| SEX AND ROCKETS: The Occult World of Jack Parsons John Carter Robert Anton Wilson (Intro.) Venice, CA: Feral House, 1999 |
Rating: 2.0 Fair |
|||
| ISBN-13 978-0-9229-1556-9 | ||||
| ISBN 0-9229-1556-3 | 229p. | HC/BWI | $24.95 | |
| Page xiv: | "Most Fundamtalists think they [the Illuminati] do [promote secular humanism], but others with livlier fantasies suspect them of unleashing Jazz, Rock 'n' Roll, communism, fascism, anarchism, Satanism, international banking, ritual child abuse, or some combination thereof." |
| S/B "Fundamentalists". |
| Page xvi: | "Two recent books that shed some light on al these murky matters deserve some attention at this point — The Hiram Key and The Second Messiah." |
| S/B "The Hiram Key and The Second Messiah". |
| Page 9: | "Although the older man did not actualize his father fixation, when Parsons was with von Karman, he knew was in the presence of a great man." |
| S/B "he knew he was". |
| Page 10: | "Targeting Clark Millikan to sponsor his doctorate, Millikan refused, an act that Malina resented from then on." |
| Grammar error: Dangling participle. |
| Page 10: | "Von Karman's allowed Parsons and Forman to use the lab at GALCIT despite their lack of affiliation with the school." |
| S/B "Von Karman's approval allowed". (At least, that's one suitable choice for the missing word.) |
| Page 10: | "When experiments seemed to reach a dead end, Parsons would go to von Karman, who'd perform a few quick calculations and say something like, 'Yes, John, it is possible to achieve success in the direction you are heading, but first you must work out several dependant variables in the field." |
| Misspelled word: S/B "dependent". |
| Page 11: | "The great experiment started slowly. Malina writes on April 5 that Parsons and Forman take jobs at a powder company. Presumably they returned to Halifax [Powder Company]." |
| S/B "took". Also, there's ambiguity here: Did Malina write this on 5 April, or was this when Parsons and Forman took the jobs? |
| Page 21: | "The appendices reflects not only the up-front calculations but also actual tests of fuel mixtures at Halifax." |
| Subject-object number mismatch: S/B "appendices reflect". |
| Page 21: | "However, the graduate students finished their term and summer arrived and drifted away." |
| Missing word: S/B "summer arrived and they drifted away.". |
| Page 40: | "Lewis was given a document referred to as a 'Gage of Amity' in 1921, and his mail-order mystery school San Jose, California, still thrives today." |
| Missing word: S/B "mystery school in San Jose, California". (Also, no comma after "California".) |
| Page 44: | "The two had to left the country to do this initiation..." |
| S/B either "had left" or "had to leave". |
| Page 73: | "On the train ride home, Malina suddenly realized that RFNA [red fuming nitric acid] and analine ought to be self-igniting without the gasoline or benezene." |
| Almost certainly S/B "benzene". |
| Page 81: | "Chantrelle also says that 'one of the greatest services science fiction can render to science' is to lead the public gradually into accepting implausible concepts as fantastic, evidently referring to Parsons' public acceptance of his rockets, if this was indeed a comment of his." |
| Hoo, boy! Where to begin? First, Chantrelle — Hugo Chantrelle — is a character in Anthony Boucher's 1942 novel Rocket to the Morgue. Carter says that the character was based on Parsons. In what way does Carter think having a character in a novel (no matter who it's based on) support "implausible concepts" would foster public acceptance of those concepts? Second is the ambiguously defined support by Parsons himself. The way I read the sentence is that, since Parsons publicly supported his own rocket concepts (if he did so), this shows that science fiction can foster public acceptance of hitherto implausible ideas. As for "accepting implausible concepts as fantastic", this has to be another case of missing words — but I cannot guess what those words should be. (OTOH, I should have no trouble accepting six implausible things as fantastic before breakfast — and neither should anyone else.) |
| Page 93: | "In his quest to find the god within himself, [Wilfred] Smith had to build a small altar from rocks he found the site." |
| Missing word: S/B "from rocks he found [at/on] the site". |
| Page 96: | "While he concerned with formal training and qualifications in his 'spiritual' life, Parsons had no need for it in his aerospace occupation." |
| Missing word: S/B "While he was concerned". |
| Page 105: | "Then he hopped into his Packard and pulled his small trailer to the Pasadena, returning to the Parsonage and resuming his affair with Betty." |
| Extra word: S/B "to Pasadena". |
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.