Among flat earthers and UFO contactees

As a teenager, I read Patrick Moore's "Countdown", laughing heartily all through the book. But yes, I was somewhat intrigued by some of Moore's claims. According to the Swedish back matter, Moore is a famous British astronomer, and I wondered how such a person could possibly be on a first name basis with George Adamski, a notorious UFO crank.

That's because Moore is an *amateur* astronomer, stupid.

"Can you speak Venusian?" is an earlier book by Moore, and something of an involuntary companion volume to the previously mentioned "Countdown". The author takes us on a journey through the netherworld of Independent Thinkers, actually a sorry but entertaining lot of cultists, pseudo-scientists and - no surprise there - UFO contactees.

Some of the chapters deal with well known figures, such as Velikovsky, Däniken and George King. The Flat Earth Society and the Evolution Protest Movement are featured. The claims of the Independent Thinkers vary from the unbelievable to the positively bizarre. Thus, the Atlantean Society believes that there are underground railways on Pluto, and a certain Robert Randall claims that a crater outside a small British town was caused by an exploding UFO from Uranus. Then there's the theory that the Earth is hollow, and that we live on its inside, or the claim that the sun is frigid. The author even met a person who claims to have translated "Hamlet" into Venusian.

Moore's involvement with the milieu of Independent Thought seems to have been more than causal. Today, long after the publication of this book, many people suspect that the contactee Cedric Allingham was a hoax, and that Moore himself was behind it. In the book, Moore mentions another hoax, perpetrated by person or persons unknown at the expense of the Aetherius Society, a new religious movement led by the previously mentioned George King (who is also a contactee). King suspected that Moore was the hoaxer, and even paid him a visit at the latter's house! Our amateur astronomer denied everything...

Perhaps some of the claims in this book should be taken with a certain grain of salt?

Be that as it may, "Can you speak Venusian?" is an entertaining read - unless you happen to believe in flying saucers - and I therefore give it four stars.

(This is a review of the updated 1976 edition, published by Wyndham Publications)