Real-Life
X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal
By
Joe Nickell.
University Press of Kentucky, Lexington,
KY, U.S.A., 2001.
336 pp., illus. Trade. ISBN: 0-8131-2210-4.
Reviewed by Michael Punt
mpunt@easynet.co.uk
All
research has at its core a research
method that is either made explicit,
or is so familiar as to make detailed
explanation redundant. The problem with
this book is that the implicit methodologies
of the private eye are confused with
scientific explanation. Life for the
private eye is reduced to a series of
relatively simple binaries the
suspect did it/did not do it, he gets
the girl/does not get the girl, he gets
paid/does not get paid, he gets killed/he
lives, and so on well at least
in novels that's the way it is. Science
has the luxury of equivication; as Copernicus
famously said, the idea of a heliocentric
universe was just one hypothesis among
many. The paranormal and supernatural
exists in both a binary and equivical
world with utter indifference to the
established standards of proof. Engaging
with it and understanding what might
be involved in reports of strange happenings
demands intellectual subtlety, generosity
and academic rigour. The Real X-Files,
investigating the paranormal
lacks any of these. This may not be
the put down it seems. The book is good
fun, building up straw men only to demolish
them with quips and circumstantial evidence.
Its certainly not science or dare I
say even good detective work, but it
does lay out an interesting aray of
strange events in the world and it does
leave it to the reader to wonder what
on earth might be behind them. The comforting
assurances of a real life Gumshoe
like Joe Nickell may be, for some, just
what the doctor ordered. For others
it will be a frustrating dismissal of
another world view.