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FT252

gordonrutter

gordonrutter

Within reason
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Issue 252 has just popped through the letter box - off to read it now

Gordon
 
Here's a quick summary:-

  • Picture spread of various impalings
    Lost and found tales
    Ingenious primates
    Konspiracy Korner: Anti-Democrat disinformation
    Michael Jackson conspiracy theories
    Necrolog: Ali Bongo
    Blasts From the Past: Curious Corpses
    The Berwyn Mountain UFO Crash
    Hoax! Part 3
    Pint-Sized Pachyderms?
    Random Dictionary of the Damned: Ghosts and Hauntings Part 4
    Forum: The Virtual Afterlife
    Letters: Mask In the Window 'ghost' photo
 
Hmm, seems the e-mails from the dead article isn't what I was hoping for, but never mind.

WARNING: if you're of a sensitive disposition then watch yourself about six pages into the new issue! Some seriously nasty photographs there! What is this? Bizarre mag?
 
Mine's here. 8)

Emails from the dead, eh? 8)
 
gncxx said:
Hmm, seems the e-mails from the dead article isn't what I was hoping for, but never mind.

WARNING: if you're of a sensitive disposition then watch yourself about six pages into the new issue! Some seriously nasty photographs there! What is this? Bizarre mag?
Click to expand...

I agree! I don't see anything "Fortean" in graphic photos of gruesome accidents. "Ooh look, an impaled child"... :no-no:
I also felt the same a few years ago when there seemed to be a spate of deformed baby photos. Not what I expect from the FT!
 
I agree. Rotten,com is the place for that. It can stay there too. :evil:

We've discussed this sort of thing before and I find that some posters think it's a question of squeamishness about graphic images of pain and death.

No, it's not. It's about having enough respect for our fellow humans not to see their suffering as entertainment. Could be us next time.
 
I agree that gruesome photos for the sake of it ought to have no place in FT. But miraculous survivals/unlikely accidents/million-to-one anomalies do, if that's what they are (my FT awaits proper attention tomorrow morning!)
 
FT has a long tradition of publishing news photographs of impalings so it's really nothing new.
 
Got mine yesterday. Good so far. I wonder about part 3 of the Hoax article: some of the terminology is rather post-moderinist ie opaque & obscurantiat. Could it be a partial hoax?
 
WhistlingJack said:
FT has a long tradition of publishing news photographs of impalings so it's really nothing new.
Click to expand...

Not all traditions are ones worth continuing.
 
ramonmercado said:
Got mine yesterday. Good so far. I wonder about part 3 of the Hoax article: some of the terminology is rather post-moderinist ie opaque & obscurantiat. Could it be a partial hoax?
Click to expand...

As if...! I'm sure it wasn't intentional, ramonmercado. Which terms did you find unclear?
 
I'm afraid I understood very little in the "Hoax" article, maybe due to the bottle of red wine! What did the photo of Tolkien signify? Maybe I'll try again sober!?
 
paulsamfreya said:
What did the photo of Tolkien signify?
Click to expand...

I expect the editors included it to illustrate the part in the text where Tolkien is mentioned.
 
Perhaps I'm wierd, but when I removed this issue from it's bag I felt instantly disappointed. It just didn't "feel" very substantial.
 
paulsamfreya said:
I'm afraid I understood very little in the "Hoax" article, maybe due to the bottle of red wine! What did the photo of Tolkien signify? Maybe I'll try again sober!?
Click to expand...

It was written in an excessively pseudo-academic style. Pity, because it took away from some interesting content.
 
ArthurASCII said:
Perhaps I'm wierd, but when I removed this issue from it's bag I felt instantly disappointed. It just didn't "feel" very substantial.
Click to expand...

I think the hoax pages consisted of ectoplasm.
 
brotherluth said:
paulsamfreya said:
What did the photo of Tolkien signify?
Click to expand...

I expect the editors included it to illustrate the part in the text where Tolkien is mentioned.
Click to expand...

Point taken, having re-read the article sober! :oops:
Still can't understand it though!
 
Great reaction to the imaginary friends article, really good anecdotes and theories. This is what I like to read on the letters page, rather than... well, rather than something I won't mention.
 
If readers who found Hoax Part III obscure or incomprehensible in parts, or even as a whole, would care to expand on specific problems they have with the article, I'm sure the authors would be glad to elucidate. There were, after all, a lot of ideas to cover in a limited space (none of them, however, knowingly post-modern -- feh!).

Remember, only one of them bites.

The other one is on the Fourth Plinth as of 1300hrs tomorrow.
 
AS I wrote, imho the language & tone was somewhat "academic" and post-modernist style academic at that ie opaque. Not in keeping with the usual FT style.
 
But what specifically in our argument, did you find "opaque", and (presumably) therefore difficult to follow? If we have something more precise to get a handle on, we can put our heads together and try to clarify what we were getting at, for you and anyone else interested.

I won't take "Not in keeping with FT's usual style" too much to heart, as one of FT's virtues is that it embraces many styles and many angles on forteana. Expecting the unexpected surely goes with the territory?
 
The good thing about Fortean Times is that it is different. It would be terrible if it were the same in every issue. It always exposes new ideas and new styles, which is why it is always worth the read.
 
Marrowpod said:
There were, after all, a lot of ideas to cover in a limited space (none of them, however, knowingly post-modern -- feh!).
Click to expand...
In the halcyon days of Fortean Times, ample space to expand on this interesting topic would have been provided through Fortean Studies.

Any plans for a "Volume 8" O Powers That Be?
 
Marrowpod said:
But what specifically in our argument, did you find "opaque", and (presumably) therefore difficult to follow? If we have something more precise to get a handle on, we can put our heads together and try to clarify what we were getting at, for you and anyone else interested.

I won't take "Not in keeping with FT's usual style" too much to heart, as one of FT's virtues is that it embraces many styles and many angles on forteana. Expecting the unexpected surely goes with the territory?
Click to expand...

FT embraces many styles, but you will find that complaints crop up if the style is inaccessible.

I can't see what more I can say. The article was written in an academic style but even that was more pseudo-academic with some "post-modern" traces. Unnecessary use of obscure jargon whic was questionable regarding its context.

I'm not opposed to articlres being written in an academic style, I often enjoy such. I got funny looks once when I said that an academic history book was "enormously enjoyable".

FT is not the place for academic articles but even if it was I don't think the article question would pass muster. Some good ideas, but badly communicated.

(I know, everyones a critic.)
 
My favourite was the long lost watch that still keeps perfect time: "Nothing is ever truly lost until you're sure it's left the planet". Near brought tears to the eye.

The Hoaxing article, i also felt, was written in a more adademic style than other contributions. Not "excessively" academic, not "impenetrably" academic, but a definite change to tone. Indeed, i suggested my GF - a sociologist by degree - checked it out and gave me her opinion. One or two observations i'd raise is that it the whole piece felt like reading a Walter Benjamin essay. Good, decidedly, but not what i come to FT for. The second is that i'd have used more real examples, like this "Artful Codger" for instance:

http://www.24dash.com/news/Communities/ ... iques-scam

Who knocked up nearly 1 million quids worth of fakes in his "garden shed" using books his son gave him as source material, than discuss Alfred Gell, George Dickie or indeed Vertof, Pirandello or Abel Gance. So all in all, a good effort, that slightly missed its mark. Allowing for the vagaries of one chap's personal taste etc.

Oh, and isn't it "late modern" nowadays?:)
 
Oh, and isn't it "late modern" nowadays?
Click to expand...

Well the post-modernists have taken such a pounding theres fewer of them about these days spouting nonsense. And when they do they are more likely to be taken on even if they try to hide behind a feminist, developing-worldist or leftist shield (not something thats happening in this case).

Its important for feminists, socialists and anti-imperialists to fight the post-modernists. The PMs bring us all into disrepute!

Lets have more late post-modernists!
 
Artful codger

Twin_Star said:
My favourite was the long lost watch that still keeps perfect time: "Nothing is ever truly lost until you're sure it's left the planet". Near brought tears to the eye.

... i'd have used more real examples, like this "Artful Codger" for instance:

http://www.24dash.com/news/Communities/ ... iques-scam

Who knocked up nearly 1 million quids worth of fakes in his "garden shed" using books his son gave him as source material, than discuss Alfred Gell, George Dickie or indeed Vertof, Pirandello or Abel Gance. So all in all, a good effort, that slightly missed its mark. Allowing for the vagaries of one chap's personal taste etc.
Click to expand...

The Greenhalg family (Artful Codgers) were referred to in both the earlier parts of this feature, with back refs to the coverage in Strange Days in FT245:22-24.
 
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