Whitley Strieber - Podcast Interview

[Jeff Crowell]

Not to tout another paranormal program, though this one is a podcast in comparison to The Paracast being a radio program, but Whitley Strieber was on Jim Harold's Paranormal Podcast about a week and a half ago. I was really surprised Strieber had agreed to the program, but Jim Harold is a soft-baller host anyway. Not that I don't like or respect Jim for his program, but he does tend to be a question-listen interviewer who doesn't press his guests or ask hard questions. I can see why Strieber agreed to go on the show.

Whitley heralded his brand of UFO/Alien belief and clearly falls on the "whoo whoo" or UFO religion side of the house. I was interested to hear that he discounts the idea that aliens are extraterrestrials and believes them to be ultra-universal or perhaps temporal travelers instead. Other nuances I picked up on about Strieber himself; he's articulate and a self-professed story teller. He also claimed that he was a 'trickster' himself, and spoke in a fashion that would sell a tall tale as if it were only about, say, 3.5 feet. At the end of the interview I found part of myself wanting to like and believe Strieber's story (ies), and another part of myself echoing fair warning that he's as slick as a black-oil spill.

All this confirms, to me at least, why he avoids an interview on The Paracast. Even when Gene and Chris soft-ball guests they ask harder questions than I believe Whitley would want to address.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Two or three times he agreed to come on, or his aides set him up, only to have him cancel at the end. When I talked to him at a UFO convention, he said maybe when his next book came out. I'm not holding my breath.

 

[banshee]

Two or three times he agreed to come on, or his aides set him up, only to have him cancel at the end. When I talked to him at a UFO convention, he said maybe when his next book came out. I'm not holding my breath.

Not a great loss.

 

[Vimana]

I have a hard time with Whit. I find it hard to get behind a nuts n bolts answer, and his more visionary accounts seem more plausible. I found much of his latest book to be interesting, especially his personal accounts of high strangeness, but when anyone starts attributing crop circles to a mysterious phenomenon I have serious head scratching. I'm a graphic artist that knows humans can do Crop Art at the highest quality imaginable. It would be like saying Escher art is alien because it's too weird.

I dislike listening to Whitley, he comes across very wishy washy, but I enjoy his writing in the same way I like John keel.

 

[banshee]

He's like a snake oil salesman. He's always pushing for the sale. For me, that draws into question anything he says.

 

[SheaOlmsford]

Whitley scored. The Syfy Channel is going to make a series based on his ALIEN HUNTER concept. I hope the series is better than Whitley's books. For me, Whitley always starts out strong in his fiction, but the books always seem to fizzle by the end. Great concepts that aren't brought to a satisfying conclusion. Every single fiction book he has written engrosses me initially. But by the end I am feeling guilty that I spent money this way because he fails to deliver the big pay off that good writers provide.

 

[storge]

I liked the movie about him, that first one, and Wolven was good, too. I don't believe a thing he says, and I find his sincerity worn a little often right on the top of his sleeve for all to see, a little too prominent. He clearly engages in sloppy, magical, mystical and lots of other kinds of thinking, but critical, not so much. I sense a deep imblanace in that equation. When Dreamland opens "You have reached the edge of the universe" I say softly to myself, "I have reached the edge of rationality and common sense, onward and upward ET soldier." But I like him, and I think something genuinely did happen to him several times. I also think he is, unconsciously or not, replaying irl that story about Hudson and the elves or gnomes in the Catskills.

 

[Randall]

I have a hard time with Whit. I find it hard to get behind a nuts n bolts answer, and his more visionary accounts seem more plausible. I found much of his latest book to be interesting, especially his personal accounts of high strangeness, but when anyone starts attributing crop circles to a mysterious phenomenon I have serious head scratching. I'm a graphic artist that knows humans can do Crop Art at the highest quality imaginable. It would be like saying Escher art is alien because it's too weird.

I dislike listening to Whitley, he comes across very wishy washy, but I enjoy his writing in the same way I like John keel.

Whatever we may make of Whitley and his docufiction, it must be a sad time for him now. I heard he had recently lost his wife of many years.

 

[Vimana]

I just heard the news, and I hope Whitley is OK. She seemed to be a large and positive part of his life, and I hope he has a group of real friends with him now. Human compassion trumps skepticism in these moments.