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Notes from the (Bibliographic) Underground

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   L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City

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Eric Hamell, October 3, 2009 (view all comments by Eric Hamell)
This book was sometimes fascinating, frequently maddening. On the up side, the author proposes a number of correlations to exist between paranormal beliefs and experiences on one hand, and seemingly unrelated cultural factors on the other. Some of these have also been posited by more skeptical writers. On the down side, he never proves rigorously that these purported correlations actually exist.

Hansen assumes that they can only be understood in terms of an acausal "trickster constellation," but ignores the fact that more down-to-earth social and cognitive psychology can often be invoked to explain them. He takes for granted that the paranormal is real, rather than actually trying to prove it.

In fact, Hansen actually asserts that the paranormal by its nature can't be scientifically proven, and the book sometimes comes off as one long apologia for this fact. Particularly frustrating is the way he periodically cites some confusing or elusive quality of paranormal claims as "hinting" at something about "the nature of the paranormal," yet never comes out and says what he thinks that is.

Some of the most interesting material in the book for me was unrelated to alleged paranormal phenomena, such as the section concerning the socially provocative origins of the school of research called ethnomethodology.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9781401000820

Author:

Hansen, George P.

Publisher:

Xlibris Corporation

Location:

Philadelphia, PA

Subject:

Parapsychology

Subject:

Parapsychology - General

Series Volume:

no. 34

Publication Date:

August 2001

Binding:

Paperback

Language:

English

Pages:

564

Dimensions:

8.62x5.56x1.40 in. 1.60 lbs.