Big Weirdness: Eating Glaciers AND Moving Glaciers Cross-Country (??) 1921

JF Ptak Science Books LLC   Post 162

So, in a collection of thousands of odd pamphlets with categories and sub-categories which are in themselves odd (“History of Biological Transformation”) there occasionally springs from the well a particularly singular effort that doesn’t fit anywhere:  when I can’t find a place to put something in a collection (read “assemblage”) that has a place for everything, I know its really weird. 

And so we have the singular tale of “Prof.” Walter Martin, author of Astrasophy, the Little Giant, by Recent Explorations in Chicago Uncovers the Great Pre-Historic Mich.—Wis.—Ill.—Ind. Sea Enabling Astrasophy to Explode a Glacier Moraine (so-called) inside that City, landing the Glacier 1500 miles west in the Glacier Park, Montana.

Sometimes you have to read something to find out what its all about; other times, like here, the whole thing gets pretty much told in the title.  Once inside, there’s no trail of words to describe exactly what Prof. Martin had in mind with the exploding Chicago glacier; the trail picks up and disappears all over the place, leading even the best tracker to stand and scratch, lost.  (I should point out, too, that the glacier is not only “exploded”, but it is placed “whole”, somehow, in Montana from Chicago.  That’s really not a lot of ‘sploding, if you ask me.). There’s talk about stars, and the “future Chicago”, the tilting of the continents, “slipping earth”, and disappeared “drift piles of ice”, punctuated with wonderful non sequitors like “Yes with my heart all gone I had to eat two glaciers and put one in my pocket”, and then right back into star control,  earth miasmas,  solar system electricity, and other cloudy things. 

Only eleven pages long, the pamphlet reads as though it were several pages shorter.  On pages 7-11 is a “University Short Course in Astrasoph”, and seems to explain all things in seven quick points.  In #2, we read “space is matter in its utmost expansion”, which is a tricky statement (in that we usually think of matter “taking up” space, but never mind), which we can get by quickly with #3:  “matter is the result produced by creation pressure upon the Eotonic Sea of space, condensing to the fifth form”.  This somehow forms the “four nebulas”, the fourth of which “when enlarged, is a divine message to inform us of the existence of other universes”  In this part I think he’s dealing with the idea of the powers-of-ten type, where, Zeno paradox-like, the greater the detail the more is revealed in that youi never actually get "there".   I do like though that he gets into alternative universes back there in 1921

I know that “astrasophy” has an astrological sumpin’ sumpin’ going on nowadays, but that is a slow boat with a fast terminal leak that I have no desire to board.  Mr. Martin got his hands on the term pretty early from what I can tell, and made it his own.  I’d like to celebrate him a little for his singular, spectacular view of the world, but I don’t quite know how, except to say that he came up with a unique set of ideas, and if you squint hard he looks a little like Leonardo, if you pixilate him some. The picture of Mr. Martin seems to show him sitting on the street in a folding chair, evidently selling newspapers (“Foch Smashes…” reads the headline, relating to WWI.)  I hope that he had the chance to proselytize as he dispensed the other worldly news.  In those wily pre-mega-treatment days, Mr. Martin found voice for his dreams and put them in print, and so they exist to this day, if only here—and now he belongs to the web.

Comments

[Rick]

This pamphlet is listed on Amazon.co.uk, although it also mentions, "unavailable".

The "...Little Giant" part struck me as funny. I recall a silly skit on TV--don't recall the program--of a guy who was the supposed to be the world's tallest midget. Just what you would expect: griping about discrimination, difficulties in getting around, etc. except the guy looked to be about 5'10".

Is Patti aware that you have coopted her common-law-patented "sumpin' sumpin'" turn of phrase? I really hope your next post, John, covers common-law patents.