The Secret History of Bigfoot
Why do otherwise sane, reasonable people persist in believing some pretty nutty stuff? What do people actually mean when they claim to believe in Bigfoot, or ghosts, or the healing power of crystals, or that the election of Donald Trump is “a prophecy fulfilled.” Many things complicate the question of our beliefs. There are gradations of belief, lots of grey areas – we all harbour some odd beliefs and believe things that aren’t entirely logical or rational. We seem to have an inbuilt, desperate need to believe in the unbelievable, yes sometimes we fail to notice the inconsistencies in our own belief systems. And this is at least half the price of being human.
Bio:
John O’Connor is the author of The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster, which explores the obsessive world of Bigfoot believers. His articles and essays have appeared in newsstand publications such as The New York Times, GQ, Financial Times Magazine, Men’s Journal, and The Boston Globe, as well as the literary journals Open City, Post Road, Quarterly West, The Believer, Oxford American, and Creative Nonfiction’s True Story series. Born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan (the original home of Gibson guitars), he has taught nonfiction writing in the BFA program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and now teaches journalism at Boston College. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, children, and rabbit.
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