{"id":1628,"date":"2010-05-22T10:18:09","date_gmt":"2010-05-22T16:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1628"},"modified":"2010-05-22T10:20:56","modified_gmt":"2010-05-22T16:20:56","slug":"fate-magazine-headed-for-the-other-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1628","title":{"rendered":"Fate Magazine Headed for the Other Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am preparing myself for life without Fate <\/em>magazine.<\/p>\n

Since 1948, the\u00a0 digest-sized monthly\u2014later a bi-monthly\u2014has been a reliable (at least in the publishing sense) source for ghost stories, UFO reports, speculative archaeology, Fortean<\/a> news, and other manifestations of the weird and unexpected.<\/p>\n

All viewpoints were welcomed, so articles often completely contradicted each other.<\/p>\n

Often the most interesting stories came as reports from the readers of paranormal experiences, encounters of the recently dead, and so forth. There was a certain sameness to these, but perhaps that meant they were true\u2014or else it meant that everyone followed the same cultural template. Or both.<\/p>\n

Llewellyn Publications bought Fate <\/em>in 1988<\/a>, perhaps hoping to make it what Gnostica<\/em>, their earlier house organ, had been in the late 1970s\u2014a mix of articles with ads for Llewellyn books.<\/p>\n

Some of the long-time readers complained then that Fate<\/em> was becoming too Wiccan. That is one thing you would learn from all those reader reports: quite a few Americans follow a home-grown metaphysical religion that happily calls itself Christian while including ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot, and all the rest.<\/p>\n

When Llewellyn pulled the plug, ownership passed to a former employee, Phyllis Galde, who kept Fate<\/em> going, although eventually reducing publishing frequency to bi-monthly.<\/p>\n

This spring, it occurred to me that the “bi-monthy” had turned into semi-annually. It seemed like a long time since an issue had arrived in my mail box.<\/p>\n

More time went by, and then I got an email saying that the Sept.-Oct. 2009, Nov.-Dec. 2009, and Jan.-Feb. 2010 issues were available\u2014as PDF files<\/em>. Eventually they put something on the web site too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So I had the choice of reading them on the screen or printing them at my own expense if I wanted to read them in bed before turning out the light in hopes of a dream of Bigfoot. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

The magazine death pool <\/a>is so close you can smell the fetid waters.<\/p>\n

Fate’s<\/em> blog keeps putting up new entries<\/a>, but discussion of the magazine’s own fate is oddly missing.<\/p>\n

The economics must be rough. Perhaps this is a case of flat advertising revenues versus rising printing and mailing costs.<\/p>\n

PDF files are not the answer, and a Web version of the magazine would have to be re-thought from the ground up.<\/p>\n

Then there is the whole question of shorter attention spans and lower reading comprehension on the Web (which is why so many blog comments are so stupid, particularly on the political blogs\u2014people just read one phrase and start ranting before digesting the whole little essay).<\/p>\n

But if Fate<\/em> goes under, popular metaphysical religion will have lost an enduring voice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am preparing myself for life without Fate magazine. Since 1948, the\u00a0 digest-sized monthly\u2014later a bi-monthly\u2014has been a reliable (at least in the publishing sense) source for ghost stories, UFO reports, speculative archaeology, Fortean news, and other manifestations of the weird and unexpected. All viewpoints were welcomed, so articles often completely contradicted each other. Often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,97,7],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-ghosts","tag-publishing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-qg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1242,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1242","url_meta":{"origin":1628,"position":0},"title":"Fate Magazine Reanimated","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"When pre-writing the blog post on dining above the dead (something best done while walking the dogs), I was thinking about how it was perfect for Fate magazine.Digression 1: Dog-walking is not all that meditative, because Something Always Happens, like this morning when they charged off through nine-inch-deep snow to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Halloween\"","block_context":{"text":"Halloween","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=halloween"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5954,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5954","url_meta":{"origin":1628,"position":1},"title":"Oceania Has Always Been at War with Lemuria","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Los Angeles Review of Books offers a review of two books on Ray Palmer, the Shaver Mystery, and pulp-esoteric publishing of the 1940s\u201350s: The War Over Lemuria and The Man from Mars : Ray Palmer's Amazing Pulp Journey. From the review: Of course, the underground worlds of Richard Shaver\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Chicago\"","block_context":{"text":"Chicago","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=chicago"},"img":{"alt_text":"51119-243x366","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/51119-243x366.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":68,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=68","url_meta":{"origin":1628,"position":2},"title":"“Cosmic Truths of the Ages, Revealed” (Fated, part 2)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 19, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"A newspaper article on Fate magazine and its editor, Phyllis Galde.My \"Part 1\" here.","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=65","url_meta":{"origin":1628,"position":3},"title":"It Was Fated","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 11, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"After letting my subscription lapse about three years ago, I have re-subscribed to Fate magazine. I have to admit I missed it: the UFO sightings, the \"True Mystic Experiences\" from people who could not possibly be making it all up (this is not the Penthouse Forum, folks). And the wacky\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6062,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6062","url_meta":{"origin":1628,"position":4},"title":"Pentagram Pizza: Where You Find an Eagle Eating a Snake . . .","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 After reading this article, I think I will write something for Fate magazine about how Tenochtitlan was really a Mexica overlay on a forgotten Roman colony. Should be good for a few chuckles. \u00b6 After a long hiatus (in comic book years), Asterix the Gaul returns. \u00b6 An old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"pentagrampizza","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/pentagrampizza.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1005,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1005","url_meta":{"origin":1628,"position":5},"title":"The Heart Has Its Reasons–For Wanting a Beer","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Stories like this one about a heart transplant may seem like fodder for Fate magazine.But they do raise interesting questions about the whole body-soul split, which is basic to all those religious traditions that teach we are spirits temporary in bodies--or trapped in bodies, as some would have it.Was it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1632,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions\/1632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}