Fort at his finest, most thought provoking, and wittiest. Containing accounts of--among numerous other bizarre topics--strange coincidences, vampires, werewolves, talking dogs, poltergeist activity, teleportation, witchcraft, vanishing people, spontaneous human combustion, and the escapades of the 'mad bats of Trinidad,' the book is essential reading for anyone wanting to learn about the early years of research into the myriad mysteries of this world and beyond.
348 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1932
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264 people want to read
About the author
Charles Fort
59 books132 followersCharles Hoy Fort was a Dutch-American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena.
Jerome Clark writes that Fort was "essentially a satirist hugely skeptical of human beings' – especially scientists' – claims to ultimate knowledge". Clark describes Fort's writing style as a "distinctive blend of mocking humor, penetrating insight, and calculated outrageousness".
Writer Colin Wilson describes Fort as "a patron of cranks" and also argues that running through Fort's work is "the feeling that no matter how honest scientists think they are, they are still influenced by various unconscious assumptions that prevent them from attaining true objectivity. Expressed in a sentence, Fort's principle goes something like this: People with a psychological need to believe in marvels are no more prejudiced and gullible than people with a psychological need not to believe in marvels."
Fort's books sold well and remain in print. Today, the terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are used to characterise various anomalous phenomena.
Jerome Clark writes that Fort was "essentially a satirist hugely skeptical of human beings' – especially scientists' – claims to ultimate knowledge". Clark describes Fort's writing style as a "distinctive blend of mocking humor, penetrating insight, and calculated outrageousness".
Writer Colin Wilson describes Fort as "a patron of cranks" and also argues that running through Fort's work is "the feeling that no matter how honest scientists think they are, they are still influenced by various unconscious assumptions that prevent them from attaining true objectivity. Expressed in a sentence, Fort's principle goes something like this: People with a psychological need to believe in marvels are no more prejudiced and gullible than people with a psychological need not to believe in marvels."
Fort's books sold well and remain in print. Today, the terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are used to characterise various anomalous phenomena.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 14, 2015
Having been a fan of Book of the Damned for many years, I finally picked up Wild Talents and was amazed at the difference in clarity between his first and last books. Wild Talents is much more concise, with his selection of examples of gathered events limited to an illustrative few, rather than account upon account, as with Book of the Damned. Chapters were all precise and made logical sense, the sensational was treated properly as unsensational, and the way he tied different ideas together as you continued to read was gloriously executed with clear forethought.
One of the strongest points of Fort's is his ability to not take anything seriously at all. I found myself giggling with glee at his depiction of how everyone treated Einstein when he clearly pointed out that he was celebrated wrongly at that time. His cynical eyebrow was perpetually raised at the news reporters of whom he quotes, and one of my favorite obliterations was in pointing out how one case of unexplained fires had been reportedly caused by a simple girl raised from an orphanage with a masterful knowledge of chemistry. Fort also refuses to let himself off the hook when it comes to being human and wanting more, and frankly states at the end of a chapter about his own experiences with phenomena, "Well, then, if I'm not a wizard, I'm not going to let anybody else tell me that he's a wizard."
The only part of the book that I felt bogged it down (and in this, only slightly) was when the book suddenly took on the need to offer up a new set of explanations, as personal- and impersonal-witchcraft. The idea is fine with me, in many degrees I find how he views witchcraft to be completely accurate, however to try and explain anything at all made me a bit disappointed. I understand that Charles Fort did this collecting to try and tie things together; he wasn't interested in the phenomena itself, but how it was all connected. But it seemed so strange to suddenly have a definite idea about anything all all introduced in a book by a man who consciously acknowledges that we no absolutely nothing about our universe when it comes down to it. The ending of the book picks up though, with him utilizing the witchcraft idea to explain some things like Stigmata and imprints, which I think was brilliantly realized.
On a whole, I think if you know nothing about Charles Fort, that it might be a good idea to do some light research about him first, and while Book of the Damned is a delight to read, this one is far more easy to swallow, as it is much tighter and I would recommend it for a first-timer, as his writing style is very particular.
All in all, I loved it, and thought it was beautifully collected, well thought out and brilliantly presented: 4 out of 5 stars due to him giving in to the human agenda to have to find any answers at all about anything. But it's one that will keep you thinking for a long time afterwards. And you'll always have something interesting to say at parties.
One of the strongest points of Fort's is his ability to not take anything seriously at all. I found myself giggling with glee at his depiction of how everyone treated Einstein when he clearly pointed out that he was celebrated wrongly at that time. His cynical eyebrow was perpetually raised at the news reporters of whom he quotes, and one of my favorite obliterations was in pointing out how one case of unexplained fires had been reportedly caused by a simple girl raised from an orphanage with a masterful knowledge of chemistry. Fort also refuses to let himself off the hook when it comes to being human and wanting more, and frankly states at the end of a chapter about his own experiences with phenomena, "Well, then, if I'm not a wizard, I'm not going to let anybody else tell me that he's a wizard."
The only part of the book that I felt bogged it down (and in this, only slightly) was when the book suddenly took on the need to offer up a new set of explanations, as personal- and impersonal-witchcraft. The idea is fine with me, in many degrees I find how he views witchcraft to be completely accurate, however to try and explain anything at all made me a bit disappointed. I understand that Charles Fort did this collecting to try and tie things together; he wasn't interested in the phenomena itself, but how it was all connected. But it seemed so strange to suddenly have a definite idea about anything all all introduced in a book by a man who consciously acknowledges that we no absolutely nothing about our universe when it comes down to it. The ending of the book picks up though, with him utilizing the witchcraft idea to explain some things like Stigmata and imprints, which I think was brilliantly realized.
On a whole, I think if you know nothing about Charles Fort, that it might be a good idea to do some light research about him first, and while Book of the Damned is a delight to read, this one is far more easy to swallow, as it is much tighter and I would recommend it for a first-timer, as his writing style is very particular.
All in all, I loved it, and thought it was beautifully collected, well thought out and brilliantly presented: 4 out of 5 stars due to him giving in to the human agenda to have to find any answers at all about anything. But it's one that will keep you thinking for a long time afterwards. And you'll always have something interesting to say at parties.
October 6, 2019
Charles Fort is a very interesting man. He seems to read countless newspapers from all over the world and collecting related weird articles. He rehashes the story and gives a quick thought about it before moving on to the next collection of odd. I was hoping for more exploration of the articles, however I was left frustrated and wanting more.
May 22, 2021
I started reading Charles Fort's "Wild Talents" expecting an early non-fiction study of telepathy, telekinesis and other psychic powers. All that is very much in here... but most of it in the second half of the book, where the author argues for poorly understood psychic powers as the most likely explanation for witchcraft, sorcery and phenomena like poltergeists and spontaneous human combustion. As a holistic reading experience, "Wild Talents" is all over the place and quite the mind-bender.
Most of the chapters in "Wild Talents" revolve around the author's carefully researched notes about all kinds of weird occurrences throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries that have been documented in exhausting detail by local newspapers as well as police and fire department archives. In all of the strange incidents described, the facts that can be documented with hard evidence are so finger-licking surreal that either no experts in the relevant academic fields of expertise have found a satisfying explanation or the "rational scientific" explanations are even less likely than the exotic explanations. Something which continues to be the case with cryptid or UFO sightings to this very day. The most memorable of the incidents described in "Wild Talents", if you ask me, have to be several werewolf sightings (as well as weregorillas and werehyenas) that were investigated by local police and in one case led to the conviction of a graverobber.
Throughout the book, especially the later chapters, Fort also expounds in depth on his eccentric theories about how the universe functions. These are based in apt observations about the shortcomings of 1930's-era physics and the materialistic metaphysical worldview in general. One thing he belabours is how relatively new and anomalous the latter is in the context of human history - a point that has aged very well now that science keeps turning up data that falsifies the strict physical view of human consciousness especially relating near-death experiences and hallucinogenic drug trips.
I did learn some interesting things reading this book. For instance, that the term "cat burglar" was coined during a police investigation of mysteriously disappearing valuables. The cops blamed these disappearances on an unusually stealthy burglar despite not a single suspect even being arrested and none of the valuable objects being located either. Or, for that matter, that Typhoid Mary was an actual person - a woman who worked as a chef for several hotels and restaurants that all were struck by food poisoning outbreaks which she remained completely unaffected by.
Bottom line: "Wild Talents" is a weird, entertaining and enlightening read for anyone who does not mind having their basic assumptions about reality thrown into a metaphysical woodchipper.
Most of the chapters in "Wild Talents" revolve around the author's carefully researched notes about all kinds of weird occurrences throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries that have been documented in exhausting detail by local newspapers as well as police and fire department archives. In all of the strange incidents described, the facts that can be documented with hard evidence are so finger-licking surreal that either no experts in the relevant academic fields of expertise have found a satisfying explanation or the "rational scientific" explanations are even less likely than the exotic explanations. Something which continues to be the case with cryptid or UFO sightings to this very day. The most memorable of the incidents described in "Wild Talents", if you ask me, have to be several werewolf sightings (as well as weregorillas and werehyenas) that were investigated by local police and in one case led to the conviction of a graverobber.
Throughout the book, especially the later chapters, Fort also expounds in depth on his eccentric theories about how the universe functions. These are based in apt observations about the shortcomings of 1930's-era physics and the materialistic metaphysical worldview in general. One thing he belabours is how relatively new and anomalous the latter is in the context of human history - a point that has aged very well now that science keeps turning up data that falsifies the strict physical view of human consciousness especially relating near-death experiences and hallucinogenic drug trips.
I did learn some interesting things reading this book. For instance, that the term "cat burglar" was coined during a police investigation of mysteriously disappearing valuables. The cops blamed these disappearances on an unusually stealthy burglar despite not a single suspect even being arrested and none of the valuable objects being located either. Or, for that matter, that Typhoid Mary was an actual person - a woman who worked as a chef for several hotels and restaurants that all were struck by food poisoning outbreaks which she remained completely unaffected by.
Bottom line: "Wild Talents" is a weird, entertaining and enlightening read for anyone who does not mind having their basic assumptions about reality thrown into a metaphysical woodchipper.
July 12, 2010
While Fort's best book is _Lo!_, this is a close second. His tendency to wander is reined in a little here, and his argument is carefully made across the course of the many strange events he examines. His characteristic humor and his genius for coming up with unorthodox explanations for the unexplained remains refreshing.
August 3, 2024
i think the only essential Fort is Book of the Damned but if you need more of his witty sass this is how Id rank the other books:
2. Wild Talents
3. Lo
4. New Lands
2. Wild Talents
3. Lo
4. New Lands
June 16, 2019
Cool
Great read, although, because of the period written, a little difficult to understand his spoken word. I really enjoyed the occurrences, proof maybe of the strangeness of life on earth. Recommended
Great read, although, because of the period written, a little difficult to understand his spoken word. I really enjoyed the occurrences, proof maybe of the strangeness of life on earth. Recommended
May 22, 2015
I liked this better than the other books"," because it placed a human scale on events.
February 4, 2025
Bizarre coincidences, mysterious fires, ghostly stabbings, objects falling from nowhere, hyena men.
Where has this book been all my life
Where has this book been all my life
June 12, 2015
Fort's novel, Wild Talents, is about two mutants at the Charles Xavier school of arts who fall in love with each other only to find that love isn't easy as it seems. I gave the novel two stars because this fanfic was mediocre at best! The romance seemed forced and the protagonists didn't have any chemistry whatsoever. The worst part was the character, Charlie Ford, who was a shamefully obvious author insert who would only show up and receive praise from everyone in the area. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
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May 1, 2017Edition: New Ed
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews