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FT349

XEPER_

XEPER_

Death to all but metal
Joined
Mar 3, 2013
Messages
845
Sorry, I know some of you still haven't got 348 but my copy of January's issue arrived about a week ago, I just hadn't bothered posting the new thread as I haven't had a chance to look at it.

You'll be glad to know IHTM is back - personally not too bothered as I think the majority of the stories in it are made up or exaggerated beyond belief, but there's a page in this issue again.

Article about Western Mystics in India which at first look seems boring to me because much of it is about some Marvel character I've never heard of and, being a Judge Dredd or Batman fan, couldn't care less about! But I'm sure I'll find it really good once I read it and no doubt our old favourite uncle Al will be in there somewhere! :D

Article about Xmas being celebrated in January which really DOES look rather boring and will probably be one of those things I start only to give up on after a few paragraphs.

Article about Montague Summers. I'm not very familiar with him but it looks an interesting piece.

Strange Statesmen and Fortean Library (The Old Straight Track this month) both look good.

Overall a mostly strong issue, at first glance!
 
Mine arrived yesterday, no opportunities to even open it, so far...
 
Just been reading this, liked the mystics article (transmitter in the turban - sneaky!) and the late Christmas celebrations (my dad remembers Hogmanay being the big end of year celebration as a child in Scotland, not Christmas Day), but I didn't like the sound of this Summers bloke. Oh, and for those keeping score, Crowley and Michell mentioned within pages of each other.
 
XEPER_ said:
You'll be glad to know IHTM is back - personally not too bothered as I think the majority of the stories in it are made up or exaggerated beyond belief, but there's a page in this issue again.
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It wouldn't take much to fill a page with a few made up stories, I agree. I do like reading them though. The first one in 349 is unusual in that the 'haunting' focuses on the girl rather than a specific location. She first gets a glimpse of something while at school and then later at home.

Some of the accounts in Summers book on werewolves are sometimes passed off online as actual events with no reference to the fact that he was the author and was mostly compiling legends and folk-tales.
 
GNC said:
Just been reading this, liked the mystics article (transmitter in the turban - sneaky!) and the late Christmas celebrations (my dad remembers Hogmanay being the big end of year celebration as a child in Scotland, not Christmas Day), but I didn't like the sound of this Summers bloke. Oh, and for those keeping score, Crowley and Michell mentioned within pages of each other.
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I see that Crowley and Mitchell are back gracing the pages of FT - perhaps I am missing something, but do we really need more references to these two? Surely the Fortean Well is bone dry on them?
 
Dinobot said:
I see that Crowley and Mitchell are back gracing the pages of FT - perhaps I am missing something, but do we really need more references to these two? Surely the Fortean Well is bone dry on them?
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Can't get enough Crowley! I'm reading Perdurabo (signed copy!) right now.
 
Neither Crowley, nor Mitchell have ever particularly interested me, and just what has Crowley done that makes him Fortean? Swan around acting weird and shouting "Give me some attention, I have no other talents except acting like a loony!"?
 
Dinobot said:
Neither Crowley, nor Mitchell have ever particularly interested me, and just what has Crowley done that makes him Fortean? Swan around acting weird and shouting "Give me some attention, I have no other talents except acting like a loony!"?
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No other talents? He may well have been a loony but his writing is worth checking out. As for what makes him Fortean, well there's plenty of stuff. The fact so many people all around the world follow his religion a hundred years later is surely pretty Fortean never mind anything else.
 
Dinobot said:
...and just what has Crowley done that makes him Fortean?
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I'm sure I've read the question, 'What's so fortean about...?' increasingly frequently on this board. Were I asked to define forteana I would be at a loss, but I'm pretty sure its meaning has evolved beyond anything that can be directly derived from the works of Fort, and I imagine many forteans would describe forteana in different ways. There must be a thread about it somewhere.
 
PeteByrdie said:
I'm sure I've read the question, 'What's so fortean about...?' increasingly frequently on this board. Were I asked to define forteana I would be at a loss, but I'm pretty sure its meaning has evolved beyond anything that can be directly derived from the works of Fort, and I imagine many forteans would describe forteana in different ways. There must be a thread about it somewhere.
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Whatever the definition is, it covers Crowley in spades. Magic(k), hauntings because of his actions, a religion founded on his automatically written book, automatic painting, gematria, Qaballah etc etc etc...and on top of that you've got his writing which has so many hidden little gems in it.
 
XEPER_ said:
You'll be glad to know IHTM is back - personally not too bothered as I think the majority of the stories in it are made up or exaggerated beyond belief, but there's a page in this issue again.
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to me this is the single most crucial part of the magazine, subjective first hand accounts ... a percentage of which will be fiction, but this is the raw data
 
XEPER_ said:
Whatever the definition is, it covers Crowley in spades. Magic(k), hauntings because of his actions, a religion founded on his automatically written book, automatic painting, gematria, Qaballah etc etc etc...and on top of that you've got his writing which has so many hidden little gems in it.
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Thanks for the warning .. I won't be buying this new issue then .. he was just a spoilt rich boy that enjoyed being shocking .. I wish FT magazine would stop celebrating him ..

https://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/pub-en-a55a74840f83944469c28e4ca2dfbd57.html
 
Dinobot said:
There's little to celebrate him, other than being "eccentric" - and you can find a dozen people like him at any given moment on public transport...
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Precisely this ... although I did find his WW2 psych warfare attempts amusing enough .. and his practical joke about hunting haggis in the hills. I buy Fortean Times because it's impartial, non sensationalist and puts forward alternative explanations on 'weird stuff' in a way that no other high street magazines do.

I've met hundreds of eccentric old guys with hundreds of amazing stories between them and am looking forward to meeting more.
 
I look forward to next issue's folklore column featuring interviews with the now fortysomething gnome car kids...
 
GNC said:
I look forward to next issue's folklore column featuring interviews with the now fortysomething gnome car kids...
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I look forward to the following issue's column featuring interviews with the gnomes and their cars.
 
I see in the obits Benjamin Creme died. Curious fellow, I remember occasional interviews with him and he was a very unassuming harbinger of the Second Coming of the Messiah. So much so that he didn't quite believe it himself, was my impression, or at least it was a bit of a nuisance for him.
 
just got it!

first impressions of 349: the volunteer exercise to index the archives sounds like hard work to me, but I might give it a go in a limited sort of way so as to add it to my CV ( Hmmm. Could it be phrased as "unpaid intern work for a mass-circulation magazine" or something? ...)

also... I just didn't realise how many Norman Bateses there are out there in real life, with mummified corpses of Significant Others propped up or otherwise preserved long after their "expire-by" date....
 
Yes, the Post Mortem Keepsake of a loved one seems to crop up on a regular basis, worryingly!
 
But they don't usually go the trouble of preserving the corpse and dressing it up, like that guy in one report did.
 
I can't remember much of this issue, the anecdote about hilary evans spoilt everything for me, him, Maurice grosse and Jenny randles where always experts that I imagined having a pint with and listening to them talk.

Now it seems Evans was not my kind of person at all and I wouldn't want to be in his company anymore then he would like to be in mine, mere servant that I am.
 
Bit of a disappointing issue I think. The occultism article had a lot of promise, but a good chunk of it was filled by a pointless blog post about the author impressing a kid with a magic trick (space which could be have spent on the subjects or what happened with the fatal bullet trick). Christmas in January was pretty interesting, but the Summers article was much ado about nothing. Guy wrote some books on a fortean subject, was crap at keeping deadlines, that was about it. Hierophant's Apprentice gets bonus points for probably being the only article in FT history to mention John Mitchell without singing his praises/banging on that he was 'a trickster figure'.

Have to say though, I am bitterly disappointed with what's happening to Strange Statesmen. When it first started it rapidly became one of my favourite sections of the mag. Now though, it's gone from 'wacky and eccentric politicians' to 'S D Tucker complains about Russia'. I actually stopped reading halfway through, which is something I rarely ever do with FT.

Haven't made it to the back of the mag yet, but things look promising there!
 
Urvogel said:
Christmas in January was pretty interesting, but the Summers article was much ado about nothing. Guy wrote some books on a fortean subject, was crap at keeping deadlines, that was about it. Hierophant's Apprentice gets bonus points for probably being the only article in FT history to mention John Mitchell without singing his praises/banging on that he was 'a trickster figure'.
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I found the Christmas in January article fascinating, and really didn't expect to. But I also enjoyed the Montague Summers article interesting. I've encountered his name so often for so many years, but knew nothing about him.
 
XEPER_ said:
No other talents? He may well have been a loony but his writing is worth checking out. As for what makes him Fortean, well there's plenty of stuff. The fact so many people all around the world follow his religion a hundred years later is surely pretty Fortean never mind anything else.
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People also claim to follow the Jedi religion...
 
Tigerhawk said:
People also claim to follow the Jedi religion...
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Yes, and that too is testament to the fact Star Wars resonates with so many people and enriches their life. Personally, not a fan and I think it's all a bit weird but hey, each to their own (I also am not a follower of any other religion, including Crowley's). :evil:
 
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