Reddit reviews Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal

I have an explanation (sort of) for this one. Jon Pertwee would go on to play The Doctor, the time-travelling alien hero of the BBC's Doctor Who television series.

This is exactly the kind of thing The Doctor would do. Since the actor's father didn't have time to attend on the night in question, The Doctor travels forward in time, picks up a future version of his father and takes him instead. Pertwee senior says he wasn't there because it's still in his future - he doesn't remember it yet.

I'm only half joking. Mutants and Mystics explores how stories have a way of leaking over into 'real' life, and this occurrence fits so well with the Doctor Who narrative, it's hard not to see it that way.

Reading this book in order to write a thesis: https://www.amazon.com/Mutants-Mystics-Science-Superhero-Paranormal/dp/022627148X
It includes ton of pulp sci-fi covers which are amazing when the cover stories are Keel, Shaver, or even Fort reprints. Best part of writing this paper.

>This is a foundational text and deserves to be read.

I'll second this. The book contains a wealth of references to research that is hard to find otherwise - experimental results that science fails to acknowledge because it cannot explain them. The author comes surprisingly close to outlining the basis of a magickal system.

I'd like to add Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art, for an analysis of trickster's many tales. If you know how to look, it's a good introduction to trickster magick.

And also Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal - a comparative theologian's fascinating excursion into pulp fiction weirdness, the magick of writing, and how to make a hypersigil.

None of these books are likely to appear in the occult section, but I've found them more useful in developing my understanding of magick than many books that address the subject directly.

Firstly, what are you reading? Are you feeding your mind? You have a professional obligation to be reading voraciously. Required reading, Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. A very cute tongue in cheek novel about a superhero and a supervillain, but also a very compelling page-turner.


As deeper research, you might want to read Mutants And Mystics, a book of essays about the origins of superhero comics. Did you know a lot of the guys who create the superhero genre were themselves having profound mystic/supernormal experiences? Back in the 50's, if you told people you were having a "kundalini awakening" like they talk about in yoga classes these days, guys in white coats would show up in a van and cart you off to the nearest asylum. So they had to sublimate these stories into fiction as a way of working out what in heaven was happening to them.


On a more fundamental level, I'd start outlining your characters. Not just their powers, but who they ARE as people. For instance, maybe your strongest superhero is really strong, but he's a health freak. He's a 100% raw vegan who only eats organically grown fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. And it's complex. He has to get a certain amount of calories, or (psychosomatically) he believes he'll lose his superpowers. And if you know anything about raw vegans, it's hard to get enough calories eating that way. Fruit is basically just water. Many people binge on raw nut butters and then pass out from all the fat, or sit around eating dozens of bananas at once, and then crash from the sugar. (30 bananas a day is an online community for raw vegans). This is just one example. Tie in your superheros with real life things people do to try and be superhuman. You could have a super-genius superhero who hangs out with "Masters Of The Universe" on Wall St. And maybe he believes that he has to make $250,000 per day on the stock market or he'll lose support of the big corporations who are doing dark rituals or something to empower him. Maybe his power comes from the "mastermind" council of these corporate overlords, and if he doesn't maintain that profitability with his supermind, they'll stop doing the ritual and he'll be cut off, or killed or something.


These are just some examples. It's just raw creativity, man. Like a painter or a tattoo artist (hopefully) grinds their own ink, you have to sit down and grind on your characters. As you learn more about them, the story ins and outs will become at least clear enough for you to get started. I wouldn't invest a lot of time in a super duper detailed outline of the whole book, because as you're writing more things will occur to you, and that will pull you off your outline. Stay agile. Be willing to go on digressions. Just get to a point where your characters are dynamic and fun enough to write and then play jazz with the story, you can always fix inconsistencies in post.