Synopsis "The Book of the Damned"
Considered to be the first of its kind, originally published in 1919, Charles Fort gives accounts of numerous unexplained phenomena, many of which would today be categorized as UFOs, anomalous weather and psychic phenomena, as well as, purports the concept and reasons why we have not made contact with aliens. Fort attempts, almost tongue in cheek, to construct a cosmology which could explain these phenomena. He proposes that the Earth's gravity only extends about 20 miles out, and that there are vast 'lands in the sky' passing above us, normally unseen. Some of these lands trap objects, --the 'super-Sargasso, '--some are shaped like giant spindles or wheels, and others are huge sentient beings. If there is life in the universe, how come we aren't visited by aliens? This is called the Fermi Paradox, proposed by Enrico Fermi in the 1950s. Fort gives a preemptive solution where he states, famously, 'I think we're property.' Fort's solution is that earth was warred over in the distant past, and now is under the control of 'something'--"all other warned off." The reason that we never meet our 'owners' is that they have no interest in talking with their 'livestock.'
