Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal

Every now and again, you go through your pile of unread books, chancing upon those that others bought for you--or that others recommended to you.On occasion, when you read books others recommended, you ask yourself, "Huh, why was he so certain that this book would resonate for me? Why did she think I would enjoy this?"And then there are those recommended books that knock your socks off--and you are so grateful for the recommendation. My Eighth Grade English teacher Miss Koschir suggested to my Mom on Parents' Night that I read Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn.It has become one of my favorite all time books. (I love the movie too.)Last summer while up at my quirky graduate school for the summer session of my Memoir class, I saw advertised a talk by Jeffrey J. Kripal. Seemed interesting, so I went. He was talking about his new book, The Flip.Afterwards, I went up to talk to him and soon the conversation turned to one of my favorite topics, Superman. He recommended this.And boy did it knock me socks off. This is now one of my favorite all time works of scholarship.And not just for his thoughts on Superman. That said, what he said about the Man of Steel on pages 237-44 is more than the worth the cost of the book. Much more. Much, much, much more. "Precisely this: that there really had to be some sort of deeper hidden self of which our outward Clark Kent personality was but the dim reflection" (p. 240, quoting Alvin Schwartz).This book engaged me, enthralled me, made me think--not just about the appeal of superhero comics, but also of the resonance of fantasy and Science Fiction. It has helped me better articulate why so many of the best stories are set in fantastic worlds where the rules of everyday life do not apply.And has helped me understand why I write fantasy fiction--and how I might have come to tell my story in a comic books format.And it has confirmed a notion I have long been harboring--that superhero comics aren't just for kids.

Jeffrey J. Kripal, who is the J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University, is the author of the excellent and tightly disciplined 'Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal & the Sacred' (2009), which examined the lives, work, and careers of F. W. H. Myers, Charles Fort, Jacques Vallee, and Bertrand Méheust.However, Kripal's 'Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal' (2011) is an awkward, clumsy and undigested mess of a book; at 376 pages, it reads more like 736, as Kripal goes on and on pressing his continually vague and circular argument, without ever really getting anywhere, and caps the book off with a glowing tribute to, of all people, Whitley Strieber, author of 'Communion' (1987) and its many sequels.Kripal is clearly very enthusiastic about his conception of the material presented, but even life-long readers of superhero comics with a not-terribly-surprising parallel interest in science fiction, the paranormal (as found in the work of writers like Ivan T. Sanderson, John Keel, F.W. Holiday, Jerome Clark, or Patrick Harpur), or even a subscription to Fortean Times, are unlikely to find anything new here whatsoever (for example, Richard Shaver, Raymond Palmer and 'Amazing Stories' get another thorough going over).Throughout, Kripal is agog in his admiration for figures like Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Philip K. Dick, and his admiration, as presented, is clearly sincere but nonetheless wholly unpersuasive. Worse, whatever insight, intelligence and objectivity Kripal has brought to 'Mutants & Mystics' goes right out the window when he gets to Whitley Strieber, who Kripal sees as a very worthy (and 'living') test case for his theories.As Strieber has publicly, Kripal wonders why 'Communion' has been so thoroughly condemned and rejected by both "the religious right and the intellectual left." Perhaps because most people of intelligence and even a little literary sophistication can easily discern that 'Communion' and all its sequels are works of fiction, not fact, and weak fiction at that.Kripal's gullibility throughout this, the book's final chapter ('The Third Kind') is so astounding that it is surprising that the University of Chicago Press agreed to publish it at all (it seems almost certain that the book would never have been published if Kripal didn't hold the position he does).Kripal, who interviewed Strieber in person on one or more occasions, somehow doesn't perceive (or simply doesn't want to see) the tacky melodrama and faux-suppressed hysteria in Strieber quotes like "perhaps the very act of eating it has changed me," "my whole body was jolted by what I can only describe as a blast of pure sexual feeling," and, after his initial encounter (during which he is rectally probed), being left "in a state of the most delectable emptiness that it is possible to imagine."Elsewhere in the same chapter, Kripal describes Strieber's 'visitors' (a term used to describe 'aliens' by pop group ABBA as early as 1982) "landing on the roof like some sort of occult Santa Claus" and then quotes Strieber describing how he meditated with a group of them (Kripal is equally agog throughout 'Mutants & Mystics' by all things 'Oriental,' Asian, and Eastern).Though human guests of Strieber's reportedly also physically witness the 'visitors' in Strieber's isolated upstate New York cabin, Kripal asks for no verifiable evidence of any kind, though Strieber, who expects the world to believe he was 'visited' on dozens if not hundreds of occasions of the course of many years, of course has also offered none.That Kripal would choose Strieber as a model for his theories finally sinks the book, but 'Mutants & Mystics' has many other problems.For example, throughout the text Kripal seems dazzled at his own 'discovery' that there are so many links and connections---synchronicities even!--between the ideas of early science fiction writers like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, pulp magazine writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs and H.P. Lovecraft, and early super hero creators such as Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, Otto Binder, and Alvin Schwartz.But this 'discovery' is wholly disingenuous: who would be genuinely surprised to learn that an individual interested or even obsessed with the fantastic in one medium would be just as fascinated with it in another?While Kripal makes much of the 'radiation' factor found in Golden and Silver Age super hero comics, he completely neglects to consider how often radiation featured in Hollywood horror and science figure B films of the 1930s and 1940s (for example, 1936's 'The Invisible Ray' and 1940's 'Dr. Cyclops' to name just two), making radiation a factor in early super hero comics...gee, not that surprising after all.And as radiation and mutation were notoriously featured in one commercially successful science fiction movie after another throughout the 1950s (including, but hardly limited to, 1954's 'Them!', 1955's 'The Day the World Ended,' and 'This Island Earth,' 1956's 'The Gamma People' and 'Godzilla, King of Monsters,' and 1958's 'War of the Colossal Beast'), why is it surprising, on any level, that radiation and mutation played key roles in late 1950s and early 1960s Marvel comics?In terms of outright factual errors, Kripal has Roy Thomas becoming an active presence at Marvel circa 1975, when Thomas's legendary runs on both The X-Men and The Avengers began in 1966, and, bizarrely, Kripal has the Bronze Age beginning in 1975 as well, when it is generally agreed to have begun in 1970.For young readers interested in science fiction, super heroes, and the 'supernatural,' 'Mutants & Mystics' may act as a springboard to the works of Verne, Wells, Lovecraft, Keel, Dick, Vallee, Morrison, and others, but more sophisticated readers are likely to find it an amateurish waste of time.

great book about a fascinating subject. Some background knowledge will be helpful but gave me a new perspective and intelligently written. Some great stories about the big names of comic book art and science fiction, ending with my hero Whitley Strieber!

This book is recommended for anyone interested in Paranormal, esp, telekinesis and superheroes.This book is talking about real life incidences when people experience paranormal and these very incidences could well be the basis for comic superheroes. A case of incredible/hysterical strength of a woman lifting s car...the hulk. A case of someone sensing danger....spidermans spider sense. A case of reading someones thoughts./....X-mens Xavier.This book is backed up by very nice and colourful illustrations of familiar comic covers and heroes. It makes a great souvenir too as well as a great read.

A friend gave me a fridge magnet that said if I could be Batman I should always be Batman. But Jeff Kripal observes that I need also to be Bruce Wayne – and maybe more than I should be Batman. On reflection he is right. My friend is wrong - and maybe I found out in time.I have long observed that modern movies are full of magic and myth and could be a substitute (though chaotic and confused) mythology for a humanity wrestling with the implications of modernity. So I took to Mystics and Mutants with a strong expectation that I would be informed and entertained. I was not disappointed.Kripal has produced a masterpiece of research and writing that explores the 'spirit' that undergirds the characters that have been transformed from the freeze frame of paper comics via the fluid wonder of cgi to the magnificent spectacles on our movie screens. It seems all that fantasy maybe grounded in reality – and I think we secretly know this is so.The book is enthralling and provoking and I was engrossed through every page. The extraordinary thing is that Jeff Kripal is a Professor of Religion. He is one of those remarkable people whose expertise is in the comparative study of religion – a quietly neglected intellectual resource we must stop ignoring if we are to properly understand who and what we are. And there’s a Joker in Kripal’s pack – he is a connoisseur of the weird. He thinks the strange things tell us more about our reality than the normal. If, like me, you grew up on a diet of comics and sci fi, it is likely you think the same way.Mutants and Mystics is beautifully argued and engagingly written. It is a transformative adventure that requires a bit of courage to go with the argument, but agree or disagree, you will be enriched.