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

Author: Colin Dickey

Narrator: Will Damron

Unabridged: 10 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 07/21/2020

Synopsis

"Absolutely perfect for the current moment." --Buzzfeed

America's favorite cultural historian and author of Ghostland takes a 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.

About The Author

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 the author of multiple books, including Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, and is a regular contributor to the LA Review of Books and Lapham's Quarterly, and is the co-editor of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology. With a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Southern California, he is a professor at National University. 

Reviews

Goodreads review by Scott on November 20, 2024

What transpires in a person’s brain to go from “Sure, it’s possible that the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, the lost continent of Atlantis, and alien UFOs may exist” to “Oh, they exist for sure, and anybody who tells you differently is somebody who is trying to suppress the truth”? What causes that men......more

Goodreads review by Ross on November 02, 2020

As a huge fan of all things paranormal, cryptozoological and Fortean, I thoroughly enjoyed The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained. Colin Dickey takes on a huge topic and jumps enthusiastically from one representative example to the next with jus......more

Goodreads review by Bandit on July 28, 2020

There’s a certain fascination I have with all these mythical things Colin Dickey writes about, but that fascination never reaches the levels he addresses in the book. I’d like to live in a world shared with prehistoric sea (lake) monsters and Yetis and Sasquatches, but I’d never go hunt for them. I’......more

Goodreads review by Drew on July 24, 2020

Man, this disappointed the hell out of me. I loved Dickey's first book, Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, and the way that he navigated the question not of whether or not ghosts are real but rather why we seek to believe in them and why certain spaces seem to call them forth (literal......more

Goodreads review by Morgan on July 25, 2022

3.5 stars This guys is probably such a buzz kill at parties.. but this was definitely an interesting read!......more

Quotes

“Fascinating, troubling, compassionate and—in the end—deeply thoughtful…Dickey’s sense of history reminds us of the complex reasons our odder beliefs endure.” —NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“Colin Dickey’s examination of fringe beliefs is absolutely perfect for the current moment, as we watch a growing (and worrying) distrust in science… In shrewd, accessible analysis and firsthand reporting, Dickey explores his own theories about theories.”—BUZZFEED
 
“Any aficionado of the macabre would be remiss not to pick it up.”—TOR
 
“Colin Dickey’s new book about the rise of conspiracy theories and paranoid thought in American culture, could not come at a better time… Brilliant.” —THE NEW REPUBLIC
 
“A fascinating expedition through fringe belief and theory… A thought-provoking and deliciously unsettling guide into the stranger corners of American culture.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Starred Review
 
“Meticulously researched and written, this is the grown-up version of the mysteries of the
unknown books... Perfect for the skeptics and believers alike.”—BOOKLIST
 
“Dickey succeeds in informing and entertaining his audience with his sense of wonder… A fascinating blend of history and the strangeness of human nature.”—LIBRARY JOURNAL
 
“An intriguing mix of myths and monsters.”—KIRKUS REVIEWS

“[A] compelling historical and cultural analysis of human nature… engaging and impressively researched.”—BOOKPAGE
 
“There are moments while reading The Unidentified where can feel yourself becoming fundamentally smarter about the world than you were before.”—Caitlin Doughty, New York Times bestselling author of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

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