Where The Footprints End Volume 2

Where The Footprints End – High Strangeness & the Bigfoot Phenomenon Volume 2: Evidence by Joshua Cutchin and Timothy Renner (2020 softcover 299pp)

Essentially being one work split over two volumes, the second part starts pretty much were the first one ended. Chapter by chapter we’re going through some of the common tropes of bigfoot encounters. Things start veering away from the comparative folklore of the first volume and the authors start discussing things such as footprints (and numbers of toes in such prints), bigfoot trackways and the sounds heard by witnesses. Just as things are getting a bit dull and repetitive there comes a fascinating chapter on the strange habit of bigfoot evidence disappearing and stories of the bigfoot equivalent of the ‘Men in Black’ from Ufology – supposed government agents who confiscate evidence and tell witnesses not to repeat their stories. There follows a section about the trickster archetype in many cultures and how this may apply to the bigfoot phenomenon. The book ends with a couple of extraordinary case studies that demonstrate the many aspects of the mystery in action. By the end the authors tell us they really aren’t able to tell us what exactly bigfoot is and make vague mentions of the ‘nature spirits’ of many cultures. They also direct the reader to Patrick Harpur’s work “Daimonic Reality”, a book I personally found incomprehensible when I tried to read it many years ago but is often touted as a seminal work by those following the paranormal.

As in the first volume the individual witness reports remain a highlight of the text. Even if half of them are lying there’s still a core of something going on - exactly what may forever remain a mystery.

Taken together these books are a bit of fresh air on a stale subject to me. As always high strangeness remains entertaining to read about. For once the authors aren’t trying to get you to believe in one cult or another and are just pointing out the connections that require further investigation.

 

Where The Footprints End Volume 1

 

Where The Footprints End – High Strangeness & the Bigfoot Phenomenon Volume 1: Folklore by Joshua Cutchin and Timothy Renner (2020 softcover 322pp)

 

Its no secret that I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal – I grew up in the golden era of ‘the unexplained’ when books, movies and TV programmes moved such things from the fringe into the mainstream. I like to think I take a typically Fortean view on such Fortean topics – sceptical but at the same time interested in the stories, personalities and world views involved. I’m no true believer in any of it but enjoy the sense of wonder and possibility it gives me.

Bigfoot and its related cousins have never been on the top of the list of interests for me. I always thought it was a pretty rare and possibly easily explained mystery but it seems now the ‘high strangeness’ from other areas of the paranormal are seeping into the realm of the big hairy fellow.

Timothy Renner and Joshua Cutchin postulate that most Bigfoot reports have involved elements of the of strange (besides the already strange fact of spotting an 8-foot-tall hairy humanoid) but these have usually been edited out or forgotten by those who wish to promote a flesh & blood explanation of the creatures. Much like in the field of Ufology where the nuts-and-bolts ETH held sway for decades, the authors believe the long-held explanation of Bigfoot as a ‘missing link’ ape has hindered our understanding of the phenomena and we must now look to the evidence and seek new answers. Lights in the sky, poltergeist type activity and telepathy are among the thing also reported by Bigfoot witnesses. It seems the hairy ape may have a paranormal spiritual or mystical aspect that’s been ignored by many researchers.

After a few case examples the book quickly descends into a laundry-list of folklore topics and the way Bigfoot cases possibly intersect with them. If you’ve read Cutchin’s earlier books such as “the Brimstone Deceit” and “Thieves in the Night’ you’ll know what to expect in these sections. Using meticulous research, he compares the lore and traditions from both the new and old worlds and how they may explain what has been observed in encounters with bigfoot and related phenomena. Much of this is very interesting but I found it did outlive its welcome a bit and some very long bows were drawn. The most interesting part of this book to me were the many witness reports quoted, some going back well over a century.

As this book is a single work split into 2 volumes for reasons of publishing logistics, I expect the second volume to be more of the same although it is subtitled ‘Evidence’ and promises more intriguing cases. I’m reading the second next so stand by for a second review.

Smoking in Antarctica

 

Smoking in Antarctica by Steve Braunias (2010 Awa Press paperback 306pp)

 

My first experience knowingly reading Steve Braunias was the wonderful “The Man Who Ate Lincoln Road” (2017), a collection of newspaper columns in which he proceeded to eat and review the food from every takeaway joint on the said road. I loved the humour and the down to earth local NZ flavour of it. Since then, I’ve kept tabs on his work (now largely behind a pay-wall at the NZ Herald, unfortunately) and recently have started collecting his previous books from assorted local used booksellers.

“Smoking in Antarctica” was published 11 years ago in 2010 and rather surprisingly seems to still be available new from the publisher (Awa Press). The book basically is a selected collection of the writer’s columns that appeared in the Sunday Star-Times newspaper in the period from 2008 to 2010. The columns have been sorted into sections under headings such as ‘Politics’, ‘This Writer’s Life’, ‘History’, ‘Crime’ and so on.

The tone of the columns ranges from whimsical (when talking about family or grotesque NZ food of the past) to deadly serious and introspective (descriptions of crimes and criminals etc). The writing is top-notch and makes you chuckle, think hard or despair, often within the same piece. He visits Antarctica and seems unimpressed; he tries to write a novel and fails. He waxes lyrical about his new family and then ponders turning a certain nameless age.

You’re not going to find the secrets of the universe in this book but I was impressed by a genuine New Zealand voice that didn’t make me cringe.