The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained

The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained - Paperback

$27.00
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The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained
  • The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained
The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained - Paperback

The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained - Paperback

by Colin Dickey
$27.00
$27.00

Book Overview

by Colin Dickey (Author)

America's favorite cultural historian and author of Ghostland takes a "thought-provoking and delicoiusly unsettling" (Publisher's Weekly) tour of the country's most persistent "unexplained" phenomena

In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational--in fringe--is on the rise: from Atlantis to aliens, from Flat Earth to the Loch Ness monster, the list goes on. It seems the more our maps of the known world get filled in, the more we crave mysterious locations full of strange creatures.

Enter Colin Dickey, Cultural Historian and Tour Guide of the Weird. With the same curiosity and insight that made Ghostland a hit with readers and critics, Colin looks at what all fringe beliefs have in common, explaining that today's Illuminati is yesterday's Flat Earth: the attempt to find meaning in a world stripped of wonder. Dickey visits the wacky sites of America's wildest fringe beliefs--from the famed Mount Shasta where the ancient race (or extra-terrestrials, or possibly both, depending on who you ask) called Lemurians are said to roam, to the museum containing the last remaining "evidence" of the great Kentucky Meat Shower--investigating how these theories come about, why they take hold, and why as Americans we keep inventing and re-inventing them decade after decade. The Unidentified is Colin Dickey at his best: curious, wry, brilliant in his analysis, yet eminently readable.

Author Biography

Colin Dickey is a writer, speaker, and academic, and has made a career out of collecting unusual objects and hidden histories all over the country. He's a regular contributor to the LA Review of Books and Lapham's Quarterly, and is the co-editor of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology. He is also a member of the Order of the Good Death, a collective of artists, writers, and death industry professionals interested in improving the Western world's relationship with mortality. With a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Southern California, he is an associate professor of creative writing at National University.

Number of Pages: 320
Dimensions: 1 x 8.3 x 5.4 IN
Publication Date: July 20, 2021
ISBN9780525557586
Author Colin Dickey
PublisherPenguin Publishing Group
GenreHistory and Education
FormatPaperback
PublishedJuly 2021
LanguageENG- English
Pages320
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

History Nonfiction Social Science

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More by Colin Dickey

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places

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About Colin Dickey

Colin Dickey grew up in San Jose, California, a few miles from the Winchester Mystery House, the most haunted house in America. As a writer, speaker, and academic, he has made a career out of collecting unusual objects and hidden histories all over the country. He's a regular contributor to the LA Review of Books and Lapham's Quarterly, and is the co-editor (with Joanna Ebenstein) of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology. He is also a member of the Order of the Good Death, a collective of artists, writers, and death industry professionals interested in improving the Western world's relationship with mortality. With a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Southern California, he is an associate professor of creative writing at National University.

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