Monday, March 24, 2008

Keep watching the skies!


Another guilty pleasure of mine is a childlike (childish?) interest in the bizarre. Anything strange and out of the ordinary instantly gets my attention, but ever since I was a little one I’ve been fascinated with the bizarre. Stuff you wouldn’t normally let business associates and friendly acquaintances now right away. Like … flying saucers, alien invaders, sasquatch, paranormal activity, historical mysteries, sea serpents, lake monsters, vampires, werewolves, and anything freaky caught on film or video.

One of my favorite shows growing up was “In Search Of …” with Leonard Nimoy. The deep tone of Nimoy’s voice, the re-enactments, the spooky synthesizer music, all hooked me in. I found just about every show riveting. Being a very imaginative, introverted boy, I soon saw evidence of the eerie shadow-worlds all around me.

As an adult now, with an active interest in physics and astronomy and a passing interest in most of the other sciences, do I still ‘believe’ in these things? No. But … as a famous television character from about a decade ago said, “I want to believe.” They still creep me out, in a good way. A campfire-story way. Raising goose-bumps, making you a little leery about being in the house alone at night, house-settling noises making you wonder. Plus, some very strange part of me gets a kick out of the associated camp-value, whether intended or not.

Without a doubt, UFOs held the premier position of interest in my youth. Although I preferred the term ‘flying saucer.’ It conjured a more romantic, 1950’s-black-and-white Saturday-matinee science fiction movie image. ‘UFO’ seemed a bit more sterile, scientific. It was obvious to me that ‘flying saucer’ implied saucer men, whereas UFO somehow didn’t necessarily. And what boy fed a steady diet of those science fiction movies didn’t see saucer men in the basement, in the closet, outside his window at night?

Coming a close second in spookiness was bigfoot. The idea of a giant, hairy creature just beyond the edge of the woods, who could be looking at you right now was enough to scare the heck out of any kid. And it was tall enough to even see in my bedroom window at night! And we lived in the suburbs! I even mistook my mother, taking out the garbage one evening, for a sasquatch, freezing and overdosing on adrenaline.

The other stuff, the Loch Ness monsters, ghosts, movie monsters, I loved them all, too. I try to throw them into my fiction writing whenever I can. Those are the stories I enjoy writing most.

No comments: