He used Holmes as a touchstone, but really wasn’t comparing other authors to Holmes as much as he was showing all the major detectives and mystery stories (some of the best involve no detectives at all) of his time.

Don’t get caught up in Whiggery. This was a major compilation of the time, and is required for anyone who wants to get an overview of the history of the genre.

I don’t typically read modern city mysteries due to the objectionable content. That’s me.

No, Bates was rather attempting to demonstrate that A) you really saw a UFO, B) abductions do occur, and most controversially, C) aliens do not exist…. That isn’t a contradiction. Bates argues that encounters with aliens are merely encounters with the demonic world. In fact, he quotes extensively (at the end of the book) from two researchers who detailed the history of alien abductions/sightings etc…. These authors discovered that throughout all of history, abductions and sightings occurred. The same events happened, the difference was the actors. In modern times these are aliens and space craft, in the medieval period, it was fantastical creatures like sprites, elves and nymphs. Still the molestations, the terror, the sightings were recorded then and read like modern events. With the difference of the representation of the beings.

You could argue that the aliens merely changed shape, but I don’t believe it. I agree with Bates (we are both Christians) that this is demonic activity. Bates wasn’t slapping the Bible on the book; he was interpreting the material through the lens of a belief in Scripture.

Jack, I don’t want to imply that you misread the book, because that would be rude and a non-starter. Certainly not polite or helpful. But, you do appear to have read the book from a specific perspective (looking for someone to reinforce your position). I’d suggest the following. With an open mind, read the Epistle of John from the Bible. You will get an idea of what Bates believes about the spiritual world through the actions of Jesus Christ and how the spiritual world and the physical world intersect. Then reread Bates with that foundation in mind. I think you will come out with a much different perspective on the book.

I can’t speak for Bates, but I don’t believe that Bates would deny that you saw an saucer, he would disagree with what it means and who caused it.

As to your metaphysical comments about mankind only being energy, I’d disagree. We have physical bodies and spiritual souls; we are flesh and spirit. Our minds are certainly more powerful than we understand, but they have been corrupted by sin. Someday, when Believers reach Heaven, I suspect that we will have our understanding opened to capabilities that sin has destroyed. (That’s a theory though and certainly not something I’d fight over.)

Thanks for chiming in on the conversation.

I’ve never done a book like Gary’s but I’ve done a story of my encounter with an alien craft. A big chrome cylinder parked fifty metres above my house for twenty minutes with no noise or movement. No windows, nothing. Then it behaved far beyond the capabilities of anything our air force people know. Carl Jung is of the view – as is Jacques Vallee, whom Gary quotes occasionally – that we generate these apparitions in our minds along lines established by the quantum physicists. They’re physical alright, but no more than we are ourselves, as mere wave energy. I don’t see any mystery with UFOs. The real mystery is why humanity is in such denial about the infinite possibilities of existence and mind. We literally choose to be frightened and ignorant.

Wal, signing of for now.
~Johann
(Who is very much enjoying the sweet strains of Bluegrass music. Especially the Dillards. )

BTW, I borrowed Maori and Settler from a friend, and really enjoyed it.

~Johann