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DAGGYLAND

Joseph D'Agnese 12/2/19 Joseph D'Agnese 12/2/19

That Time I was 15 and Wrote a Novel

Joseph D'Agnese 1/11/13 Joseph D'Agnese 1/11/13

The Strange Work of Edmund Shaftesbury

When I was kid, my father collected a lot of strange books pertaining to psychic phenomena and the occult. Dad never went to college, so I think these books were his path to self-education. If only they weren’t so weird.

The author he crowed about for years was a guy named Edmund Shaftesbury, who wrote books about “magnetism,” which meant anything from charm to charisma to, yes, the power to control minds.

Aiiieeeee!

I don’t know how much my father bought into this, but for a while there in the early 20th Century, Shaftesbury had a lot of takers. The author’s name was actually a pseudonym for a man named Webster Edgerly who published tons of these books. He and they are not remembered well, and deservedly so.

Here’s why…

Joseph D'Agnese 11/6/12 Joseph D'Agnese 11/6/12

Considering the Flitcraft Parable

Natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy make me crazy. Watching people line up again for food, water, gasoline, and clothing practically convinces me that I should run out and start hoarding provisions in a bunker. They really do. I was convinced on Tuesday that I should call a tree service and have them remove every single tree in our yard — so that none of them would ever destroy my house.

I know I’m an insecure guy. I know that’s part of my make-up. What if this editor doesn’t like my story? What if they do? (They must not be any good!) And on and on.

But the recent conversation with my dad — who announced after his recent brush with electrical failure during Hurricane Sandy — that he and mom were moving to California got me thinking of the Flitcraft Parable…