Bri Fidelity’s Reviews > Wild Talents > Status Update

'According to a story that is told of Madame Blavatsky[,] the little bird of a cuckoo clock annoyed her. Said she: "Damn that bird! shut up!" The cuckoo never spoke again.'

The little autobiographical account of Charles Fort and his wife vs. the plague of mysterious falling picture frames in Chapter 20 is completely charming.

Actually, all the autobiographical segments are charming. I wish he'd been this approachable in all his books - and, frankly, as legible. Between the two, I feel like I have a much better grasp on his sneering.

'One time, when I was a boy, I caught a lot of flies. [...] It seems to give me an understanding of the "phantom" stabbers and snipers. I painted the backs of the flies red, and turned them loose. There was an imaginative pleasure in thinking of flies, so bearing my mark, attracting attention, causing people to wonder, spreading far, appearing in distant places, so marked by me.'

'She confessed to everything [...] except whatever had occurred when her hands were held. There are dozens of poltergeist cases, in which the girl — oftenest a young housemaid — has confessed to all particulars, except things that occurred while she was held, tied, or being knocked about. Ignoring these omissions, accounts by investigators end with the satisfactory explanation that the girl had confessed.'