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Fictional Influences On Ufology

There's a splendid collection of UFO-related comic book and magazine scans at Ufopop.

Also worth a look are Retro Future and Tales of Future Past.

You could - I suspect - make a fairly good case that UFO/ET beliefs are irrevocably rooted in the Utopian/Dystopian future visions of the 1950's. And while we may have given up on shimmering mile-high skyscrapers, robot butlers, three-course meals in pill form, and flying atomic cars, the aliens are still wearing futuristic jumpsuits, zipping around in shining saucers, and partying like it's 1956.
 
Mate, in Australia IT IS 1956!

... And it is funny how we've all moved on, but the Aliens are still running around in their equivalent of bobby sox...
 
I always thought that the "green meteor" description in the war of the worlds may have swayed later UFO reports which are just like that.
 
Green meteors aren't just fiction, I've seen three of them.

There's been so much interplay between UFOlogy and Science Fiction it's heard to tell what influenced what.

George Adamski, wrote an SF story about space flight before the allegedly non-fiction Flying Saucers have Landed.

The Day the Earth Stood Still predates Adamski's desert contacts with Orthon in 1952, the story it's based on goes back to 1940, but it's rather different from the film. The saucer anticipates Adamski's and Klaatu could be a prototype for Orthon.

CE3K seem to consolidate a lot of ideas about UFOs and aliens.
 
I think it's worth checking out some of the art-books compiled by Forrest Ackerman. He's the original science fiction collector has as a vast collection of magazines, toys and props from a variety of films.

In his collection of cover illustrations, there's a whole host of alien/flying machines/rocket ships which may have subconciously influenced things.
A lot of the evil invader-types tend toward the spindly, pale-skinned bug-eyed look - yer basic "Roswell" - while the heroic alien types are v. much akin to the Nordics....

It also worth a view just for the past's ideas of the "future" as well.

Some of magazines date from the 1910s and 1920s, about the time hat avaiation was THE hot topic adn anything related was eagerly debated. Interestingly some of the later "Astoundings" and "Amazings" begin life with less of the fiction and more of the science with titles like "Modern Mechanix and Inventions".
 
I suppose if you did see something in the sky you weren't sure of, and you couldn't remember the event fully afterwards, the chance of you filling in the blanks later with cultural referances to ' unknown flying things ' would be very high. I agree with timble2 on the interplay of UFO's and the media. However, I like reading about reports of UFO's from classical times, before mass media etc, as I like to think they are witnessed by ' uninfluenced ' people.
 
mothman8 said:
However, I like reading about reports of UFO's from classical times, before mass media etc, as I like to think they are witnessed by ' uninfluenced ' people.
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If we assume that people's memories have always been imperfect and developed holes where details are forgotten, then its likely that life experience (whatever that might be - depending on the era/ people) has always influenced memories and it just depends on what is known (culturally/ scientifically) that leads to the interpretation of what is seen and/ or remembered.

However, i agree that its fun to look at pre-media influenced reports to see what they are like, and to see how they differ, if at all, from present day reports.
 
In Greece and its surounding area in classical times, I wonder if UFO's were mistaken for activity of the Gods?? be it a strange meteor or glowing, dancing ball of light.
 
... or maybe we're mistaking the activities of the gods for that of space brothers! :shock:
 
It's peculiar that centuries ago the face of a "Mr Nobody" statue is the same streamlined, character-devoid face of today's "alien". Maybe the face itself is like a "file not found" message, when people see something that makes their minds go all weebly, you know, "Error! Error!"
 
Aaron Sakulich is an engineering student who has written a series of remarkably ignorant and lazy articles debunking the alien/UFO phenomenon. Nevertheless, his latest essay about the parallels between latter-day accounts of alien abduction and the 1954 film Killers From Space is actually well worth reading:

Alien Abductions and B Movies
 
Maybe the face itself is like a "file not found" message, when people see something that makes their minds go all weebly, you know, "Error! Error!"
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Without being able to recall enough specifics to google up examples, i'm sure i've seen 'tribal' masks that had a very similar likeness, suspect you're right about it just being some image in the human psyche...
 
I used to belong to a UFO investigation group and found that many people who reported sightings did try to qualify what they had reported by saying 'i dont watch the x-files' or 'im not into sci-fi'. I dont for a second think this meens that they arent affected by media images but it does mean that most people are aware of the connection between media images of ETs and UFO sightings and honestly try to rule out any possible influence in there own minds. Most reports have these statments in them somewhere or other.
I suppose on the other side of the coin, i read an interesting report on this site about 'spring heal jack' like beings in India where wierd creatures were seen jumping over trees and being driven around in an air born car, what interpritation would they have made if they had access to stuff like the x-files or close encounters?
 
Ah, but airborn cars are v.much apart of Indian (hindu) mythology. This mythos has been v.successfully translated into t.v. series, sooo.... :D
 
A more interesting question would be has anybody done any studies into whether or not witnesses to crimes are influenced by what they have seen on TV or read in books.
This would be interesting because unlike UFOs everyone knows that a crime actually has been committed so that it would be eassier to check whether witness descriptions bear any relations to crime dramas.
After all it must be remembered that just because a witness is a SF fan does not by itself preclude the event (whether it be abduction, lights in the sky, etc) actually having happened all it does is possibly provide an explanation as to how it is perceived.
And then there is the flipside of the coin did early examples of abductions in SFD mags influence reports or were those depictions writers trying to explain there own unreported abductions as there was no access to anetwork of "hidden memories" experts to discover them until the 60s. And the mere fact that writers are logically deciding what should happen during such an experience are doing so on the basis of what it would be like and would only have a massive effect if they came up with illogical and improbable ideas that then were reported. for example after the "medical examinations" started being reprted there is only so many ways for such exams to happen so it would be expected that fiction and possible fact to coincide but was there any major surge in aliens disentigrating in a blur of light as in The Invaders and Stra Trek.
To get back to my beginning the only way to decide how big an effect fiction has on these reports would be to examine a control group of crime/detective fans who have been witnesses and see if they showed any deviation from the actual occurrences they are repprting and by how much.
 
Check out eyewitness testimony by Elizabeth Loftus. She is the expert. Started doing classic experiments (!) back in the early 70's. Many questions about memory, reliability, presuppositions, leading questions etc will be answered (and quite well in my opinion)
 
Another thing i always wanted to say on this subject is that many people in sociological and psychological circles always point to the media as being the birth place of paranormal occurances like UFO and ghost sightings. They imply that most sightings occur after a popular film deals with a subject. So why then did Buffy the vampire slayer not start a wave of vampire sightings. I watch the Fortean news quite closely and the only reports of vampires come from disturbed kids who think there vampires. I dont think ive ever come across a 'contemporary' case of a vampire sighting, by this I mean a being capable of supernatural powers. The ground is definatley ripe for this type of thing.
 
I'm surprised that no-one else has mentioned this but techincally speaking the first ever fictional abduction of two human beings by an alien being to be seen on television occured on the BBC on Saturday, November 23rd 1963, when two London school teachers were forcably abducted by an mysterious humanoid alien known as ..... the Doctor!:mrgreen:


Over the intervening 26 years (28 inc the new series and 29 inc knew series and TV movie) a good number of the Doctor's companions have been "abductees" - in the show's mythology this is usually refered to as stumbling into the TARDIS in the mistaken belief that it was just a real Police Box - or even stowaways.

I wonder if it's this mythology which tempers the idea of alien abduction for British TV viewers, as generally a quick jaunt in the TARDIS meant advernture and excitement not an implant and an anal probe.
 
Technically its not all probes and rummaging around with your private parts - people often get spirited away to distant worlds that are suspiciosly similar to our own just with a bit of light set dressing and some quaint local customs.

Hmmmmmmm.
 
Another one that hasnt transfered from media to popular mythology is zombies, like the walking dead type, not the ones you see in supermarkets and in town on saturday mornings.
 
Well Ghandidave...I'm pretty sure Emps has got some vamp stories up and about - I can't remember where I saw them (sorry emps - Saturday night, pissed and lazy).
Zombies....well Derren Brown used a zombie scenario recenlty, however, the probs with zombies are that they would be pretty easy to spot. Indeed, they don't go into hiding and aren't really known for their cunning (in the west). I'm sure there are probably weekly zombie reports in Haiti.

Ufo's offer mystery, magic, god, technology (take whichever you want) - indeed, they offer more than we can currently do ourselves and have the 'mechanism' of being advanced enough to avoid our detection. In terms of comparison, it's like mediumship. Whoever says they are a medium or UFO expert (via abduction, messages etc) becomes and instantaneous expert, and cannot be refuted (in their minds, and others like them). Yadayada....hey emps, if this is too wibbley just remove this post.
 
GadaffiDuck said:
Well Ghandidave...I'm pretty sure Emps has got some vamp stories up and about - I can't remember where I saw them (sorry emps - Saturday night, pissed and lazy).
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~sigh~

Modern vampire killers:

www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11191
www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4434

Modern Vampire slayers:

www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14092

GadaffiDuck said:
Zombies....well Derren Brown used a zombie scenario recenlty, however, the probs with zombies are that they would be pretty easy to spot. Indeed, they don't go into hiding and aren't really known for their cunning (in the west). I'm sure there are probably weekly zombie reports in Haiti.
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One or two a year.

You are at greatest danger in South Africa which is the only place I know where people have been killed over it and that as more an offshoot of the rampant witch killing:

www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14434
 
ok, i dont want to be a pain in the kneck over this vampire/zombie thing(pun intended) but the two links that the mighty emporer posted were of disturbed people who thought they were vampires. What I was saying is that buffy didnt spawn any supernatural sightings like morphing faces, flying vampires and general supernatural tom foolery. i know there have been odd folk who think they are vampires but there havent been, to my knowladge, any truly bizzare sightings in the countrys that have been affected by media influance.
 
Well...a ufo is just that...unidentified. it is, without offence, peoples' ignorance that ascribes detail. A vamp or zombie is a different kettle of fish. You can't imagine someone saying I saw an unidentified undead phenomena can you? Either you think that you saw a zomb or vamp, or not. Not much room for error. Possibly, just possibly mind you, mystical vamps and zombs may not exist..........ooops, gonna lose fortean status if I keep this up....
 
Shouldn't there be reports of Klingons and Yoda and Leonard Nimoy and stuff like that?
 
dreeness said:
Shouldn't there be reports of Klingons and Yoda and Leonard Nimoy and stuff like that?
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Maybe there are... perhaps they are simply disregarded as being complete and utter nonsense and so nobody takes any notice...

Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus's research has provided evidence which strongly suggests that eye-witness testimony is very infallible...but maybe the door swings both ways and instead of people believing in things that didnt happen but hav been reported as witnessed, they dont believe in things that did happen and have been reported but because they defy logic and reason they are disregarded...

...sory if that doesnt make much sense... :?
 
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