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The most obvious problem with this article is that it assumes Von Däniken came up with this idea. Years before "Chariots of the Gods", Peter Kolosimo already ha
by nephihaha 10mo ago
The most obvious problem with this article is that it assumes Von Däniken came up with this idea. Years before "Chariots of the Gods", Peter Kolosimo already had best-selling works discussing ancient aliens.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts
"However, the fifties and sixties were more dominated by European works. The Italian Peter Kolosimo wrote several books as early as 1957, but his Timeless Earth (1964) became an international best seller and was translated into several languages. French-language authors included Henri Lhote who proposed that prehistoric Saharan rock art depicted close encounters, Bergier and Pauwels' Morning of the Magicians (1960), Robert Charroux's One Hundred Thousand Years of Man's Unknown History (1963) and Misraki's Flying Saucers Through The Ages. A few British authors also published before Von Däniken, such as Brinsley Le Poer Trench, John Michell and W. Raymond Drake who wrote Gods or Spacemen? in 1964.
"Although Von Däniken claims he was formulating his ancient astronaut ideas throughout his school days, it is clear that many others had already published their books on the subject, long before he became notable with Chariots of the Gods? in 1968."
- Morromist 10mo agoGood point. I was introduced to the idea that aliens came to earth long ago and invented humans and built lots of weird monuments through The Mountains of Maddness by H P Lovecraft, written in 1930.
- ChrisMarshallNY 10mo agoI loved the book (usually, Lovecraft’s work drives me nuts, because adjectives), but I assumed that The Great Old Ones were Cretaceous-era native lifeforms that had basically gone extinct. He wrote his books at a time, when significant parts of the Earth were still a mystery. I sort of feel envy for that.
- Morromist 10mo agoYeah, there was something great about being a child who hasn't bing-read wikipedia for years. Lots of mystery out there. Then you read about the world and you know all this interesting stuff about it but the mystery is gone.
- CRConrad 10mo agoFeels to me that the current popularity of "What if...?"-scenarios of Alternative History may be a substitute. Though those are at least explicitly acknowledged as speculation, not some "Hidden Truth". (In contrast to "Flat Earth", "QAnon", and other recent conspiracy theories.)
- mellosouls 10mo agoYour precedence note is fair but it seems likely the whole "ancient aliens" subject was in the air around that time; pseudohistory has existed as long as history and this particular strand just emerges with the sci-fi boom and particularly the post-war fascination with UFOs. Von Daniken was obviously just particularly good at pushing his brand of the nonsense; all of those authors though are interesting examples of the sort of anti-academic and conspiracy theorists that have reached their apogee in recent years via social media.