Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Mothman's Photographer II

Last night, I finished reading Andy Colvin's book, The Mothman's Photographer II. This is one of those books that is essential reading for those of you fascinated with Mothman.

Somewhat appropriately, and like the Mothman mystery itself, the book is full of all sorts of twists and turns, dark and disturbing scenarios, contains as many questions as it does answers, and definitely defies convention.

The book basically tells the very personal story of Colvin's interest in, and obsession with, the Mothman; something that began in his childhood in the sixties when he and his friends constructed a "shrine" to the Mothman - and after which strange and bizarre things began happening to Colvin, to his family, and to those around him.

In many ways, Colvin's book is more mind-bending than John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies. But this is a good thing: rather than simply go over old ground, and recount the original story, Colvin describes for us how the Mothman personally affected, manipulated, and possibly guided, his own life experiences, right through to the present day.

And it's written in an appropriately unconventional style too: via interviews, transcripts, personal comments and thoughts, and more.

For those who view Mothman as purely a crypto-zoological puzzle, you'll find yourselves at odds with Colvin, who places the creature in a very different category.

Essentially, Colvin views the Mothman as being akin to the Garuda - the majestic bird-like entity of Buddhist and Hindu mythology. Colvin's view is that the presence of the Mothman at the Point Pleasant, West Virginia bridge-collapse of 1967 (as described in Keel's book) was not in any way sinister.

Rather, Colvin sees the Mothman/Garuda as being basically a benign entity, and one that surfaces from its strange realm of existence at times of peril and strife, and when things are distinctly ill with the world. Part-helper, part-guide, it's inextricably linked with us - but generally for the better, Colvin believes.

But it's also a creature whose presence should not be taken lightly - nor should the fact that the creature's presence at Point Pleasant may have been tied in with a whole host of other activity, including classified government projects in the fields of mind-manipulations and psychotronics, synchronicities, the Men in Black, dark and tragic prophecies, the world of big-business, the military-industrial complex, and much more.

The Mothman's Photographer II is a fantastically strange trip into a world without rules, where just about anything goes, and where convention is thrown out of the window. But it works - and it works very well.

If you read the book, you are likely going to come away with a new view (or, at the very least, a modified view) of Mothman, thanks to a man who had the vision and guts to follow his instinct and present his data, ideas, theories and thoughts to those willing to listen.

And, given the fact that it seems the nature of Colvin's life was almost pre-destined from the day he first immersed himself in the world of the Mothman, perhaps he was meant to write the book. And perhaps we're all meant to read it. If so, Colvin has done us a great service in providing a book that is unique, unusual, riveting reading, and beyond thought-provoking.

Read and prepare to have your mind blown, bent, reorganized and, if you get the message, elevated, too.

3 comments:

Regan Lee said...

Nice review Nick. I was surprised at the book, in a good way, as you point out, the style is different, but refreshing.

I enjoyed the book a great deal; it's a book everyone should read that's the least curious about Mothman.

One thing in particular I enjoyed was Colvin's personal involvement with the topic.

Nick Redfern said...

Thanks, Regan. Yeah, the personal angle was what made it so interesting for me: Colvin wasn't just looking at it from the perspective of an outsider: he was right in the thick of it all.

Mark Alfred said...

This is a very silly book and a perfect example of why most run-of-the-mill types (the "normal" people) dismiss paranormal investigation as the province of goofs and whackos.



Here is what I mean. I'll use the author's stream-of-consciousness and "synchronicity" "investigations" -- as if applied to Amazon, the company from whom I bought this book:

AMAZON -- right off, I get a feeling of strife and anger. The Amazons were a mythological race of women warriors. That reminds me of militant feminism, a bunch of man-haters.



Also, the legendary Amazons sliced off a breast so as to more easily draw back their bows in battle. So that means that any company named after them must be in favor of elective plastic surgery.



And the word AMAZON starts with the letter A -- which looks like an upside-down oxen yoke. That means that Amazon seeks to enslave us by hitching us to its bank account.



Oh, and don't forget that the word AMAZON sounds like the word AMAZED, so the company must be trying to "baffle us with BS."



Oh, yeah! The last part of the word AMAZON is also in the word ZONE, so that must mean that they want me to be Zoned Out on their products.



Also, AMAZON contains the name of the evil DC Comics abdroid AMAZON, so that must mean that Amazon is being paid by DC Comics to use this name.



And most "meaningful" of all, when I started typing this review, my 25-disc CD changer, set on RANDOM, played the Beatles' "Something."



So that means there is SOMETHING to what I am saying!



Seriously folks, that example is about as deep and meaningful as this book is. It has transcriptions from radio shows where the author rambles about things that deserve true investigation, but he treats it in such a silly fashion that anybody who doesn't belong to the gosh-wow school of gullibility will, like me, cringe.



However, there are several chapters which are made up of transcribed talks by veteran investigator John Keel. Unlike the author of this book, Mr Keel is an investigator who lines up cold, hard facts, and shows them to you, BEFORE proposing a theory.



Really, folks, this book ranks right up there with the JFK people who think the Zapruder film shows JFK's driver shooting him, or the people who believe that aliens built the pyramids.



I have 1900+ books in my home library, half of which concern mysteries and unknown things. I believe that many sightings of UFOs, cryptid animals, and other anomalies were really things seen by people who reported what they saw. But books like this are not worth a serious reader's time and money, unless you have lots of time for unsubstantiated gobbledygook which appears to be mostly based on feelingsv scary stories and psychic impressions.