A CASE OF DEJA VU

Starve Acre (2023) Dir Daniel Kokotajlo BFI Blu Ray.

At the beginning of Starve Acre a young boy named Owen cannot sleep. When his mother speaks to him he says that the whistling has gone now. The next day, when his parents are resting, under a tree, near a cricket pitch, they’re disturbed by a young girl’s scream followed by the cry of a distressed horse that’s just had one of its eyes injured. The attacker is Owen holding a bloodstained twig.

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LITERARY CRITICISM

Joshua Blu Buhs. Think to New Worlds; the Cultural History of Charles Fort and his Followers. University of Chicago Press, 2024.

In the days of the long forgotten UFO UpDates Internet discussion group, ufologist and Fortean Jerome Clark described much of Magonia's output as 'literary criticism'. He felt that, rather than studying the 'actual existing phenomena', we were more concerned about the manner in which they were described and written about and their influence on society, rather on examining what it is 'up there'.

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RECOVERING THE OUTCASTS

The Outcasts (1982) BFI Blu Ray / Flipside. Robert Wynne-Simmons (Director) (24 September 2024.)

Very few films have a genuine Celtic/Pagan sensibility where environment and characters possess a mysterious and magical charge that feels authentically rooted in myth and legend. The cult favourite The Wicker Man is an obvious first choice. Then Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s still underrated Gone to Earth. 

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TRACKING THE GRIFFIN

A. L. McClanan. Griffinology, the Griffin's Place in Myth, History and Art. Reaktion Books, 2024.

A book previously reviewed in Magonia (1) suggested that the image of this mythical beast was created in Greece and the ancient Near East as a result of travellers finding the fossil remains of prehistoric creatures, particularly the protoceratops. These bones were often found on or near the surface in the areas to the north of the Caspian Sea, and the story of the griffin was built around them.

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DRAINING THE NAZI UFO SWAMP

Maurizio Verga. Flying Saucers from Naziland. The Real Story of the Nazi UFOs. Volume 1. Verga, 2023.

The 'Nazi UFO' stories have been haunting ufology and ufologists, even from before the official birth of the saucers in 1947. Promoted by a coalition of naïve ufologists, cynical exploiters, conspiracy theorists and actual real-life Nazis, they have created a hugely complex network of myth, rumour, fraud and political intrigue.

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YOURS SINCERELY, CHARLES FORT

Chris Aubeck (Editor). Letters of the Damned; the Forgotten Investigations of Charles Fort. Aubeck, 2024.

We are all familiar with the four 'canonical' texts of Charles Fort, and mostly aware of, if not familiar with, his earlier literary works such as The Outcast Manufacturers and the lively short stories depicting working-class New York tenement life, which were published in magazines and newspapers.

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SCREENING SATAN

The Satanic Screen: An Illustrated Guide to the Devil in Cinema by Nikolas Schreck. Headpress, revised edition 2024.

“True to its mirroring nature, the satanic cinema has often portrayed the Devil as whatever force was perceived by consensus consciousness as embodying cosmic maleficence at the time.” 

CHANCE'D BE A FINE THING

Nigel Pennick. Fortuna; the Sacred and Profane Faces of Luck. Destiny Books, 2024.

'Chance' is a difficult thing to understand, 'randomness' even more so. There is the old trick question: if someone tosses a coin nine times and each time it comes up heads, what should you bet on for the tenth toss? Well any mathematician will tell you that it makes no difference what you choose as each individual toss is a 50/50 heads or tails bet.*

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A HOLE IN THE THEORY?

Brian J. Allan. The Hole in the Sky, Flying Disk Press, 2024.

This presents a heady brew of UFOs, the Philadelphia and Rendlesham incidents, Rosslyn chapel, dowsing, leys, magic, fairies, angels, mediumship, shamanism, drug-induced trances, coincidences, the Bermuda Triangle, Skinwalker Ranch, poltergeists, Biblical codes. It’s the whole paranormal nine yards plus, that could easily fill any hole in the sky.

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LOOSING TRACK OF TIME

Tim R. Swartz and Sean Casteel (editors.). Weird Time, Zontar Press, 2024.

UFO and time-slip accounts have many similarities. Witnesses often enter a mist and/or feel that their environment has become silent and still. They feel disorientated and are puzzled by what they experience - the 'Oz Factor'. Such events seem to occur in localised ‘hot spots’ such as Liverpool's Bold Street, and certain people often have repeat experiences. 

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