Exotica, Curiosa, Crankery, Hoaxes, Cultural & Intellectual Arcana:
Selected Web Guide & Bibliography

Compiled by Ralph Dumain

Brain Pickings – An inventory of the meaningful life by Maria Popova

The Public Domain Review

Athanasius, Underground

From India to the Planet Mars (1900) by Théodore Flournoy

Lost libraries by Claire Preston

Musaeum Clausum by Thomas Browne (1684)

The Mysteries of Nature and Art by Julie Gardham

Stories of a Hollow Earth by Peter Fitting

Paradise Found, the Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole – a Study of the Primitive World by William Fairfield Warren (1885)

Trüth, beaüty, and Volapük by Arika Okrent

Ernst Haeckel and the Unity of Culture by Mario A. Di Gregorio

France in the Year 2000

Aspiring to a Higher Plane by Ian Stewart

On Benjamin’s Public (Oeuvre) by Anca Pusca

Paul Collins: The Literary Detective

The Literary Detective (blog)

Weekend Stubble (old blog, superseded)

Boing Boing

The Athanasius Kircher Society: "all things wondrous, curious, and esoteric" by Mark Frauenfelder, February 9, 2006

The Athanasius Kircher Society Resurfaces

Athanasius Kircher Society YouTube videos

Athanasius Kircher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kircherianum Virtuale

Atlas Obscura | Curious and Wondrous Travel Destinations

Wunderkammern [dead link]

Kunst- und Wunderkammern, Kunstkammer, Wunderkammer

wwwunderkammer by Carla Gannis | Sedition

Cabinet of Wonders

Leibniz’s Funny Thought
Jonathan Gray, 30 August, 2009

For Christ's Sake, Who'll Help Me Out of this Skin!?
Justin E. H. Smith, 3 Quarks Daily, June 23, 2008

The Museum of Interesting Things

Secret Speakeasy

Curious Expeditions

Museum of Hoaxes

Res Obscura (Blog)

Oddity Central

LILEKS (James) :: Institute of Official Cheer

The Museum Of Jurassic Technology

American Visionary Art Museum

The Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA)

The Best in Heritage
(Annual survey of awarded museum, heritage and conservation projects)

Museum of Broken Relationships

The Ueless Web

Afrofuturism

Afrofuturism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Socialism and Democracy, # 42 (Volume 20, No. 3): Socialism And Social Critique In Science Fiction [Science fiction + Afrofuturism]

Flying Saucers Are Real! The US Navy, Unidentified Flying Objects, and the National Security State by Robert P. Horstemeier

Fictional country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Forgeries Bibliography by Douglas Adams

Faking Literature: the Bibliography by Ken Ruthven (Jacket 17 — June 2002 | # 17)

Faking Literature (pp. 1-24) by Ken Ruthven

Fakery, The Imaginary Museum (blog), October 24, 2009

Two Discoveries, by Kevin O'Neill, MOSTLY (NOT) ON MCSWEENEY'S! blog, July 21, 2009

Interesting for bibliophiles, connoisseurs of curiosa, fans of Jorge Luis Borges (with a quote from R. Dumain on Borges)

The Hall of Ma'at
(Weighing the Evidence for Alternative History)

Internet Sacred Text Archive

Earth Mysteries

Symzonia; Voyage of Discovery (1820) by Adam Seaborn

The UFO Files

Mars

From India to the Planet Mars (1900) by Théodore Flournoy; tr. Daniel B. Vermilye

Utopia and Dystopia

John C. Symmes' Hollow Earth Writings

The Hollow Earth: Fact or Fiction? (illustration) @ Symzonia.com

Mundus Subterraneus (blog)
A bibliography of literature on the Hollow Earth, subterr, anean worlds, worlds beyond the poles, the Secret World, the centre of the Earth, the earth's interior, the hollow globe, Symzonia, Geo-Kosmos and the cellular kosmology.

Etidorhpa and Symzonia on Josh Reeves Show (audio)

The Hollow Earth (blog)

The Symzonia Review

Magonia Archive (UFO lore. 99 issues: 1970-2009)

Flournoy’s Complaint by Terry Castle, with response by Sonu Shamdasani
London Review of Books, Vol. 18 No. 10 · 23 May 1996, pp. 3-7

Speaking Martian by Daniel Rosenberg
Cabinet, Issue 1, Invented Languages, Winter 2000/01

The New Psalmanazar (blog)

HistoryBuff.com

The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 By R. J. Brown

The 1835 Great Moon Hoax (Odd History) (video)

Moon Walk 1835: Was Neil Armstrong Really the First Man on the Moon? by Richard Adams Locke, edited by C. W. Tazewell

Changing The Times the Alternate History eZine

Ramblings and Musings (blog)

AlternateHistory.com

Playing History

Playing With Technology in History
April 29-30, 2010, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada

Meta

Voynich Manuscript Mailing List

On this site:

To breake a little wind, poem by Sir Thomas More

Beyond Deduction and Induction: Towards Perfect Truth According to Edgar Allen Poe

Definition of ’Pataphysics by Alfred Jarry

Richard Wright’s Outsider, Negroes & Flying Saucers

Passport to Magonia (Contents & Preface, 1969) by Jacques Vallee

Surrationalism (on blog)

Alfred Jarry’s “How to Construct a Time Machine”: A Web Guide

Edward Page Mitchell (1852-1927), Science Fiction Pioneer: Time Travel, Hegel, and More

Eugène Mouton: 19th Century Science Fiction Pioneer

Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau: El anacronópete — The First Time Machine

«Le maître du temps» par Giuseppe Lipparini

Science Humor & Parody: Select Bibliography

Science Fiction & Utopia Research Resources: A Selective Work in Progress

Mathematical Fiction & Related Works: A Guide

Martin Gardner, Mathematical Games, & the Fourth Dimension

Black Music & the American Surrealists: A Bibliography

Jorge Luis Borges: Selected Study Materials on the Web

Philosophical and Universal Languages, 1600-1800, and Related Themes: Selected Bibliography

Intellectual Life in Society, Conventional and Unconventional: A Bibliography in Progress

External Links (various)

My blogs:

Reason & Society

Jacques Vallee
Martin Gardner

Ĝirafo

Patafiziko (’Pataphysics)
Paul Collins
Steampunk
Ukronio

Bibliography

Borges, Jorge Luis. The Book of Imaginary Beings, with Margarita Guerrero; rev., enl., and translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author. New York: Dutton, 1969.

______________. The Book of Imaginary Beings, with Margarita Guerrero; translated by Andrew Hurley; illustrated by Peter Sís. New York: Viking, 2005.

Bourke, John G. The Portable Scatalog: Excerpts from Scatalogic Rites of All Nations, a Dissertation upon the Employment of Excrementitious Remedial Agents in Religion, Therapeutics, Divination, Witchcraft, Love-Philters, etc., in All Parts of the Globe; edited and with an introduction by Louis P. Kaplan; foreword by Sigmund Freud. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1994.

Bourke, Captain John G. Scatalogic Rites of All Nations: a Dissertation upon the Employment of Excrementitious Remedial Agents in Religion, Therapeutics, Divination, Witchcraft, Love-Philters, etc., in All Parts of the Globe: Based upon Original Notes and Personal Observation, and upon Compilation from One Thousand Authorities. Washington, DC: W. H. Lowdermilk & Co., 1891.

Law and Ordure: Scatalogic Rites of All Nations (1891) by Hunter Dukes (The Public Domain Review).

Collins, Paul. Banvard's Folly: Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck. New York: Picador USA, 2001. Publisher description.

Fritze, Ronald H. Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-religions. London: Reaktion Books, 2009.

Gardner, Martin. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. New York, Dover Publications, 1957. (Revised & expanded edition of In the Name of Science, 1952.)

Henry, Victor. Antinomies linguistiques (Le langage martien). Paris: Félix Alcan, 1896. Downloadable.

Manguel, Alberto; Guadalupi, Gianni. The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, illustrated by Graham Greenfield,with additional illustrations by Eric Beddows, maps and charts by James Cook. Newly updated and expanded. New York: Harcourt Brace, 2000.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Harold Beaver. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1976. See also Beyond Deduction and Induction: Towards Perfect Truth According to Edgar Allan Poe.

Ruthven, K. K. Faking Literature. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Stableford, Brian The Dictionary of Science Fiction Places, illustrations by Jeff White. New York: Wonderland Press, 1999.

Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence, edited by Etzel Cardeña, Steven Jay Lynn, & Stanley Krippner. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2000.

Yaguello, Marina. Lunatic Lovers of Language: Imaginary Languages and Their Inventors; translated by Catherine Slater. (Fous du langage) London: Athlone Press; Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991.

Periodicals

The Believer

• What You Can’t Learn Collecting Esoteric Books by Andrea Richards, February 2010 (VOL. 8, NO. 2)
• Analects on the Influence of Artaud [full text] by Rick Moody, June 2009 (VOL. 7, NO. 5)
• Christian Bök interviewed by Jonathan Ball, June 2009 (VOL. 7, NO. 5)
• The Chapel on the Moon by Michael Schulman, June 2009 (VOL. 7, NO. 5)
• Dr. Octagon by John Adamian, May 2009 (VOL. 7, NO. 4)
• John Crowley interviewed by Ed Halter [full text], May 2009 (VOL. 7, NO. 4)
• Curse of the Spurned Hippie by Steven G. Kellman, March/April 2009 (VOL. 7, NO. 3)
  "Among the small body of American movies filmed in foreign languages is a horror film starring William Shatner—shot entirely in Esperanto."
• Amerikas by Adam Thirlwell, October 2008 (VOL. 6, NO. 8)
  On Adorno, Shoenberg, multilingualism & the novel.
• The Military-Toy-Industrial Complex by Jason Boog, October 2008 (VOL. 6, NO. 8)
• The Henry Ford of Literature [full text] by Rolf Potts, September 2008 (VOL. 6, NO. 7)
  On Emanuel Haldeman-Julius & the "Little Blue Books".
  See also in same issue: "Schema: Little Blue Books" by Chris Ying.
• Buzzkill [full text] by Paul Collins, September 2008 (VOL. 6, NO. 7)
  "Picketing The Eightieth Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee".
• Richard Dawkins interviewed by Troy Jollimore, September 2008 (VOL. 6, NO. 7)
• The Violet Notebook by Sam Stark, February 2008 (VOL. 6, NO. 2)
  " Karl Marx, before he became Karl Marx, wrote sonnets, ballads, and a novel about a constipated dog."
• A Cloud in Pants by Michael Almereyda, February 2008 (VOL. 6, NO. 2)
  On Vladimir Mayakovsky.
• A Book for the Millions by Paul Collins, November/December 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 9)
• Hobson’s Choice [full text] by Rachel Aviv, October 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 8)
  "Can Freud's theory of dreams hold up against modern neuroscience?"
• The Banality of Comedy by Philip Oltermann, October 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 8)
• Ask Your Newsstand Guy by Gustavo Turner, September 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 7)
  "The best introduction to Borges may be a comedian under several pounds of latex on ’80s Argentine TV."
• Ron Currie, Jr.’s God is Dead [full text] reviewed by Andrew Ervin, September 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 7)
• The Official Guide to Official Handbooks [full text] by Andy Selsberg, August 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 6)
• Ker-Chunk! [full text] by Paul Collins, June/July 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 5)
  "A hit-making keyboard made of 8-track car stereos? Meet rock's rarest instrument."
• “Beatles, Or Stones?” by John McMillian, June/July 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 5)
• The Codex Seraphinianus [full text] by Justin Taylor, May 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 4 )
  "What do Borges, the entire history of scientific illustration, and Breton’s attempts to introduce a new letter to the French alphabet have in common?"
• Death Comes (and Comes and Comes) to the Quantum Physicist by Rivka Ricky Galchen, May 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 4 )
  ‘ "Many worlds" theorist Hugh Everett III believed that a cat could be both dead and alive. He was also a radical realist.’
• The Dance of Hands by Rod O’Connor, April 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 3)
  ‘ The theory, practice, and spectacle of the game of “rock paper scissors.”’
• Namejacking [full text] by Paul Collins, April 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 3)
• The Savage Detective by Rodrigo Fresán, March 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 2)
  On Roberto Bolaño.
• “Schema: A Compendium of Kircherian Inventions” by Joshua Foer, March 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 2)
• Toastmaster [full text] by Rachel Aviv, February 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 1)
  "Uncovering the ultimate hypocrisy of public speaking."
• Doctorow’s Brain by Chris Bachelder, February 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 1)
  "Is fiction a science, or an illusion?"
• Encyclopedia Volume I, A-E reviewed by Rick Moody, February 2007 (VOL. 5, NO. 1)
• The Theater of Memory: A Cheap Facsimile of an Old Monastic Trick by Alex Wright, November 2006 (VOL. 4, NO. 9)
• The Evidence of Things Unseen: The Sweet Gloom of Writers’ House Museums by Anne Trubek, October 2006 (VOL. 4, NO. 8)
• GAMES issue, September 2006 (VOL. 4, NO. 7). Includes full-text articles, e.g.:
  • Destroy All Monsters by Paul La Farge
    On Dungeons & Dragons.
  • “Oulipo Ends Where the Work Begins” by Christopher R. Beha
  • “Overrated”: A Potentially Awesome New Game by Chris Baty
  • Thoughts on the Art and Technique of Crossing Word by Georges Perec
• MUSIC issue, June/July 2006 (VOL. 4, NO. 5)
• A Review of Here & Elsewhere: The Collected Fiction of Kenneth Burke reviewed by Dan Johnson, April 2006 (VOL. 4, NO. 3)
• Let Us Now Gaze, Famous Men by Paul Collins, December 2005/January 2006 (VOL. 3, NO. 10)
  "A guide to rare books about the death masks of historic luminaries, and books about what happens to their disinterred corpses."
• Other People’s Bookmarks: Fellow Wanderers of a Forgotten Republic by Michael Atkinson, November 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 9)
• William H. Gass interviewed by Stephen Schenkenberg [full text], November 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 9)
• The Hatchet Man by Paul Collins, October 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 8)
• We Need Heart-Touching, Soul-Penetrating Stories! [full text] by Jessica Lamb-Shapiro, September 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 7)
  On the ideology of the self-help book industry, from ancient times to today.
• Ignatius Donnelly, Prince of Cranks by J. M. Tyree, August 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 6)
• MUSIC issue, June/July 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 5)
• The Conlangers’ Art by Annalee Newitz, May 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 4)
  See also: "Schema: Build Your Own Conlang" by Annalee Newitz (not online)
• Church Of Monsters by Dorna Khazeni, May 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 4)
  On H.P. Lovecraft.
• Steve Martin interviewed by Meghan Daum [full text], May 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 4)
• Jacques Bailly interviewed by Josh Fischel, April 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 3)
  The National Spelling Bee’s official pronouncer shares a few of his favorite words.
• China Miéville interviewed by Lou Anders [full text], April 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 3)
• Mego Crazy by Tom Bligh, March 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 2)
  On MegoCon 2004, a convention for action-figure aficionados.
• Marjorie Grene interviewed by Benjamin Cohen [full text], March 2005 (VOL. 3, NO. 2)
• The Lost Symphony [full text] by Paul Collins, November 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 11)
• I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say by Luc Sante, November 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 11)
• Funworld [full text] by Kevin Moffett, November 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 11)
  Writing on amusement parks.
  
• August Wilson interviewed by Miles Marshall Lewis [full text], November 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 11)
• Let There Be Darkness [full text] by William Giraldi, October 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 10)
  "In defense of depressing literature."
• H. P. Lovecraft: Against Nature, Against Life by Michel Houellebecq, October 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 10)
• A Soldier Upon a Hard Campaign [full text], by Chris Bachelder, October 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 10)
  On "Upton Sinclair’s astonishing deployment of exclamation points", et al.
• Michael Bell interviewed by Matthew Derby [full text], October 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 10)
  On the history of real vampires.
• George Meyer interviewed by Eric Spitznagel [full text], September 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 9)
  "The Simpsons’ silent architect remembers a time when hobos were hilarious and cynicism was on the way out."
• A Futurist Banquet by Manuel Gonzales and Mark Binelli, August 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 8)
  "A meal of manifestos concocted with the irascible help of The Futurist Cookbook."
• Invasion of the Minnesota Normals [full text] by Annie Murphy Paul, August 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 8)
  Origins of the totalitarian personality testing industry.
• Thomas Frank interviewed by Margaret Wappler [full text], August 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 8)
• Anglicizing El Ingenioso Hidalgo [full text] by Natasha Wimmer, July 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 7)
  On Don Quixote & translation.
• In the Penthouse of the Ivory Tower [full text] by Gideon Lewis-Kraus, July 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 7)
  Report on a Modern Language Association conference & the academic English profession.
• Slavoj Žižek interviewed by Dianna Dilworth [full text], July 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 7)
• MUSIC issue, June 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 6)
• Close Calls with Nonsense [full text] by Stephen Burt, May 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 5)
  A map of contemporary American poetry.
• You and Your Dumb Friends [full text] by Paul Collins, March 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 2)
  "What we might glean from the autobiographies of animals and the memoirs of inanimate objects."
• Mike Davis interviewed by Joshuah Bearman [full text], February 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 1)
• In Search of Jim Crow [full text] by Robert Christgau, February 2004 (VOL. 2, NO. 1)
  On studies of 19th-century minstrelsy.
• Hyperauthor! Hyperauthor! by Michael Atkinson, December 2003/January 2004 (VOL. 1, NO. 9)
  "An investigation of one fake Japanese poet and the protracted devolution of the literary hoax."
• The Cellular Apocalypse by Carl Elliott, December 2003/January 2004 (VOL. 1, NO. 9)
  "Our transhuman future is full of genetically enhanced promise, but will it also bring the obsolescence of meaning?"
• The Last Great Problem [full text] by Jordan Ellenberg, November 2003 (VOL. 1, NO. 8)
  "The unsolved mysteries of twentieth-century math have become the new Himalayas of culture . . . "
• Jesus Hates New York [full text] by Gustav Peebles, November 2003 (VOL. 1, NO. 8)
  On Christian utopian socialism vs urban capitalism in the TV show Smallville.
• One Hundred Years of Loneliness by Francis M. Nevins, November 2003 (VOL. 1, NO. 8)
  "On the rediscovery of noir-progenitor Cornell Woolrich. . ."
• Donald Barthelme’s Syllabus [full text] by Kevin Moffett, October 2003 (VOL. 1, NO. 7)
  "An autodidact fritters away a used-bookstore summer with a tattered copy of Donald Barthelme’s reading list."