The Book of the Damned, Charles Hoy Fort

Описание: 📘 *The Book of the Damned*, by Charles Hoy Fort:

*The Procession of the Damned and the Philosophy of Intermediatism*
Charles Fort begins the work by presenting the "damned"—data and phenomena that Dogmatic Science has excluded because they do not fit into its established theories. He argues that Science maintains its system by excluding facts that contradict its laws, just like a religion or social organization. Fort proposes the philosophy of "Intermediatism": the idea that nothing is real or unreal, but that everything is in a "quasi-state," where things merge into one another (as red merges into yellow through orange) and there are no absolute dividing lines. He suggests that existence is an attempt to reach "Positivity" (the absolute, the real), but that we live in an intermediate state of illusion and quasi-reality.

*Atmospheric Phenomena and Strange Substances*
Fort compiles vast records of anomalous rainfall. He challenges conventional explanations for black rain (attributed to industrial or volcanic smoke), red rain (attributed to Saharan sand), and yellow rain (attributed to pollen). He presents cases where these substances fell in such massive quantities or in such remote locations that orthodox explanations become absurd. Fort also documents falls of gelatinous substances (often explained as nostoc or amphibian eggs, but falling from the sky), flesh, blood, and fibrous materials similar to silk or asbestos, suggesting they may be remnants of interplanetary disasters or lost cargo from aerial "superstructures."

*The Sargasso Sea and Biological Falls*
One of the central hypotheses of the book is the existence of a "Sargasso Sea" above the Earth—a stationary region in the atmosphere or near space where debris, wreckage, and living things remain suspended until dislodged by storms and falling to Earth. Fort uses this theory to explain the rains of fish and frogs. He ridicules the standard scientific explanation that waterspouts transport these animals, pointing to the segregation of the falls (only frogs, no lake water, or only one species of fish) and the absence of debris from the supposed place of origin. He highlights the curious fact that there are never records of tadpole falls, only of fully formed frogs.

*Artifacts and "Thunderstones"*
The book addresses the falling of manufactured objects, such as stone axes and wedges, which folklore calls "thunderstones." Science says these objects were already on the ground and were revealed by the rain, but Fort presents cases where they were seen falling or found hot and embedded in trees after storms. He also mentions strange inscriptions on meteorites and artifacts, such as the Tarbes disc and coins found at impossible geological depths in the US, suggesting visits or attempts at communication from other worlds.

*Astronomy and Unknown Celestial Bodies*
Fort attacks the precision of astronomy, citing ignored observations of dark bodies crossing the sun (such as the supposed planet Vulcan), unexplained lights on the moon, and variable stars that do not behave according to the laws. He suggests that the solar system is much more populated than admitted, with "rogue worlds," gigantic spaceships, and wheel-shaped structures that occasionally enter the Earth's atmosphere or are seen at sea.

*Conclusion*
The work ends with the idea that "Exclusion" is collapsing and a "New Dominant" (a new era of inclusive thinking) is emerging. Fort suggests that Earth may have been visited, colonized, or explored by extraterrestrial beings in the past, and that perhaps we are "owned" by something or someone. The book documents, for example, the famous case of the mysterious footprints in Devonshire in 1855, which covered vast distances in a single line, suggesting the passage of something that the science of the time could not explain.