Unexplained disappearances
I’m currently reading a book which made me wonder about the explanations fiction writers invent to explain mysterious real-life disappearances.
There have been many cases of such happenings and there are probably some plausible theory or something for each but it’s fun to see how writers twist things around to suit or to make credible their stories.
Some examples:
1. In Ghost King (a reworking of the Arthurian legend) by David Gemmell, the Atlantean warrior Culain explains to Thuro how people from the sunk land of Atlantis like to meddle in ordinary people’s life and choose sides in wars. To make other dimensions/worlds credible, Gemmell uses the legendary disappearance of the Ninth legion, those five thousand or so Roman soldiers who were sent in Britain very long ago to crush a group of rebel tribes. According to Culain, to win his war he opened a gateway to another world and “they marched into it and out of history”.
It’s also interesting (although cliched) how he uses a “circle of stones” as the means of creating those magic gateways, thus also giving an explanation to the reasons of building monuments such as Stonehenge.
2. Dean Koontz also uses mass disappearances as a plot idea in his book Phantoms. Jennifer, a doctor, returns to her home town with her little sister to discover that the town is eerily silent. Everybody has disappeared leaving no trace. Well most of them have disappeared without a trace. Those who did leave clues left bloody, gory clues like severed heads in ovens for example.
The most thrilling part of this book is discovering how this (i.e. any disappearance in history on a massive scale including the disappearance of a whole army in the Pyrenees and the extinction of the dinosaurs) is all the work of the “devil”. That was a really scary book. I was foolish to read it at night when I was all alone.
3. Finally, Walt Disney’s Donald Duck claims that disappearances of what you are looking for are the work of mischievous fairies/gnomes/elves who get their kicks by hiding the stuff in question and then putting it back in its place when you don’t need it anymore. Haha as weird and mentally crazy as it might sound, every time I can’t find something I’m searching for I can’t help blaming it on the wicked fairies.
I know there are many other works explaining unexplained disappearances such as The Langoliers by Stephen King. But I don’t remember exactly how it relates to real life incidents. I sort of find King’s writing a bit heavy. Maybe it was the Bermuda Triangle or the Mary Celeste or something…
Anyway, if you know of any other movie or book, share share!!! 
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June 16th, 2007 at 7:23 am
didn’t know you were fond of those mysteries also:p
There’s been lots of subject about stuffs disapearing in the bermuda triangle (used to read a lot about tha when i was kid), am still fascinated by the bermuda triangle and roswell :p
as far as any book i know treating the subject.. well i read an interesting one once, with facts and stuffs,… don’t seem to remember it though…shall meditate on that :p
ps. when will you lend me Phantoms, by Dean Koontz (am beginning to like this author)
June 16th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Hahaha, i remember these wicked faeries from Donald Duck!!! I blame them all the time too! The first feeling that came to mewhen i read that thing in Donald Duck’s magazine was OH MY GOD this happened to me!!!
June 16th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
eski LOST capve rentre la dan..
apres crash zotte avion.. a group of people are stuck on an island.. that at first seems “desert”!!
June 16th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Yeah I like reading or watching documentary films on that. It probably comes from my sister. She used to read me paranormal stories when I was little. Lol I remember there was a story about a man who ran naked in the snow and another one about a person who had nothing to eat so he ate himself.
selven I really liked that book by Dean Koontz. It was spooky. But then I don’t often read horror stories so maybe I get scared easily. Unfortunately, it was not mine. Got it through the library.
I like Dean Koontz too btw. I like his sense of humour (although sometimes he overdoes it). He really likes to make fun of stuck-up scholars (lol I bet you’ve met some people who thought they were above others because of some degree or the place they’ve gone to school or something). He is a dog fanatic also haha. Some of his work is simply bad though. And he does have the habit of copying himself.
vicks, I used to watch LOST too!!! I liked it at first but then I missed a few episodes and got terribly lost. haha
June 16th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
quote Cindy I bet you’ve met some people who thought they were above others because of some degree or the place they’ve gone to school or something
lol yeah, the types i always used to tell you :p, the ppl who seems to tinhk they walk on air :p
June 17th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
bein si to bizin mo ena bannes episodes la lor dvd..
saison 1 et 2.. let me know!
June 18th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
that would be cool