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The wonders of interlibrary loan have brought me a copy of Jerome
Clark's HIDDEN REALMS, LOST CIVILIZATIONS, AND BEINGS FROM OTHER WORLDS
(Visible Ink Press, 2010). It's a collection of crackpot
views/theories, some of them geographic, brought together and
demonstrating human folly. As a research tool bringing together all
this silliness in a single volume, it has value. Going through it, it's
hard to keep in mind that the mark of a crackpot isn't so much what is
believed as how and why it is believed. Menzies, though not mentioned
(not exotic enough, no doubt), comes to mind as in the same company of
folk who bend evidence to fit the view.
Each section ends with a list of suggested further readings, but no
consolidated bibliography at the end. The text is interrupted, often
pages at a time, by lengthy "side bars" (if we can call such lengthy
things by that term) giving more detail. The illustrations, many
attributed to the Mary Evans Picture Library, are at least entertaining.
There is an imperfect index.
At the end, the author abandons places, both hidden places on Earth
and those on other planets, and gives a list of "sightings," of both
creatures and apparent devices.
And what does this have to do with map history? Not much directly,
but even silliness gets mapped now and again so it's good to know of a
place to find out about the background of the silliness.
JBP
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