Probably not that many consciously Fortean books in the
Piffle Collection
Oh, all right, I admit to some dodgy part-works bought in
dribs and drabs from Oxfam at 10p a shot. A few cheap
but engrossing paperbacks called Piffle for Suckers. The
collected works of Charlie Fort - mainly cybertext but printed out
to save my eyesight. Quite a few of those ultra-cheap reprints
of crusty old books on witches and freaks from a firm called Senate.
Readers Digest tomes that everyone must have etc etc . . .
I should put in a word for a little paperback that probably started
me off as a kiddie. It was a Grey Arrow paperback called Unsolved
Mysteries, mainly nicked, it turned out from the works of Rupert T.
Gould.
But my point is that most books turn out to have Fortean things
in them somewhere. The footnotes to the Romantic poets are a
treasure trove of arcane lore. Probably Thomas Moore's footnotes
are more entertaining than the poems.
Annotated novels can be invaluable. Many a time I have found myself
turning in a crisis to Harold Beaver's Moby Dick.
Music is also a good source of weird and offbeat material as operas
and songs were often based on mysterious beliefs and traditions.
Art History and religion are other sections of the library that contribute
to the Fortean cauldren.
Incidentally anybody online now has access to a huge body of mouldy
Victoriana which library folks have been madly scanning in, mainly I suspect
because it is out of copyright. I have a soft spot for the American Heritage
collections at the Library of Congress which has thousands of old songs etc.
stored as scans and yours for the asking.
Yup the Information Superhighway turns out to be a network of
backstreet bookshops, their barrows piled high with crumbly yellowing
tomes. Oh Joy!
So much piffle and suddenly so little time . . .
