Searching for the String: Selected Writings of John A. Keel by Andrew Colvin

Author:Andrew Colvin [Colvin, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781499132120
Amazon: 1499132123
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2014-04-19T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

THE FLYING SAUCER SUBCULTURE – THE JOURNAL OF POPULAR CULTURE, SPRING 1975

Until 1966, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), more popularly known as “flying saucers,” were ridiculed by the press, scoffed at by the scientific community, and regarded as an unprofitable fringe subject by the major publishers. The UFO literature preceding 1966 consisted largely of semi-literate, privately published statements of belief authored in large part by hobbyists, neurotic and paranoid personalities, and individuals (known as “contactees”) claiming direct contact with the pilots of flying saucers. Scientists, journalists and scholars drawn to the subject in the mid-1960s found there was virtually no acceptable scientific or literary research material available, despite twenty years of furor and controversy.

“An unidentified flying object,” according to Dr. Edward U. Condon’s definition, is “the stimulus for a report made by one or more individuals of something seen in the sky (or an object thought to be capable of flight, but seen when landed on the earth), which the observer could not identify as having ordinary natural origin, and which seemed to him sufficiently puzzling that he undertook to make a report of it to police, to government officials, to the press, or perhaps to a representative of a private organization devoted to the study of such objects.”

There have been periodic worldwide waves – or “flaps” – of UFO sightings throughout history. In other ages, these aerial apparitions were often regarded as religious phenomena. The witnesses were acclaimed as prophets or denounced as victims of – or accomplices to – the devil. The modern phase began in 1896-97, when large “dirigibles” of unknown origin appeared throughout the United States. Two decades earlier, a farmer named John Martin reported seeing a large circular object pass overhead near Dennison, Texas, on January 24, 1878. He described it as resembling a “saucer.” However, the term “flying saucer” did not come into popular usage until the summer of 1947, when there was a sudden outbreak of sightings throughout North America. Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot, employed the term while describing to reporters what he had allegedly seen near Mt. Rainier, Washington, on June 24, 1947.

Flying saucer literature can be divided into three important periods, each lagging a year or two behind a major flap. The first was 1950, following the flap of 1947. The second was 1955-56, following the sighting wave of 1952. The third and final period was 1966-69, following the great wave of 1964-67.

The 1950 period produced the extraterrestrial frame of reference – the belief that these apparitions were visitors from outer space. The 1955-56 period advanced this extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), adding the testimony of contactees to the literature, and creating a new theme: the allegation of a governmental conspiracy, instrumented by the United States Air Force, to suppress “the truth.” This conspiracy became the central concern of the UFO hobbyists for many years after. The principal creators of the lore of the 1950s were: Donald E. Keyhoe, a retired Marine Corps pilot who became the major spokesman for American Ufology; Frank Scully, a columnist for Variety; Frank Edwards, a radio newscaster; Morris K.

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