I read Unproven, Unlikely and Firmly Believed, but didn’t get it. My wife normally reads books with a pastel or a spring-colored spine. Typically these books are about a cute young guy who manages a book store in Maine. There’ a generational corner store in town that’s about to be managed by a cute young girl. Both of their worlds will be upended when the data center or online warehouse open up its newest facility in the valley. My wife normally reads books like that, but apparently there was a disturbance in the love and missed-connections book force which meant that she had nothing to read. She looked over at Unproven, Unlikely and Firmly Believed and asked me what it’s about.
I proceeded to paraphrase the book’s subtitle, Why We Fall for History’s Most Seductive Conspiracy Theories and How We Rediscover Reality. You can see why I paraphrased it. One would’ve thought that the illustration of the alien, syringe with the skull/cross bones, in addition to a passenger plane with chemical trails that are on its cover would lay down context clues. I resisted the temptation to be glib and channeled my inner Hallmark movie.
Honestly, the reason that I didn’t ‘get’ Unproven, Unlikely and Firmly Believed when I first read is that I didn’t know most of the conspiracy theories. The fact that I didn’t know, or had even heard about most of the theories made me question things that I thought I knew. Shouldn’t I know this? It’s possible I’m simply not the audience for this book, even though I consider myself to be slightly above average. It’s also possible that I just didn’t know much about the vast number of conspiracy theories out there, or perhaps I’m aware of them, but treat them like bad advertising.
I didn’t explain all of that to my wife at 10:30 when I was about to cash in my sleep token. I think I roughly slurred something along the lines of, “it’s about conspiracy theories and why people have a tendency to believe them.” My initial description was incorrect. It was too simple. I wasn’t taking the time to read the book. If I had taken my time during the initial reading, I would’ve discovered the jokes and seen the book for what it is.
The rambling, ADHD nature that I mistakenly ascribed to Unproven, Unlikely and Firmly Believed, would’ve clearly been seen as quick witted, fast paced and a very funny take on society. The chapter on Unidentified Lying Objects is not about one particular UFO, or UAP incident. It’s about everything UFO (I prefer the old-school word), space explorers deniers, chemtrails, moon landings, black helicopters and the elephant in the room, the Fermi paradox. The chapter is about so many outer space instances that if you’re not paying attention it can seem like it’s unfocused or rambling.
Hint: take your time when you read the book.
My wife, clearly not dissuaded by my all-too casual book non-recommendation, started reading it. Every once in a while she’d laugh-out-loud at something. The first couple of times I threw a wayward eye her direction. She’d point out the obvious quip or joke that I’d missed. The most obvious joke fruit are the footnotes at the bottom. As you read Unproven, Unlikely, and Firmly Believed you’ll see small, numerical footnotes that immediately follow precise facts. Those numbers ascribe to sources that are annotated in the back of the book.
After some sentences you’ll see an asterisk. That asterisk is paid off at the bottom of the page by supplemental information on the sentence that preceded it, ancillary comments or jokes about that sentence. It’s these tidbits, puns or observations that give the book some of its secret sauce.
I did notice the footnotes at the bottom of the page during my first reading, but didn’t appreciate them. I was reading to complete the book, and not reading to enjoy the book. I viewed them as slowing down the enjoyment of the book, because I was moving my eyes from the main text, to the footnote at the bottom and then back to the text. Have I really become that impatient to where I don’t want to scan five inches down a page every once in a while-even if it means making the book a much more enjoyable time?
The writing in this book is very funny. It presents situations and stories that we think we know, but only have heard cursory-level information. The Earth is flat. How can an American president be assassinated on television, yet have legions of people think that it’s a conspiracy of some sort?* The Paul is Dead conspiracy, and many, many others are covered in the book.
Its chapters aren’t broken up by conspiracies, but rather by large, over-reaching topics. Because the chapters are broadly organized**, the roughly connected topics have many dots that it can connect within them. The Faults in Our Stars covers William Campbell, Gary, Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, Bob Dylan, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavinge, Katy Perry, Brittany Spears and more, all the while keeping Paul McCartney’s faux death story on the front burner. Each chapter feels like an episode of The Simpsons. There are an untold number of jokes and funny stories that live in every chapter. Some of the humor might be slightly off-topic, but just for a moment, it always comes back to the punch line or the greater area of conversation.
Much like an episode of The Simpsons***, there will be jokes or observations that you won’t get the first time you read the book. Don’t let the casual nature and humorous tone of Unproven, Unlikely and Firmly Believed fool you into thinking that this is a silly book. It’s a funny book that covers many large topics with periods of introspection and deep thought. However, those stories are punctuated with pop culture dopamine hits to keep those who avoid scholarly books awake. It’s a book that isn’t out to mock those who believe in conspiracy theories, nor to fan the paranoid flames. Instead, it looks at why some of the more fervent ones have lasted for centuries, where they came from and why humans always fall into those briar traps of obvious click bait. ****
Unproven, Unlikely and Firmly Believed: Why We Fall for History’s Most Seductive Conspiracy Theories and How We Rediscover Reality is by Tom Phillips and Jonn Elledge and is available on The Experiment.
*That’s conspiracy bait….or is it?
**relative to the size of the conspiracy
***or Futurama or Phineas & Ferb….
****Again, that’s obvious conspiracy bait….probably
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