55 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
55 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
The Sysop's Bookshelf
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TITLE: Light Years, An Investigation into the Extraterrestrial Experiences of
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Eduard Meier.
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AUTHOR: Gary Kinder
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PUBLISHED BY: Atlantic Monthly Press
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AT: New York, NY 1987
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VIEWPOINT: Zetetic
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Reviewed by Bob Howard
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"Light Years" by Gary Kinder, Copyright 1987 by Gary Kinder and
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Intercep, published by The Atlantic Monthly Press, A Morgan Entrekin
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Book. An investigation into the extraterrestrial experiences of
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Eduard Meier.
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A readable book and one suggesting a lot of information, but as-
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serting little. There is no hypothesis for continuing the investiga-
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tion. There is no suggestion of someone else initiating contact with
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the Pleidians, and of course there is the existing evidence that some
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of the pictures were taken of models, which is glibly explained away.
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The long and the short of this investigation is that, indepen-
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dently of Mr. Kinder's journalistic research, other UFOlogists feel
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the case is weak for Mr. Meier's contacts. What then of Mr. Kinder's
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book, apparently underwritten in part by Intercep.
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I don't have access to Mr. Kinder's notes, but I do wonder about
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some of the assertions. For instance, on Pp 205-207, his quotes of
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authorities lead one to believe that the 'beam ship' sounds are analog
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or natural sounds as opposed to the sounds made by a digital
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synthesizer. The inference being that all synthesizers are digital.
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The contrary, however, is the case. Digital synthesizers are only
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four - five years old. Analog synthesizers have existed since Bob
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Moog invented the first commercially available unit in 1949. In fact
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many companies are still manufacturing analog synthesizers.
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I may be unduly picky but "... it's one thing to make something
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that sounds like it and has those consistent and random oscillations
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in it." smacks of an incomplete quote. Consistent and random are
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diametrically opposed and I do wonder about their juxtaposition.
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I am uncomfortable with the Author's Note on the last page of the
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book where he tells the reader that although he said one thing in the
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text of the book, actually something else is true.
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The book is comfortably entertaining, lots of characters parade
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through the manuscript, and we leave a solitary 'Billy' in his farm-
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house at the conclusion, or should I say ending of the book.
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As entertainment, "Light Years" is dandy, but as a document of
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investigative reporting on UFO phenomena it does a disservice to the
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serious UFO researcher and investigator, and isn't a definitive source
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of information on the Meier case.
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Bob Howard
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(Note the opinions expressed in this book review are solely the
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reviewers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Sysop or
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this bulletin board.)
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