Show Suggestion: John Keel

[J.T.]

I'd like to hear another show about John Keel. As a longtime admirer of his irreverent and insightful work (entertainment), I was sorely stumped and disappointed by the memorial episode which was less a memorial than a scathing denouncement of his life and work.

I think there is immense value in his freewheeling look for the Herzogian "Ecstatic Truth," his willingness to include what Fort called the 'damned,' the more naturalistic approach to the anomalies of the universe that are not easily quantified.

A panel of co-hosts BOTH pro and con, rather than all con (convinced and conventional) could be an interesting and entertaining discussion.

 

[NTS]

You may have heard this already, but here's a link to an audio interview with him from the 1990s:

http://www.radiomisterioso.com/2009/07/20/john-keel-interviewed-by-kenn-thomas/

I had read "The Mothman Prophecies" and discussions of his ideas but didn't have a strong opinion either way. After the somewhat negative commentary on the Paracast about him, I was surprised at how level-headed he came across, in this anyway.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

The issue is one of sloppy research, but the conclusions were fascinating.

Yes I knew John Keel.

 

[J.T.]

Thanks NTS, much as I enjoy Radio Misterioso (recent John Shirley ep was terrific, despite some phone issues... at least no cockroach problems in the studio), I have not heard that episode. Downloading it now.

Keel (from my distant p.o.v.) was more of a thinker, doer and a showman than he was a scientist. But that allowed him think way outside the box, and to draw conclusions that would not have occurred to others. He was a true and radical original in a field that didn't really allow for it.

 

[Sean Elifritz]

Prior to a week ago all I had read from Keel was the Mothman Prophecies and that was so long ago that I don't remember much about it. But a few days ago I was reading Disneyland of the Gods and wasn't getting into it at all. The book jumps around from one thing to another in a rapid-fire style with little detail provided about any one thing. It felt like a conversation or somebody writing very quickly from memory, exactly the opposite of the very careful, detail-rich style of somebody like Jerome Clark. I was about halfway through the book and wasn't feeling like I was learning anything and got bored and quit. Maybe I'll get back to it eventually but I doubt it. I don't know if all of Keel's books are as badly written as that one or not but if that is as good as it gets with him I'm not a fan.