A cynical move, no doubt, but it also makes the crank books seem more like fiction than their authors might have intended. Sphere was in the vanguard, presenting a wide range of books with the same cover designs, cover artists and Novel Gothic typeface as their SF titles. The British editions of these books were published by imprints like Corgi, Panther and Sphere who were also publishing large quantities of science fiction, a situation that led to many crank titles being packaged as though they were fiction or fantasy. Books by Charles Fort, Immanuel Velikovsky and James Churchward (the Mu series) all received reprints, with some appearing in paperback for the first time. The prime crank decade was the 1970s, a period when publishers were falling over themselves to cash-in on the massive popularity of Erich von Däniken’s dubious investigations, while also catering to the by-products of the hippy era and the occult revival. It’s also a convenient umbrella term for the books referred to in the weekend post which embrace diverse subjects, from lost continents and “Earth energy” to ancient astronauts and flying saucers. Yes, “crank” is a pejorative word but it’s used with some degree of affection, as in “harmless crank”. Also the first place I encountered the words “Popol Vuh”, before discovering the music of Florian Fricke and co. A book I received as a present for Christmas, 1974.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |