I Read Books: The Smoky God
2018 Introduction
Speaking of the Hollow Earth as I was yesterday, in 2017 I read the book The Smoky God by Willis George Emerson, a "classic" "true" hollow earth story. Checking my notes I found I started to write it up, but never finished. Essentially it was not as interesting as I hoped.
I present my unfinished write-up of the start of the book. If you are interested in more it is out of copyright and available for free online, or if you think you won't enjoy it, you can read the very brief Wikipedia synopsis.
The Smoky God
So, The Smoky God, a 1908 "true" account of a voyage into the hollow earth.
I was excited by this and almost immediately disappointed. The author seeks to distance themselves from the facts of the narrative. He attempts to walk the line between saying that he does not believe it, yet he is writing down an accurate account of what was told to him by the Norwegian sailor Olaf Jansen.
I'll come back to this[4], which is a giant pile of nonsense which asks some interesting questions. Eventually (and I mean that; the narrative skips back and forth between ideas and never uses two words when three will do) he promises to actually tell us what Jansen said. I can't wait.
[1] Although Olaf Jansen claimed to have so there you go.
[2] The possibility of being declared mad because of these outlandish beliefs, though possible, seems unlikely to me[3]; this is America where you can believe any old nonsense and become a pillar of the community.
[3] To correct past Neil on this, according to the text Jansen was indeed declared mad, partly so that a family member could steal his inheritance, so in the book at least it would be a legitimate fear.
[4] SPOILERS I don't. In brief see the shell theorem in which Isaac Newton no less proved that a classic "shell" type hollow world would not have people standing on the inside.
Speaking of the Hollow Earth as I was yesterday, in 2017 I read the book The Smoky God by Willis George Emerson, a "classic" "true" hollow earth story. Checking my notes I found I started to write it up, but never finished. Essentially it was not as interesting as I hoped.
I present my unfinished write-up of the start of the book. If you are interested in more it is out of copyright and available for free online, or if you think you won't enjoy it, you can read the very brief Wikipedia synopsis.
The Smoky God
So, The Smoky God, a 1908 "true" account of a voyage into the hollow earth.
I was excited by this and almost immediately disappointed. The author seeks to distance themselves from the facts of the narrative. He attempts to walk the line between saying that he does not believe it, yet he is writing down an accurate account of what was told to him by the Norwegian sailor Olaf Jansen.
I freely confess his statements admit of no rational analysis, but have to do with the profound mystery concerning the frozen North that for centuries has claimed the attention of scientists and laymen alike.Have your cake or eat it mate, don't do both. "I think this is interesting and someone should probably go to the North Pole to look" is, I don't know. To be fair, no one had been to the North Pole to look[1] so in 1908 this is not an indefensible position.
However much they are at variance with the cosmographical manuscripts of the past, these plain statements may be relied upon as a record of the things Olaf Jansen claims to have seen with his own eyes.
A hundred times I have asked myself whether it is possible that the world's geography is incomplete, and that the startling narrative of Olaf Jansen is predicated upon demonstrable facts. The reader may be able to answer these queries to his own satisfaction, however far the chronicler of this narrative may be from having reached a conviction. Yet sometimes even I am at a loss to know whether I have been led away from an abstract truth by the ignes fatui of a clever superstition, or whether heretofore accepted facts are, after all, founded upon falsity.After a bit more explanation that neither the author nor the eleven nations involved in exploring the Arctic know what's going on up there and a diversion into Plato talking about Apollo coming from a land beyond the North Wind, he then introduces us to Jansen, now ninety five, retired and living in Glendale, California. Jansen, "a believer in the ancient worship of Odin and Thor", is ill and wants to tell his story before he dies. He does so, and includes maps, drawings and notes.
"These," said he in conclusion, "I leave in your hands. If I can have your promise to give them to the world, I shall die happy, because I desire that people may know the truth, for then all mystery concerning the frozen Northland will be explained. There is no chance of your suffering the fate I suffered. They will not put you in irons, nor confine you in a mad-house, because you are not telling your own story, but mine, and I, thanks to the gods, Odin and Thor, will be in my grave, and so beyond the reach of disbelievers who would persecute."[2]He dies. Our narrator then asks us to indulge him in one or two reflections. He lays out a set of theological, mystical, historical, scientific and analogical reasons to believe that the earth is hollow and has inhabited lands inside. In fact Jansen, a non-christian, says that it is the location of the Garden of Eden. The interior of the earth is lit and heated by "a mammoth ball of dull red fire" which is the source of magnetism and electricity and worshipped by the inhabitants as the titular "Smoky God" which they call "The Most High".
I'll come back to this[4], which is a giant pile of nonsense which asks some interesting questions. Eventually (and I mean that; the narrative skips back and forth between ideas and never uses two words when three will do) he promises to actually tell us what Jansen said. I can't wait.
[1] Although Olaf Jansen claimed to have so there you go.
[2] The possibility of being declared mad because of these outlandish beliefs, though possible, seems unlikely to me[3]; this is America where you can believe any old nonsense and become a pillar of the community.
[3] To correct past Neil on this, according to the text Jansen was indeed declared mad, partly so that a family member could steal his inheritance, so in the book at least it would be a legitimate fear.
[4] SPOILERS I don't. In brief see the shell theorem in which Isaac Newton no less proved that a classic "shell" type hollow world would not have people standing on the inside.
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