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Many Americans believe that so-called ancient astronauts (visitors from outer space) were responsible for historical wonders like the pyramids. This entertaining and informative book traces the origins of such beliefs to the work of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). The author takes the reader through fifty years of pop culture and pseudoscience highlighting such influential figures and developments as Erich von Däniken (Chariots of the Gods), Graham Hancock (Fingerprints of the Gods), Zecharia Sitchin (Twelfth Planet), and the Raelian Revolution. The astounding and improbable connections among these various characters are revealed, along with the disturbing consequences of Lovecraft's "little joke" for modern science and public knowledge.… (more)
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With this background in the alternative archaeological theories of the late twentieth-century, Jason Colavito proposes that the ultimate genesis of the theory that extra-terrestrials visited earth long ago is in the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. From the stories Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness and The Haunter of the Dark, Colavito traces the cult of alien gods throughout the twentieth century to the Sirius and Orion mysteries, the twelfth planet of Nibiru, and ultimately to the Raëlian Movement. The author provides an excellent overview of the trends in alternative archaeology and extra-terrestrial genesis yet is often rather dismissive (yet this can be accounted for first, by the sheer outlandishness and anti-science tenants the theorists espouse, and second, by the author's own admission that he was once a firm believer yet realised the patent absurdity of the movement.)
Throughout the book, Colavito links the major players in the alternative archaeology movement back to Lovecraft's fictions (even if the former often do not acknowledge their debts). Sometimes the links are tenuous but nevertheless, the author still provides an excellent summation of the UFO history and alternative archaeology movements.
But, he has, of late, taken to this idea that all such pseudohistory and pseudoscience, like ancient aliens, pyramidology, Atlantis, Knights Templars, Masons, Illuminati, etc., is the work of disgruntled, racist white guys wearing MAGA hats who vote conservative and go to church. Frankly, Colavito, probably a good liberal/progressive Democrat, has drunk the kool-aid on that score. Ancient Aliens can trot out literal Democrats like Dennis Kucinich, Shirley MacLaine, and John Podesta (the latter an advisor to Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton) and still trumpet his thesis that right-wingers are the purveyors of the pseudohistory and pseudoscience he bemoans.
I'd be willing to bet most pseudohistory and pseudoscience types are a little on the Democratic side. I'd be willing to bet that most people who believe in aliens, ancient astronauts, crystals, magick, occult societies, etc., are on the left side of the spectrum. Believing in kooky conspiracy theories about science and history is a human frailty, not a rightwing one. The left and right have their kooks. But Colavito has now decided to link all of this to the right. Which is grating. And incoherent. And wrong.
Which is why I found it odd that, in this book, he bewails the typically leftist pursuits of postmodernism and relativism (see his "Conclusion") and, several times (e.g. p. 330) the stagnation of Western culture. This is usually a conservative complaint, the "calcification and stagnation [that] had hit Western culture, halting in its tracks the centuries-long parade of Western innovation" (p. 330). He sounds like a writer for National Review or the Claremont Review!
But, to the main thesis of the book, not his attempt at a philosophical conclusion. Colavito claims that the idea of ancient alien visitations to earth in the remote past that seeded human civilization (and/or homo sapiens DNA itself), the central thesis of Ancient Aliens and its ilk, was really birthed by H. P. Lovecraft's fiction and the cultural and fictional milieu he created. Lovecraft birthed the idea of ancient aliens.
It's an interesting thesis. Colavito engagingly and deftly lays out part of his case, explaining Lovecraft's time, his stories, his ideas, and the very definite links between the pulps and early ancient astronaut theorists, especially The Morning of the Magicians by the Frenchmen Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier. The Morning of the Magicians engendered a whole host on imitators, like Erich von Däniken, et al.
Here Colavito is on definitely interesting ground.
But, then he takes a step too far, trying to tie in writers like Graham Hancock and alternative thinkers like him. Hancock (pp. 256-258) can straight up tell Colavito his ideas received no inspiration from Von Däniken ("I still don't think we need aliens/ETs to explain the mysteries of our past"), The Morning of the Magicians ("To repeat, I have never read the Pauwels and Bergier book"), or Lovecraft ("The fictional work of Lovecraft has not been an inspiration of any kind for me"), and Colavito maintains this extension of his thesis.
Colavito has fallen for the same logical fallacy that the writers he chastises often fall for. Just because pyramids were built in Egypt and pyramids were built in Mexico doesn't mean you need aliens or Atlantis to connect the two. And just because one writer talks of ancient aliens and another writer talks of ancient aliens (or an ancient advanced civilization) doesn't mean you need Lovecraft to connect the two. That's the failing of this book. He goes for a bridge too far.
But Colavito's secondary point, aside from Lovecraftian origins, is that his youthful enchantment for "alternative archaeology" or "fringe history" was dashed by the inherent errors, logical fallacies, and inadequate evidence of the field. Here, again, Colavito is on better ground again. There are problems with Hancock, Bauval, Sitchin, Von Däniken, and so on and so on. They make mistakes. (Though I will continue to insist lumping Hancock's more reasoned and reasonable ideas with the forgeries of Von Däniken or the inane translations of Sitchin is a bit disingenuous.)
I am only a year or two or three older than Colavito. I inhabited the same library aisles as Colavito growing up. Right next to the books I read on the Bible, like Keller's The Bible as History, or archaeology like Ceram's Gods, Graves, and Scholars, were books by the likes of Von Däniken (or his copycat First, Man. Then, Adam! A Scientific Interpretation of the Book of Genesis by Irwin Ginsburgh), and Robert Temple, and Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln. I, like Colavito, devoured Hancock's The Sign and the Seal. I, like Colavito, bought Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods at a brick-and-mortar bookstore. I bought the cheap Avon paperbacks by Sitchin with my leftover lunch money (I started with Genesis Revisited: Is Modern Science Catching Up With Ancient Knowledge?). But, I never bought any of the theories whole hog. I do think that such authors bring up interesting ideas and conundrums. So, I sympathize with Colavito's travel through the world of "alternative" non-fiction. I didn't read any Lovecraft till I neared forty, and only heard of him in my twenties.
Meanwhile, I earned my B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in history, and teach history to college freshmen. I sometimes get a question about aliens, or Illuminati, or somesuch. I agree with Colavito that much of the outgrowth of this "alternative archaeology" is dross and dreck. I have several times sent a student to his blog. His thesis here, that Lovecraft is the intellectual godfather of Ancient Aliens is compelling, but incomplete. His lumping in of all alternative archaeologies is a step too far. His current bugaboo that all pseudohistory and pseudoscience is the work of white supremacists is ludicrous and incomplete.
Read the book, if you can find it. I had to shell out about $60 for a physical copy. But, it is well worth it. And read Colavito's blog, but take it with a spoonful of salt.
(My used copy of the book had some pasted in artwork on the half-title page of, inexplicably, images and hieroglyphics of the Egyptian goddess Nut. Who knows?!)