Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51: Amazon.de: Phil Patton: Englische Bücher

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Dreamland is journalist Phil Patton's chronicle of his road trip into the low deserts and dry lakes of southern Nevada in search of the truth (which, presumably, is Out There). It's a cultural history of the cold war, a psychoanalysis of the military, and an unswerving look at our fascination for UFOs. What happened at Roswell in the 1940s? What is the Air Force doing out at Area 51? Whether you join the "youfers," and decide that genuine aliens are here, doing their inexplicable thing, or the "Interceptors," who desperately seek sightings of stealth planes, or "black aircraft," you'll need to camp at the perimeters of the vast desert wildernesses set aside for secrecy to do your research. Patton explores the edges (and sometimes the insides) of these strange, lonely places in the same way he examines the psyches and motives of the people who inhabit them--with bemused semiobjectivity. Patton seems to be saying that human weirdness is roomy enough to encompass everything, from UFOs to top-secret military planes to global atomic destruction. He writes of Dreamland: "I came to believe that its legend and lore, its language and paradoxes, provided a strange and yet appropriate time capsule of a half century of cold war and black secrecy. Here, the cultures of nuclear power and airpower merged with the folklores of extraterrestrials and earthly conspiracies; their interference patterns formed a moiré of the weird. It was a place from which to see our own planet with the eyes of an outsider." --Therese Littleton -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

From Kirkus Reviews

Thomas Pynchon meets Hunter S. Thompson (stylistically) in a novelistic account of the US government's secret air base known as ``Area 51.'' Area 51 is a chunk of desert in the southwest the size of Belgium. Beside it lies a nuclear testing site. Both are products of the Cold War, when it was believed air power and nuclear power would combine to keep America safe. Area 51 is a secret place, it exists on no maps. It came into being so aircraft, like the U-2, that could spy on the Soviet Union and China might be tested and perfected. Its so secret that it is in effect a black hole that draws to it the paranoid, conspiracy buffs, the just plain loony. There are the ``youfers'' who search for, and find, UFOs flying above Area 51; there are the ``black-plane watchers'' who search for ultra- top-secret aircraft. This is the world Patton (Made in the USA, 1992; Open Road, 1986) takes us into. He travels beyond the physical location of Area 51 to the psychic location of those who must believe that in the sky exists a world we are not meant to know. He travels to Roswell, N.M., the birthplace of UFO conspiracy theories, to conventions of alien abductees, to a bar in the desert called the Little A `Le' Inn, where sky watchers share their stories. Why do they believe what they believe, ``see'' what they ``see''? Patton ponders the Jungian notion that flying saucers are ``symbolical rumors.'' Or perhaps in a Cold War world that, as he writes, would ``routinize Doomsday . . . bureaucratize Armageddon'' (and this world is not long gone), it takes mystery and the unexplained to give us a sense of common humanity. Patton allows us to question who is loony and who is not. A fascinating meditation on delusion and desire, this is an American tale. (b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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Aerial Anthropology 14. Juni 2000

Von Scott Snyder

Format:Taschenbuch

If you feel that the Cold War years were some sort of bad dream, and you catch yourself wondering what it was all about, this is a great book for waking up. Patton uses Area 51 as an entry into the psychology of the era. The skunk works, strange lights in the sky, the secrecy and paranoia all come together in a sane and down to earth commentary on those times.

I especially enjoyed the history of Area 51, the workings of the Lockhead SkunkWorks, and the story of the U2 and other spy planes. I was distrubed by the book's portrait of Curtis Lemay (of Dr. Strangelove fame)and his nightly bombing raids on American cities. Strange things indeed were happening in the skies. They may still be going on.

Patton's style is on the level and humorous at times, a delight to read. Highly recommended.

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Well written and presented. 20. Oktober 1998

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

Do you have any idea what your government is up to? After reading Brad Steiger's 'Alien Rapture,'a thrilling novel with a highly plausible plot that scares the heck out of any knowledgeable reader and in a country where mistrust of our political leaders grows in leaps and bounds, this book astounded me. So, I picked up Patton's Dreamland to compare the two, since Steiger wrote Alien Rapture with an ex-black programs insider who once worked at Area 51. Steiger writes a true story surrounded by fiction and Patton writes a non-fiction story surrounded by fiction (myth). Each have delivered more than half the story if you compare the two. After reading both, I'd say to really understand the deep dark secrets that the government has hidden within the Nellis Range where Area 51 is just a small part, as there are other secret areas and facilities within the Nellis Range and Nevada Test Site, as described by both authors. If you don't think the government will go to any lengths to keep their secrets, then read about the government assassin, Crawfoot, and the professional torturer, Agabarr, not to mention the NSA's involvement, then you haven't read Alien Rapture which scared the hell out of me, thank you very much Mr. Steiger, or Patton's Dreamland. Patton seems to be like the real life protagonist in Alien Rapture, Joe Green, the truth seeker. However, Patton doesn't seem to realize that most of the classified aircraft have been moved out of Groom Air Base in Area 51 or Dreamland since the early 90s, and refers to the Aurora a an aircraft instead of an ongoing Top Secret aerospace development program by the USAF, CIA, NSA, and the NRO. I highly recommend both books as they each give you a different perspective.

Informative, Factual, and Entertaining 11. Februar 2000

Von John

Everything that you've ever wanted to know about Area 51. Well researched, objective, and full of interested facts but written in a light, entertaining style that made the book difficult to put down.