Strange Creatures From Time and Space

By John A. Keel

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: Unknown
• ISBN: B000M7ADJY
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Fawcett Gold Medal
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Sensationalist Nonsense

John A. Keel (1930-2009) was a Fortean researcher, a UFO enthusiast, and (like R. De Witt Miller and Brad Steiger), a writer of sensational "stranger-than-science" books that hinted at Dark Government Conspiracies and supernatural Threats from Beyond the Pale. It is rather hard to take Keel seriously. Keel's _Strange Creatures from Time and Space_ (1970) does boast some good artwork by Frank Frazetta. But the contents are nonsensical. Keel repeats the fiction of lemmings committing mass suicide by the millions (page 10). Keel also claims that hoop snakes and milk snakes described in Medieval Bestiaries are real creatures (19). He insists that we are being menaced by a plethora of monsters-- giant luminous snakes, lake monsters, pterodactyls, flying felines, bird men, vampires, "glowing" dwarf creatures, Mothman, abominable snowmen, and demons. Keel claims that these monsters are slaughtering cattle by the thousand (9, 17), terrorizing "sober, God-fearing people" (11), burning houses and barns, and murdering countless unlucky humans who failed to escape from them (133). In particular, Keel states that we are being menaced by giant spiders that suck bodily fluids from animals and humans, leaving their dehydrated bodies behind (20). Keel repeatedly claims that flying saucers are real and that they are piloted by sinister occupants. But they might not actually be space aliens. Keel suggests that they might be ghosts. Keel is a staunch believer in Men in Black, who are sent to enforce Government coverups. But he is not a believer in science: "Science has become a sacred cow... science, by and large, is a lot of bull" (13). In a separate essay from a UFO magazine, Keel states that the planet Venus isn't real. Belief in Venus was simply a bit of propaganda manufactured by a conspiracy of egghead scientists to fool the public. Naturally, Keel is far too crafty to be tricked by such nonsense. While there is absolutely no evidence to support Keel's claims, his alarmist tone might well be taken seriously by the gullible. Keel's book propagates an irrational, superstitious, Medievalist world view that goblins, vampires, witches, and ghosts are as real as nature. As several readers have already noted, this book is long on anecdotes but short on citations. _References_: Binns, Ronald. _The Loch Ness Mystery Solved_. Buffalo: NY: Prometheus Books, 1984, pp.51, 220. Sheaffer, Robert. _UFO Sightings: The Evidence_. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998, pp. 31, 205, 215, 224-225, 230, 312-313. The general consensus is that Keel's book is sensationalist and "riddled with lamentable inaccuracies and exaggerations".