OK, trying to come back to my original questions…
I could be described as a spoiled child : by 10 to 11 years old, I had already in my library books by Daniken, Bergier, Kolosimo, Holzer, Friedrich Jurgenson (Breakthrough)… By 12, I was reading Planète magazine (the square French magazine edited by Louis Pawels). By 13 I was proud of my Man, Myth and Magic collection and by the same time, I came across a small collection of my father’s books, about Parapsychology and became familiar with terms like SPR, Zenner or how a Faraday Cage works. I knew about UFOs and Cryptids. Yes, OK, by 14 the Les Paul landed on my life and it took a big slice of my attention, but anyway…
How young people have contact with Forteana today? YouTube videos? History Channel? Films like Annabelle (my 7 years old son was telling me about how eerie the movie poster on the Métro station is…)? I am happy that a magazine cover still shows the Cottingley Fairies, even if it’s to debunk or ridicule them, because this is an entry point to a special world.
By the way, it’s a pity that my FT 356 still haven’t showed on our letter box, so my boys can’t see the Fairies negligently left over the dinner table or over my bed, you know…
So, the question remains : related to the time when we discovered Fortean stuff, how strong the charm remains? Are we so tried and tested that we are passing a bitter image of Fortean stuff to the future generations? I know, I know, there was another thread with very similar questions elsewhere on the Forum, but it drifted away… I’m stumbling with the same questions while I read about the Cottingley Fairies and Aleister Crowley in 2017. And I ask myself if subjects like the Beast of Gévaudan, John Dee or the Tatra Mountains Moonshaft will still be relevant in 2027…