Travels in American Subcultures
By Louis Theroux
Da Capo Press. 266 pages. $24.
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Just who is “we” The Call of the Weird, Mr. Theroux’s extended road trip in search of American oddballs, it’s the wide, wonderful universe of survivalists, flat-earthers, end-of-the-world prophets, Nevada brothel owners, topless dancers, get-rich-quick motivational speakers, white-pride lunatics and the many, many Americans who have been abducted by aliens. And Ike Turner, too.
It might feel as if we have met many of these people before. Mr. Theroux certainly has. He made the same stops about 10 years ago for the BBC in a television series called ‘“Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends.†In a nostalgic moment, or perhaps to pick up a quick paycheck, he decided to revisit his old pals and see how they were getting along.
A comparable, and hugely entertaining book in the UFO vein is Douglas Curran’s In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space. Curran, a Vancouver, B.C. native, one day got into his car, and drove around North America with his camera, seeking out UFO contactees and cultists, various “flying saucers” that have been built, etc. If more UFO literature was like this, we might have made more sense of the “UFO phenomenon” by now.
RDB
Damn! I need a vacation like that!
The novel I’ve been working on “Con Man and Florida Girl” features a “ufological” road trip.