Mothman

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(Keel and Barker)
(Keel and Barker)
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Enter two UFOlogist writers who specialized in spinning [[woo]] into cash: John Keel and Gray Barker. Keel was demonstrably better at his craft, having sold articles to ''Science Digest'', ''Saga'' and ''Playboy'', while Barker labored mostly on the fringes cranking out a mimeographed newsletter he called ''Saucer News''. Both recognized the Mothman reports coming out of West Virginia as the basis for a potentially profitable enterprise. Keel took up residence at a Point Pleasant motel to gather details and interview locals. The two men discussed the idea of jointly authoring a "nonfiction" (wink wink) book on the subject, and Keel agreed to share his notes. Barker drafted a few sample chapters that featured Keel as a "mysterious character" and fabricated a mythical connection between Mothman and the tragic but unrelated collapse of a local bridge.  
 
Enter two UFOlogist writers who specialized in spinning [[woo]] into cash: John Keel and Gray Barker. Keel was demonstrably better at his craft, having sold articles to ''Science Digest'', ''Saga'' and ''Playboy'', while Barker labored mostly on the fringes cranking out a mimeographed newsletter he called ''Saucer News''. Both recognized the Mothman reports coming out of West Virginia as the basis for a potentially profitable enterprise. Keel took up residence at a Point Pleasant motel to gather details and interview locals. The two men discussed the idea of jointly authoring a "nonfiction" (wink wink) book on the subject, and Keel agreed to share his notes. Barker drafted a few sample chapters that featured Keel as a "mysterious character" and fabricated a mythical connection between Mothman and the tragic but unrelated collapse of a local bridge.  
  
Keel later revamped and polished the story into a first-person narrative that cast him in the role of a "journalist", liberally salted with his own paranoid fantasies about UFOs, [[men in black]] conspiracies, and other paranormal oddities. Barker's habit of "drunk dialing" Keel's motel room at odd hours to mumble incoherent messages was subsequently re-imagined by Keel as a series of "mysterious phone calls" from [[aliensdidit|aliens]]. Predictably, when their loose partnership came to an end, it was Keel's mass market book ''The Mothman Prophecies'' and not Barker's self-published ''The Silver Bridge'' that created the most impact (and dollars).<ref>Sherwood, John (May/June 2002). ''Gray Barker’s Book of Bunk Mothman, Saucers, and MIB''. retrieved Feb 20 2013, from Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Web Site: http://www.csicop.org/si/show/gray_barkers_book_of_bunk_mothman_saucers_and_mib/</ref>
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Keel later revamped and polished the story into a first-person narrative that cast him in the role of a "journalist", liberally salted with his own paranoid fantasies about UFOs, [[men in black]] conspiracies, and other paranormal weirdness. Barker's habit of "drunk dialing" Keel's motel room at odd hours to mumble incoherent messages was subsequently re-imagined by Keel as a series of "mysterious phone calls" from [[aliensdidit|aliens]]. Predictably, when their loose partnership came to an end, it was Keel's mass market book ''The Mothman Prophecies'' and not Barker's self-published ''The Silver Bridge'' that created the most impact (and dollars).<ref>Sherwood, John (May/June 2002). ''Gray Barker’s Book of Bunk Mothman, Saucers, and MIB''. retrieved Feb 20 2013, from Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Web Site: http://www.csicop.org/si/show/gray_barkers_book_of_bunk_mothman_saucers_and_mib/</ref>
  
 
==Curse of Mothman==
 
==Curse of Mothman==

Revision as of 01:45, 21 February 2013

Oooh, scary, scary!
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Cryptid Petting Zoo

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Hiding with Schrödinger's cat

The story of Mothman is even weirder than that of Spring Heeled Jack. The events described in John A Keel's The Mothman Prophecies run, briefly, as follows: in 1966, a foursome of young lovers out for a drive in West Virginia claimed to see an extremely strange flying creature that swooped over their car, frightening them. Over the following year, dozens of people in the area also claimed to have seen the creature; there were also reports of UFOs, men in black, a contactee or two and bizarre telephone messages from unknown persons. The events apparently ended with the collapse of the local bridge in 1967, which killed dozens of people.

Keel and another writer, Gray Barker, wrote this all up in a couple of exceedingly strange books. Keel's book was adapted into a 2002 film starring Richard Gere.[1] Whether it is the book or the film that most resemble what actually happened is probably moot.

Contents

Origin of the legend

The initial report came from two 18 year-old married [2] couples in a '57 Chevy who'd been cruising woodsy spots where bored local kids gathered to drink, make out, and raise Hell (think American Graffiti with wedding rings). The grounds of an abandoned warehouse once used to store munitions in the 1940s was one of the more popular hangouts. There, they told the local Sheriff, "a bird as big as a man" chased their car, its eyes reflecting the glow of their headlights. The press picked up the Sheriff's report prompting widespread hysteria and a number of pranks; one local man blasted an owl to bits with his shotgun after being frightened by its "glowing eyes" and a gang of construction workers tied flashlights to a balloon in hopes of inciting a UFO scare.

A few nights later, members of the local fire department investigated the warehouse area and reported observing a large creature which they definitely identified as a bird. A wildlife biologist speculated that a Sandhill Crane - featuring a seven foot wingspan and reddish coloring around the eyes - may have wandered out of its migration route. Others blamed the hysteria on sightings of various types of owls with large wingspans that were common to the area.[3][4] Rational explanations quickly took a back seat to sensational media coverage. A press conference was held in the county courthouse where the teens were encouraged to repeat their story for reporters. The creature was dubbed "Mothman" (based on a character in the then-popular TV series Batman) by a local newscaster, and the national press spread the story across the country.[5]

Keel and Barker

Enter two UFOlogist writers who specialized in spinning woo into cash: John Keel and Gray Barker. Keel was demonstrably better at his craft, having sold articles to Science Digest, Saga and Playboy, while Barker labored mostly on the fringes cranking out a mimeographed newsletter he called Saucer News. Both recognized the Mothman reports coming out of West Virginia as the basis for a potentially profitable enterprise. Keel took up residence at a Point Pleasant motel to gather details and interview locals. The two men discussed the idea of jointly authoring a "nonfiction" (wink wink) book on the subject, and Keel agreed to share his notes. Barker drafted a few sample chapters that featured Keel as a "mysterious character" and fabricated a mythical connection between Mothman and the tragic but unrelated collapse of a local bridge.

Keel later revamped and polished the story into a first-person narrative that cast him in the role of a "journalist", liberally salted with his own paranoid fantasies about UFOs, men in black conspiracies, and other paranormal weirdness. Barker's habit of "drunk dialing" Keel's motel room at odd hours to mumble incoherent messages was subsequently re-imagined by Keel as a series of "mysterious phone calls" from aliens. Predictably, when their loose partnership came to an end, it was Keel's mass market book The Mothman Prophecies and not Barker's self-published The Silver Bridge that created the most impact (and dollars).[6]

Curse of Mothman

There are a couple of odd developments stemming from this weirdness. One is a meme running through the Mothman literature that the creature is a harbinger of disaster; it was said to have appeared before the 1985 Mexico City earthqhquake and the Chernobyl disaster.[7] Therefore, anywhere that gets a visit from this thing is DOOOOMED!!!ZOMG!!!11!... except for the places that had disasters without preceding Mothman reports, or reports with no ensuing disaster.

A more personalised service is the "Mothman death list", a supposed curse that befalls anyone who sees it—you'll be dead in a year, apparently. Like, say, Linda Scarberry, who was one of the original quartet in the car, and, um, oh, here she is alive and well in 2002. Oops. Of course, many people have died over the years; after all it was over 40 years ago, and natural causes take their toll.

Tourism

Despite no sighting reports for over forty years the Mothman is still a considerable tourist attraction. They may be weirdos but they're still spending dollars; the town of Point Pleasant even has a Mothman Festival (3rd weekend in September, Mothfans).

External links

Footnotes

  1. We would be remiss in failing to mention the 2011 'documentary' film Eyes of the Mothman.
  2. 1966. Rural West Virginia. Nuff' said.
  3. Associated Press (Dec 1, 1966). "Monster Bird With Red Eyes May Be Crane". Gettysburg Times. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LG0mAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Rf8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=620,2790721&dq=point+pleasant+roger+scarberry&hl=en. Retrieved 21 August 2011. 
  4. Joe Nickell (April 2004). The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 93–. ISBN 978-0-8131-2318-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=sComGoDFJZ4C&pg=PA93. Retrieved 21 August 2011. 
  5. Mark Moran; Mark Sceurman (5 May 2009). Weird U.S.: Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. pp. 108–. ISBN 978-1-4027-6688-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=dXtBIvwPN84C&pg=PA108. Retrieved 20 February 2013. 
  6. Sherwood, John (May/June 2002). Gray Barker’s Book of Bunk Mothman, Saucers, and MIB. retrieved Feb 20 2013, from Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Web Site: http://www.csicop.org/si/show/gray_barkers_book_of_bunk_mothman_saucers_and_mib/
  7. Ancient Myths - The Mothman Prophecies
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