Customer Reviews

Wake Up Down There!, The Excluded Middle Anthology

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Huge compilation of the great but obscure "Excluded Middle" magazine. Forget the Weekly World News, Fate, or any of the rest - this is the real thing! For once some intelligent people have gotten together to talk about conspiracies, UFOs, and the paranormal. An indispensable guide for the new millennium.

which is quite an achievement in and off itself, considering this is largely a reissue of multi-genred articles, nuggets of varying length and depth from the 1990s zine, supplemented with a never published virtual edition from 2000. The more engaging installments comprise plentiful interviews conducted by editor-in-chief Greg Bishop with - inter alios - the late courageous abduction researcher/activist Karla Turner; Dr. Mario Pazzaglini, an expert on alien writing whose decoded messages include gems like the one received by Betty Andreasson, "If you want to make light solid, show it to the Moon!" (p. 184); paranormal investigator and theoretician Dean Radin, Michael Grosso, parapolitics specialist Kenn Thomas (confessedly in the footsteps of Mae Brussell), Robert Anton Wilson (died in 2007), and the likes.

"Space ranger and captain of the starship 'Psychopath', crackpot historian" Adam Gorightly is also among the contributors, interviewing the controversial Dr. Andrija Puharich's colleague Ira Einhorn, a chum of fellow hippie counterculture tribesmen's like Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg, who was finally extradited by the French in 2001 for the murder of Holly Maddux. Gorightly also penned an essay on the Castaneda-craze in his unmistakable style, with a telling subchapter title 'BS as a fertilizer in the garden of truth' (p. 229).

Also worthy of mention are the posts by co-editor Peter Stenshoel probing the socio-psychological aspects of borderland studies; as well as a debriefing on the once clandestine outfit (now defunct or morphed into sg. else) ATPWG, short for 'Advanced Theoretical Physics Working Group', which connects such notorious characters as Col. John Alexander, Maj. Ed Dames, Dr. Hal Puthoff, Col. Philip Corso (not so by the way a rescuer of Nazi scientists under Project Paperclip), and possibly ufologist Jacques Vallee (pp. 389-92); plus Joan d'Arc's (of Paranoia mag) paper outlining the envisioned modification of humans for space travel (alternatively, read Robert Silverberg's 1993 sci-fi novel "Hot Sky at Midnight" as predictive programming?), John Carter's (= Adam Parfrey?) piece 'Remnants of Thule: Semitic Seeds in Nazi Germany,' & so forth.

The reader can also find interesting newsbits, film/video and book reviews, including the late great Jim Keith's (died under suspicious circumstances in 1999, like so many others) scathing assessment of David Icke's bestseller "The Biggest Secret".
As for the downside, the large format renders the present compendium, with a few disturbing typos here and there, a bit unwieldy and less portable; whereas the smartarsing, pretentious fun-pun factor prevalent on part of certain authors at the detriment of genuine insight is a tad too much for my liking. Otherwise, well worth its price.

Greg Bishop's compilation of his Excluded Middle magazines is one of the best compilations of weird stuff available. This giant book, packed with material, reminds me of Kenn Thomas's Steamshovel Press Reader, or the strange earthmysteries compilation Far-Out Adventures. Anyway, Bishop is to be commended for his ground-breaking magazine and this compilation of articles.

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Five of the articles included in this anthology just plain made me mad! That's why I gave it 5 stars. How many books can do that these days? There are about 85 pieces in the book, most originally printed in tEM (although there is an entire virtual issue included) with something for everyone. (And very likely at least one that will make you mad!)
The intellectual level of the discussion in the Excluded Middle is a lot higher than that found in other 'zines covering the conspiracy/UFO/weirdness communities. The anthology is definitely worth the purchase price, just as the magazine is worth seeking out. (It is unfortunately hard to get.) If you've never seen the magazine, get the book and see what you've been missing.
...and you gotta love any book edited while listening to both Captain Beefheart and The Who.
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Now!

If you read Fortean Times or a reader of Charles Fort you'll love this book. Totally enjoyable.

Greg Bishop's compilation of his Excluded Middle magazines is one of the best compilations of weird stuff available. This giant book, packed with material, reminds me of Kenn Thomas's Steamshovel Press Reader, or the strange earthmysteries compilation Far-Out Adventures. Anyway, Bishop is to be commended for his ground-breaking magazine and this compilation of articles.