“The truth is out there, and They Are Already Here:UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers takes you right to its doorstep. Add this sharp, thoughtful book to your collection.”
Description
More than fifty years since Roswell, UFOs have been making headlines once again. But the UFO community—those who had been thinking about, seeing, and analyzing supposed flying saucers (or triangles or chevrons)—has been surprisingly skeptical. The people most invested in UFO reality were filled with incredulity and doubt. As Scoles did her own digging, she ventured to dark, conspiracy-filled corners of the internet, to a former paranormal research center in Utah, and to the hallways of the Pentagon.Scoles meets the scrappy upstarts, the field investigators, the rational people, and the unhinged kooks of this sprawling community. How do they interact with each other? How do they interact with “anomalous phenomena”? And how do they (as any group must) reflect the world around them? We will travel along the Extraterrestrial Highway (next to Area 51) and visit the Watchtower, where watching for lights in the sky is more of a spiritual quest than a “gotcha” one. We meet someone who believes they’ve been abducted. Where do these "encounters" stem from? What are the emotional effects on the experiencers? Funny and colorful, and told in a way that doesn’t require one to believe, Scoles brings humanity to an often derided and misunderstood community. After all, the truth is out there..
Genres
Pages304
Released2020
LanguageEnglish
PublisherPegasus Books
ISBN9781643133904
SellerSimon & Schuster
About the author(s)
Sarah Scoles is a science writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, Smithsonian, the Washington Post, Scientific American, Popular Science, Discover, New Scientist, Aeon, and Wired. A former editor at Astronomy magazine, Scoles worked at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the location of the first-ever SETI project. She lives in Denver, Colorado.
Reviews
“Scoles maintains her position as an outsider journalist making sense of the intricate stew of conspiracy theory, spectacle and kitsch. Scoles marries a thoughtful objectivity with a warm subjectivity as she talks to serious-minded UFO report investigators, tour guides for ET sightseers, and movers and shakers in the UFOlogy community.”
“Inspired by the U.S. government’s acknowledgment of a program to investigate UFO encounters, Scoles delivers a nonjudgmental, level-headed look at a long-lasting societal phenomenon. Scoles remains an open-minded skeptic, and it’s this objectivity that makes her buoyant survey so delightful to read.”
"While many authors in this realm rely on sensationalism and avoid fact-checking, Scoles has written the definitive investigation into the origins of UFO culture and its persistence."
Sarah Scoles has gone to some pretty far-out places and talked to a lot of extraordinary people. She wants to understand not just the people who believe in UFOs, but why they believe. Scoles deftly explores the human need to believe in something; something beyond us.
Jill Tarter
"A fascinating journey; the depth of [Scoles's] research is impressive and her curiosity is infectious."
“This engrossing and well-sourced investigation will leave readers contemplating the human condition of ‘universal uncertainty.’”
“Framed for skeptics just as much as believers…and will also appeal to those of us who enjoy spending time in nature and staring up at the sky. Scoles deftly gets to the heart of what we feel when we think we’ve connected with something sent from the greater universe: whatever’s out there, maybe it wants to know us and be known, and the experience of discovery makes us special.”
"Scoles’s biography deftly and entertainingly tells the story of groundbreaking scientist Jill Tarter, whose work has been pivotal to SETI. Making Contact astutely highlights the nuances and challenges of being a female scientist at the time, a heroic achievement in itself. Tarter's story reminds us to keep pursuing answers to pivotal scientific questions, regardless of the ideological barriers."
"Tarter emerges as both heroic and all too human. To paraphrase the poet Robert Browning, humanity’s reach must exceed its grasp, or what are the heavens for?"
"Scoles shares the fantastic story of people willing to pursue a quixotic goal in the face of daunting odds."
"Scoles—who has clear affection for her subject—highlights Tarter’s tenacity. A detailed portrait of how the science sausage gets made."
"An admiring, insightful biography. Scoles has done her homework, so readers will both understand and sympathize with Tarter, who has become an icon and role model despite pursuing a goal she knows she will never achieve."
