Alien Abductions: Creating a Modern Phenomenon - Hardcover

Matheson, Terry

9781573922449: Alien Abductions: Creating a Modern Phenomenon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573922447 ISBN 13: 9781573922449

Publisher: Prometheus, 1998

Extraterrestrials regularly abduct humans from Earth, often performing bizarre surgeries and experiments on their subjects, according to the popular and profitable "nonfiction" offered by major publishing houses. Books by John Fuller, Budd Hopkins, David Jacobs, Whitley Strieber, and others have helped shape contemporary belief in alien beings.Science fiction scholar Terry Matheson reveals that the alien abduction literary genre has been a part of our history for decades, but was never taken seriously until recent times. He explains that traditional aliens were friendly or merely curious quite different from today's ugly, fierce, sinister creatures. Abduction narratives and individual accounts have evolved and changed, and the new aliens seem to symbolize growing fears that our technology is out of control.Actual accounts from abduction victims and evidence collected, Matheson stresses, are often greatly enhanced by the bestselling authors who market the stories, or are directly linked to well-known fantasy and sci-fi films released or broadcast prior to the alleged abductions. Alien Abductions also draws a parallel to the way societal myths are made, and that in these narratives we see a new myth in the making.

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About the Author:

Terry Matheson (Saskatoon, SK) is Professor of English at the University of Saskatchewan, and a scholar of science fiction and film.

From Publishers Weekly:

Matheson, an English professor at the University of Saskatchewan, attempts to unpack alien abduction narratives. By examining the structure, narrative and tone used by such writers as John Fuller and John Mack, he finds that early accounts tended to portray extraterrestrials as benign, while more recent depictions present aliens with "intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic," in the words of H.G. Wells. Matheson discusses how authors try to establish their credibility with tactics such as including an introduction by a presumably impartial observer or detailed verbatim transcripts of hypnosis-induced accounts. In published abductee reports, he says, the abductees are presented as coming from normal backgrounds, often bewildered by their experience. A concluding chapter suggests that abductees create aliens as projections of themselves, seen as advanced slaves of a joyless technology. Believers (roughly half the population, according to some surveys) are likely to have read many of the accounts analyzed here and may find Matheson's critical remarks unwelcome. The more skeptical may consider his summaries tedious, preferring Carl Sagan's balanced and inclusive book, The Demon-Haunted World.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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