Charles Fort, Forteana and Science
Anomalies Considered Fortean Phenomena; Others Have their Own Topics
Mar 19, 2009
Charles Hoy Fort was a complex, private man, dedicated to his work. He was a creative, imaginative and talented writer.
Author and friend Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer described Fort as a jovial giant with a superb sense of humor. Fort was about six feet tall, built like a walrus with a moustache to match, wore thick glasses and was reminiscent of a swashbuckler.
Others viewed Fort as introverted and shy. Author Theodore Dreiser, Fort's oldest friend, compared him to Oliver Hardy, having an obsequious disposition and twittery mannerisms. Biographer Damon Knight viewed Fort as a compliant, sedentary man who lived a tranquil married existence.
Aaron Sussman, another friend, stated Fort was a polite, gentle, man with a deep voice and resonant laugh. He felt Fort was one having a great mind who had withdrawn from the world, but was always pleased to greet people, no matter how busy he was.
Forteana, Unexplained Mysterious Phenomena
These, also called Fortean phenomena, are those that challenge conventional scientific knowledge. They include anomalies, the paranormal and uncanny people and happenings such as prodigies and extraordinary coincidences. These oddities are variously referred to as the supernatural and the occult. Forteana also includes:
- The Bermuda Triangle;
- Mysterious lights;
- Fish, frogs and other mysterious objects falling from the sky;
- Unaccountable explosions;
- Spontaneous human combustion and fires;
- Unexplained human and other disappearances;
- Huge wheels of light sighted in oceans, and;
- Out of place artifacts, OOPArts, found in improbable sites.
Some of the phenomena Fort wrote about are included in other fields or have their own. Poltergeists, teleportation and levitations are studied by parapsychologists. Ball lightning has moved into the realm of physics. Ufology studies unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrials.
Cryptozoology is the study of unidentified mysterious animals, UMAs. Some were believed to be extinct until one was caught. Others were thought to be mythological until “discovered.”
There are animals that exist, but are inexplicably sighted in places they aren’t native to. Some UMAs, cryptids, have been sighted, but not captured or killed.
Forteana and Science
Some critics and skeptics have called Fort gullible and naïve and don’t acknowledge that he was decades ahead of mainstream science with some of his ideas and writings.
Fort wrote that:
- Boundaries between science and pseudoscience are blurred and can change over time;
- Facts are objective. Interpretation depends on who is doing it and its context;
- There’s a strong sociological influence on what is acceptable or dismissed as damned as unacceptable;
- Many arguments and observations that most people make, including scientists, are occasionally examples of irrational, non-scientific thoughts
- There’s problem that, sometimes, the same data is explained by more than one theory
- Experimenters’ behavior can contaminate test results. Scientists, now, recognize this.
It didn’t much matter to Fort whether his data and theories were accurate. His point was that alternative conclusions can be made from the same data as orthodox ones. Fort’s The Book of the Damned shows the influence of social values and, paradigm, on what scientists consider to be facts.
One of Fort's greatest contributions is his questioning the mainstream scientists’ dogmatism. He thought that scientists often took themselves too seriously and were arrogant and rigid. Fort used humor for its own sake and to point out what he regarded as the quirks of scientists and sciences.
Related Reading
Readers may also enjoy reading about the Mad Gasser of Mattoon, Illinois along with Mothman, Winged Anomaly from WV and Orbs Captured on Film: What Are They?.
Sources:
- The Book of the Damned, Charles Fort, (Ace Books, 1972).
- The World Almanac Book of the Strange, The World Almanac Editors, (A Signet Book, 1977).
