In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space

by Douglas Curran

Looks at the folklore surrounding UFOs from ancient times to the present

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Photography, Folklore, Society

132 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Owlseyes]

“He [Granger Ormond Taylor] built his spaceship out of two satellite receiving dishes and outfitted it with a television, a couch, and a wood-burning stove. He became obsessed with finding out how flying saucers were powered, spending hours sitting in the ship and thinking and often sleeping there.”


“Dear Mother and Father,

I have gone away to walk aboard an alien spaceship, as recurring dreams assured a 42-month interstellar voyage to explore the vast universe, then return. I am leaving behind all my possessions to you as I will no longer require the use of any. Please use the instructions in my will as a guide to help.

Love, Granger.”
(November 29, 1980)

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mostly loving and respectful journal of mid-20th Century madness, presumably induced by the space race and the grand illusion that Earth was the center of some cosmic destiny involving superior beings from other worlds. Curran's pictures should be part of the common conception of what America looked like between about 1947 and the 1980s, a vista of dreams and divine lunacy. The photos are accompanied by brief accounts of meetings with the remarkable men and women who constituted a distributed temple of worship to imaginary technologies and creatures that promised escape from conformity, nuclear peril, and mortality itself.

Highly recommended.

[Michael Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't put this book into the "humor" category--I don't think the author wanted to poke fun at the people featured in this picture book. Anyway, I didn't really feel like laughing at these photos. I understood the aspiration of the people in this book--though I thought they should stop looking to the skies for help. That said, I did smile when I saw a group of men building a flying saucer in a garage. But it was a sad smile. I think I felt sad because I knew they wouldn't realize their desire. I understood that desire. As a boy, I once made a one-boy flying machine on a Saturday. Of course, I knew the box with its propeller wouldn't take me to clouds. But I guess I enjoyed pretending. However, my project lasted a single afternoon--unlike those men, I didn't devote years to that activity.

[Dave Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slightly out of date, this book is an illustrated and wandering account of the UFO phenomenon in its heyday. Curran documents the beliefs and strange engagements of those who dabble in building rockets at their gas stations, as well as those who ascribe to "UFOlogy" as a religion. In fact, the unabashed frankness at which he reports the beliefs of these cults with their twisted para-theological belief systems is what makes the book educational. An easy read in a magazine-style layout.