"Beastly Tales"

The treasures one can find among a pile of old books. A few weeks ago, Wolfie's school were giving away free books. We could do donations, but they were free. We picked up a couple of them, him and me, including this one. When I was his age, I was fascinated by cryptids. I don't believe they exist anymore, but I kept a sort of interest about the myths surrounding them. So we eagerly read this book together. And I read it another time by myself, just for fun. I told him to be very sceptical about the accounts told in Beastly Tales. Even if one doesn't believe in them, they are still entertaining. If you have any suggestion for such books about cryptozoology, please let me know in the comments.

The Monster Game

I blogged before about All About Monsters, the very popular Usborne book about, well, monsters, mythical as well as cryptids. A lot of emphasis was put on the cryptid ones, actually. When Usborne republished the book, I quickly bought it. But I discovered that one thing in the French translaiton was missing in the original English: the Monster Game. Truly a board game that was made of the last page of the book, especially created, I think, for the French edition. I'm not sure why. The objective of the game was finding evidence for the existence of a lake monster, the Monster of Ellness Lake, basically a thinly disguised Loch Ness. We never played it. The rules were shoddy at best, for one. My brothers and I used the Monster Game, however for a few make belief games set around a lake and involving a cryptid like this one. Our characters explored the lake in a bathyscape, we questioned the locals, etc. It was quite fun. Anyway, I asked my father to send me pictures of the "Great Monster Game", beacause I wanted to share this memory on the blog. And because it might come in handy.

Cryptidcurrency

 I found this meme a few days ago and it made me laugh, so I am sharing it here. I don't understand or care about cryptocurrency either. But, although I don't believe in any of these cryptids, I used to believe bigfoot and Nessie were real as a kid, and I have been fascinated by these modern mythical monsters ever since. So yeah, I would love to have coins like these in my wallet. And I will learn more about the chupacabra and Mothman. I don't know all that much about them.

Hunting the Loch Ness Monster

 Some longtime readers may remember that when I was a child I used to be fascinated by the Loch Ness Monster. As an adult, I don' believe anymore in its existence, nevertheless I still have an interest in him, if only because of its place in the Acottish folklore. Well, Nessie may not exist, but its legend is certainly not dead: a new hunt, the biggest in the last 50 years, has recently been organised. Nearly 300 volunteers will monitor the lake and its activities. I don't think they will find anything, sadly, certainly not a long believed to be extinct dinosaur (when I was a child my money was on the plesiosaur), nevertheless it is kind of nice to know that people still chase monsters, mythical or not.

Is the Loch Ness Monster real?

I blogged a few times before (the last time in March 2015) about my childhood fascination for the Loch Ness Monster. Well, I recently read some news about it, as there are some claims that he might be real after all. Or he might have existed at some point in our human history, in some form or another. The claim is as vague and cryptic as the evidence brought forward, which is apparently based on DNA findings. Two things about this: 1)I am extremely skeptical. It could be another hoax, or simply a botched research done by some self-proclaimed scientists and experts. 2)I still wish I had got such news when I was an impressionable child who believed in Nessie and who would have really enjoyed it.

Updates about the Loch Ness Monster

Little bit of cryptozoological news: it appears that Nessie, aka the Loch Ness Monster, has been seen and apparently caught on camera. Again. As you may have guessed, I am skeptical about this claim. Very much so. In fact, I am disappointing such news happen when I am a grown up and not into cryptozoology anymore. I visited the Loch Ness when I was a child. I didn't see any sign of Nessie. Back then, there had been no sight of him for about twenty years, if my memory is correct. The Loch Ness is a beautiful, beyond picturesque place in Scotland. It is a shame I did not appreciate my time as much as I should have had as I was too busy hoping to see its darn monster. Nessie was one of my obsessions at the time. I often debated with a friend, not whether or not the monster existed, but what was his nature. I blogged about our debates before. All this to say that I would have become really excited about this news story more than 25 years ago.

All About Monsters

I blogged about this book in French post last year. Back when I was a child, still naive about many things and very much into cryptozoology, I absolutely loved this book. It was called All About Monsters and was as much about cryptozoology as it was about monsters of legends and folklore. It was full of pseudo-science and as an educational book it was utter rubbish, but they had great drawings and in spite of its sensationalist nature the parts on folklore made me discover many legendary creatures that were subsequently used in make belief games. There was another book in the series called All About Ghosts, which I blogged about here and another one about UFOs, which I didn't cared much about.  One of my friends had it, I only had All About Monsters and All About Ghosts.

If the ghosts book was one of favorite reads in the months and weeks leading to Halloween (from August onwards), All About Monsters was the one of my summertime. The make belief games we played around the swimming pool involved giant squids and Loch Ness monsters-like creatures such as the one on the cover. I remember arguing with a friend about the Loch Ness monster because of this very book. The same friend who had the book on UFOs actually. We did not argue whether or not Nessie existed, as we both believed there was a monster dwelling in the lake, but what was his nature. Because of All About Monsters, he believed that Nessie was an elasmosaurus. Because of another book we had read on the subject, my brothers and I were adamant it was a plesiosaurus. But in any case, lots of mysterious creatures showed up in our games. We had of course many medieval fantasy games where the book became an important source of information. So next time I am home, I might revisit it.

Cryptozoologie enfantine

Ceci est un nouveau petit billet nostalgique. J'espère qu'il n'y a pas de cryptozoologues amateurs ici, ils risquent d'en prendre pour leurs rhumes. Mais enfin bref, il fut un temps où, enfant, je croyais que le monstre du Loch Ness, le yéti, bigfoot et tutti quanti existaient. Mes frères et moi avions emprunté des bouquins à la bibliothèque de l'école sur le Loch Ness et sur les abominables hommes des neiges. Je l'ai mentionné ici. Des petits traités de pseudo-sciences, mais ils nous fascinaient car nous avions l'imagination fertile. Je ne sais pas si on peut encore les retrouver, ils datent d'il y a longtemps. Nous croyons tellement dur comme fer en l'existence de Nessie, en fait, que la question n'était pas de savoir s'il existait mais quelle espèce il était. Mes frères et moi nous défendions la thèse du plésiosaure, un voisin défendait la thèse de l'élasmosaure.

Ce qui me mène à ce bouquin, Tout sur les montres, publié par Pierre Bordas & Fils. Un livre par comité, je pense. Il mélangeait allègrement cryptozoologie, monstres des mythes et légendes et du folklore et ceux de la fiction. Je crois maintenant que c'était un bouquin passablement malhonnête, qui faisait croire en des théories bien douteuses et des légendes urbaines, mais ne faisait pas vraiment développer l'esprit critique. Il y en avait un sur les fantômes, un autre sur les ovnis, des mêmes éditeurs, et de la même eau. C'était une collection populaire à l'époque, j'ai vu bien des enfants de ma génération les consulter. Mon voisin et ami dont j'ai parlé plus haut croyait au monstre du Loch Ness à cause du livre, qu'il avait acheté, et parce que le monstre du Loch Ness était selon ses auteurs un élasmosaure, alors il était d'accord avec eux. D'où de nombreux débats à n'en plus finir. Mes frères et moi avons fini par acheter le livre, ainsi que Tout sur les fantômes. Cela dit, malgré tous les défauts de la collection de Pierre Bordas (& Fils), elle nous nourissait notre imagination et notre créativité, c'était toujours ça de pris. Les illustrations étaient d'une beauté glauque, les monstres étant passablement repoussants. Et il y avait un jeu à la fin du livre, les règles étaient tellement vagues et le plateau tellement instable (c'était une page de livre) que l'on ne les a jamais joués. Mais on utilisait les "informations" du livre pour bien des jeux de notre enfance. Alors quand je relis Tout sur les monstres ou un autre, j'ai toujours un pincement nostalgique.

Question existentielle (110)

Mon billet en français d'hier semble être passé inaperçu. Peut-être qu'il était trop geek, je ne sais pas. Mais il m'a inspiré une question existentielle dont je suis très curieux de connaître la réponse, surtout de ceux qui, comme moi, ne croient plus à Nessie:

-Si le Monstre du Loch Ness existait, que serait-il?

Souvenirs cryptozoologiques

Je suis en train de lire le bouquin de mon cousin Samuel. La troisième histoire du bouquin, Cryptozoologie, parle d'un animal mythique qui existe peut-être. Cela m'a fait penser à des souvenirs d'enfance, une époque où mes frères et moi parlions sans arrêt avec Samuel du Monstre du Loch Ness, des yétis, des sasquatch, des pieuvres géantes. PJ avait emprunté une série de livres à la bibliothèque, un sur les Hommes des neiges (photo à droite), appelé Le mystère des Hommes des neiges, un sur les pieuvres géantes (appelé... oui, c'est ça) et un sur le Loch Ness, dont je ne me souviens plus du titre, mais il y avait le mot "mystère" dedans.

Nous étions surtout des mordus du Monstre du Loch Ness, je crois, surtout depuis notre voyage en Écosse. Et nous y croyions dur comme fer. Nous croyions au yéti aussi, mais à Nessie encore plus. En fait, le débat n'était pas de savoir si nessie existait ou non, mais quelle était sa nature.  Nous avions débattu en long et en large avec un de mes amis: mes frères, Samuel et moi, croyions que c'était un plésiosaure, l'ami en question prétendait dur comme fer que c'était un élasmosaure. La raison était simple: l'ami avait lu un bouquin qui avançait l'hypothèse de l'élasmosaure. Il semblerait que le consensus des cryptozoologues à l'époque était celui d'une espèce de plésiosaure. Bien sûr, ça ne fait aucun sens: les deux espèces n'avaient pas de branchies, elles auraient donc été identifiées depuis. Enfin bref, mes frères et moi nous n'y croyons plus. Mais je m'ennuie quand même un peu des histoires que l'on se faisait sur Nessie, sur les yétis, sur les pievres géantes (celles-ci nous savons qu'elles existent, et le gigantisme est par ailleurs un concept relatif qui n'a rien de mystérieux). De nos conversations enfantines je crois qu'on pourrait écrire bien des bouquins de cryptozoologie, voire même quelques bonnes histoires.