The Book of the Damned (Dover Occult) [Paperback]

Charles Fort (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dover Occult | Publication Date: July 5, 2002

Flying saucers, telekinesis, sudden showers of fish from the sky, and spontaneous combustion are a few of the unexplained phenomena that Charles Fort (1874–1932) labeled "damned" — his term for mysteries dismissed by scientific orthodoxy. This exploration of the gray area between science and fantasy was the prototype for extraterrestrial speculations and helped promote the development of science fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

The Book of the Damned has inspired scientists, science fiction writers, moviemakers, and devotees for almost a hundred years. The damned data Charles Fort gathered covered so many marvels, mysteries, and monsters--including unidentified aerial objects, frog falls, ship disappearances, red rains, earthquake lights, lake monsters, animal mutilations, psychic explosions, and much, much more. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (July 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486421333
• ISBN-13: 978-0486421339
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,458,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scepticism for starters: the trippy mind of Charles Fort, November 9, 2003

By 

Takis Tz. (InYourHead) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Book of the Damned (Dover Occult) (Paperback)

Hailed as the man who kick-started modern day scepticism for the findings and conclusions of mainstream science, Charles Fort is actually a man who is paid more tribute now than ever before with the advent of alternative archaeology and science in general and with more and more people (researchers, scientists or not) actually doubting some of our more precious scientific dogmas.

This book is a celebration of humor as well as scepticism, the humor part being the one which most people have greatly misunderstood about C.Fort.
Fort takes literally 100s of examples of bizzare unexplained phenomena such as things falling from the sky (ranging from frogs or fish to metal objects) to spontaneous combustion, to unidentified flying objects, to time travel among others and actually exposes science's comical "answers" to these phenomena.
Frogs that have been rained by the sky or fish for that matter are not a phenomenon that has stopped. It still happens. The "official explanation" remains as hilarious as it was back in Fort's times, namely: a hurricane or a whirlwind picks them up and "rains" them somewhere else. However, why these winds are selective in what they pick up remains unaswered by science.

The usual and continuing up to this day explanation about UFOs which concerns mass illusion or the classic "weather baloon" explanation is picked up by Fort and given the ridiculing treatment it deserves.

What makes Fort such a classic and cult figure is his ability to use subtle (mostly) but lethal sarcasm to debunk the dogmatic and more than often funny explanations that scientists offer when cornered with occurences that dont fit or even shutter their sacred theories.

Fort's intention is none other than to highlight our trait of mixing cluelessness with arrogance and at the same time to trigger openmindedness or more importantly thinking for oneself and not religiously depending on science to shape the answers so that they fit the question.

The problem that Fort brings out with the "Book of the damned" is one that persists today as well. With Darwinistic theories being heavily challenged, with the Bing Bang theory being literally taken apart by daring scientists, and with Quantum physics proving that the "unthinkable" might actually be very thinkable indeed it's the Fortean spirit celebrated all over again on a grand scale.

Fort's critics (and they aren't few) take his theories the way they take the theories of mainstream science as well: for granted. Fort offers in this book for example a theory of a "super Sargasso sea" where all these living organisms keep falling from. One would have to be tremendously lacking in humour or imagination not to gather that Fort is yanking the collective chain here. What he does say in reality is: "if you can offer such a ridiculous theory about this phenomenon (insert unexplained phenomenon here) then i might as well add my own which by no means is less or more serious but it's nevertheless just as unproven as yours".
It's as simple as that really and Fort uses this technique repeateadly in his "Book of the damned" calling damned those who "dare" refuse official dogma.

There has been much criticism as well concerning the overwhelming bulk of paradigms that Fort uses in this book and the critics are probably right in this case. There was no need for such volume as the point would easily get across with 1/3 of these examples.
But that aside, this is in fact a book way, way ahead of its time.
It's funny how a man can be thrown to the pyre exactly because he uses his humour to dismiss our fear of not being able to explain the world around us. It's even funnier that we keep insisting we can despite alarming failures.
The "Book of the damned" is a grand example of a brave mind. The problem with brave minds is that they are usually shoved under the gigantic rug tagged "truth" for a very long time before anyone recognises their impact.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The First UFO Investigator, October 19, 2003

By 

M. A Michaud "michael_michaud" (Dulles, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of the Damned (Dover Occult) (Paperback)

This book, one of four he published before passing away in 1932, exploits Fort's research into reports of peculiar things in the sky or fallen from the sky to challenge the authority of establishment science. He describes the book as an assemblage of data of external relations of this earth, "damned" by those who hold for our planet's isolation. According to Fort, the attitude of Science and Christian Science toward the unwelcome is the same: it does not exist.

Some of the events described in these reports would be described today as UFO's. While some of these cases may warrant attention, others seem marginal.

Fort hypothesizes that "there is somewhere aloft a place" where life may have orginated; "evolution on this earth has been induced by external influences." He offers alternative explanations for unexplained sightings: another world that is in secret communication with certain "esoteric" inhabitants of this earth; other worlds that are trying to establish communication with all the inhabitants of the earth; other worlds and vast structures that pass us by without the slightest desire to communicate; a vast construction that has often come to this earth, dipped into an ocean, then gone away. At one point, Fort writes that the earth was a no-man's land explored and colonized by other worlds; now something owns this earth, warning off all others. All this, he goes on, has been known, perhaps for ages, to certain ones upon the earth.

It is hard to know how much of this is serious and how much is just satire. Fort's imagined super-constructions a few miles above the earth stretch credibility too far. His quirky writing style, though sometimes entertaining, tends to further undermine his believability. Nonetheless, anyone wanting to read into the UFO phenomenon may find this book useful background.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent and hilarious classic!, February 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Book of the Damned (Paperback)

This is not a new book, but was written sometime around the turn of century and has been considered a classic on most 'required reading' lists. A spoof on the awe in which society holds the Holy Writs of the scientific community, the author marshalled an impressive army of established, documented facts for which the official scientific explanations are simply absurd. A 'must read' for anyone who believes science teaches The Truth -- or for anyone who suspects otherwise.