The Complete Books of Charles Fort - Rare Paranormal & Supernatural Collection | Perfect for Researchers, Book Collectors & Mystery Enthusiasts | Explore Unexplained Phenomena & Bizarre Events

charles fort is unique. in all the books in all the shelves of all the national libraries, there is no equal. i first encountered fort as a teenager, six decades ago, and consumed several of the books with what seems to me now as incomprehension. were these things true, were they possible? eventually i shrugged and moved on.fort is, first of all, a very early writer in the post modern, neo-nietzschean vein. the gist of his critique of science comes down to this: "All the phenomena are 'explained' in the terms of the Dominant [worldview] of their era. This is why we give up trying really to explain, and content ourselves with expressing."this could launch a long discussion, as montaigne might say, but it is instead the start point for a stupendously extended goof, a proustian meander through spates of humor, sarcasm, diatribe, credo, puzzlement and incredulity that weaves exposition, evidence, conjecture, testimony and speculation together into a factually surreal stream of consciousness, an evidently interminable and unquenchable flow of talk. the social criticism fort puts up is as much in the undisciplined and mercurial style as it is in the recital of scientifically inexplicable events.there is a passage in "moby dick" where capt. ahab rails against the "pasteboard masks" that shut humanity from knowledge of ultimate reality. "smash the masks!" is his motto. fort is more like an amiable stroller in the infinite halls of mystery, rattling doorknobs, knocking fruitlessly at locked doors, peeking through mailslots, buttonholing passersby with queries and exclamations. and, occasionally, muttering insults through the transom at the scientists and priests that he suspects are cowering on the other side. fort does not rail against the dark, or test the feet of idols with a hammer. he looks up from the sunday paper to say, "oh, here's something i've not seen before!"fort is not a front-to-back kind of read. you soon tire of the repetition, the circularity, the interminable mass of little newspaper clippings. as i said, i think that's the point of the book: how much our endless explanations of experience shield us from experiencing the mystery itself. he never comes to rest, draws conclusions, or floats hypotheses that can be taken seriously. he's the tristram shandy of science philosophers.simply cracking the book at random and reading a signature of pages in a stray leisure moment is a unique experience. fort is neither broad nor deep. but he is, in his unique way, very tasty.