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.
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