A Review By: Amelia
The universe is infinite. Even if life on Earth was created
by chance, the universe is so big that somewhere in the vast expanse of space,
the circumstances that led to life on Earth, could also have occurred
elsewhere. Is it possible that other life that has formed in other parts of the
galaxy have visited Earth? Since the sixties, a whole form of study has formed
around not only alien life, but the possibility that it’s come to Earth–that
maybe it’s here right now. The Mothman
Prophecies is a book dedicated to this theory.
John Keel was an American journalist and a very influential
UFOlogist. He wrote scripts for Get Smart,
The Monkees, Mack & Myer for Hire, and Lost
in Space. His true love however, was for UFOs and in 1967 he popularized
the term ‘Men in Black’ and created theories linking supernatural concepts like
monsters, ghosts, and, demons to extraterrestrial visitations. He was prolific
and imaginative and is considered a significant driving influence within the
UFO field of study.
The plot of The
Mothman Prophecies relates Keel’s account of his paranormal investigation
into the Mothman: a large, winged creature that was haunting and harassing the
people of Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1966-67. This book combines
his investigations and his own theories with various supernatural phenomena to
explain who or what the Mothman is.
Keel was a man who knew what he was talking about. Whether
you believe in aliens and their visitation of Earth or not, Keel wrote a book
full of reasonable explanations and well presented theories and their
‘evidence’. As a narrative, or a case study, though, The Mothman Prophecies falls short. Keel had the facts, but how he
presented them was a little muddled. He jumped around between what he had
experienced, what he had researched, and what he thought just a little too
often and a little too haphazardly.
My final thoughts on The
Mothman Prophecies are that it’s okay. It’s not quite a memoir, not quite a
case study, not quite a supernatural/horror/science-fiction thriller and that
makes it just okay. I felt like the writer was using to jovial a tone and it
took away from the tension that he was trying to create with his retelling of
all the should-be-creepy stuff that happened to him. He’s done his research and
I have no doubt that he believes all this happened because of aliens, but as a
writer, he didn’t convince me of it. Still a book worth checking out if you’re
interested in the topic, but not so much if you’re expecting a memoir, a case
study, or a supernatural/horror/science-fiction thriller.
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