Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science by Jeff Meldrum
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Book Reviews of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science
Book Review: FAR TOO WORDY
Summary: 4 Stars
I just want to warn people. This is a beautiful book, and a steal at the current price of $10.85 + S&H. It took me over a month to read it (often at the computer, with assistance from dictionary.com) because I don't believe in speed reading, and I'm intrigued by this subject.
I read every word, as there's no way a reader can tell in advance what's safe to skip in a scientific tome. But the author should have a vague idea!
If you read this book conscientiously and thoroughly, you will not only know nearly all there is to know about Sasquatch, and his real or imagined existence. You will also know everything Dr. Meldrum ever thought about everything even TANGENTIALLY related to anything resembling or NOT resembling Sasquatch (e.g. page after page on bears, specifically because they are UNsasquatchish).
Honestly, almost every paragraph is bloated, and often an entire paragraph could and should be expunged. It sometimes seems that Meldrum equates vocabulary with actual evidence, as in: "If you don't know as many big words as I do, why then you'd just better accept it: Bigfoot exists!"
Take the first paragraph in the Introduction as an example. The vocabulary isn't obnoxiously garrulous as yet, but you could delete sentences 7 though 12, plus 14, change the order of the remaining 7 sentences, and wind up with a much more coherent read with the meaning intact. Surely a long dissertation on exactly WHY SOMEBODY ELSE(!) didn't think a particular set of tracks were bear tracks, is inappropriate in the Introduction.
A good editor could have made the text half as long, twice as compelling, and five times more enjoyable. (Sorry, Doctor.)
Book Review: A Good Argument for the Advocates
Summary: 4 Stars
Dr. Meldrum makes an excellent case for the existence of Bigfoot. Although I ultimately disagree with his conclusions, he presents his facts in a straightforward manner, without hype or exaggeration. His basic argument is that there is too much evidence, with too much detail, for it to all be fake. And only one piece of it needs to be genuine in order for the animal to exist. Dr. Meldrum is the only person I'm aware of that is currently using scientific methodology to investigate the mystery of Bigfoot, and his book relates that science in a well-constructed manner. You will get a little glassy-eyed reading endlessly about dermal ridges, mid-tarsal breaks and the like, but overall it's a good read. Read this book together with "Bigfoot Exposed" by Dr. David Daegling and you'll have the closest thing to an academic debate on the subject as you can get. Dr. Daegling takes the opposing point of view, and I felt that his argument was the most persuasive. After all, we still don't have a body, DNA, or even a tooth or two.
Dr. Meldrum has put together a very readable, entertaining book on an extremely controversial subject. Anyone who already believes in Bigfoot will find lots in here to like, and those that don't will find an interesting counterpoint to their opinions.
Book Review: You can see all of this on TV
Summary: 4 Stars
Just saw the program Sasquatch: Legend meets Science on the Discovery channel where all of this is reviewed. Didn't realize this was the companion book to a TV special. Maybe it's the other way around and the book came first--The TV program is all stretched out between commercials but you get to see some neat footage and close-ups of that footage. Pretty convincing about the Patterson sighting showing a ruptured muscle bulging though the hair on the creature's leg causing a gait abnormality.
There's no faking that 30 years ago!
Book Review: More than meets the ear
Summary: 3 Stars
I too have a story,
loud howls,inthe distance,
hair raising screams,
exit human.
The book is OK,
most are half old crap,
same old stories,
same agendas.
I did make sure my door was locked for awhile,
like it would stop one,like NOT.
I'm still going into the North California,
temperate rainforest,
see if I can get one down for coffee and doughnuts,
Book Review: Should be Titled: Everything I Learned from Grover Krantz
Summary: 2 Stars
Disappointed.
That's the only word to describe how I felt after reading through this rehash of Grover Krantz's earlier, more analytical work. The standard stories and bits of trivia are re-redescribed again, so we get to hear about the Patterson film, and Paul Freeman's casts, and all that. But to be fair, there's some new stuff too. Sadly.
First off, there's no "science" to be found. Science involves multiple working hypotheses. Meldrum employs one. Bigfoot is real and the source of his evidence and if you disagree, you're biased, closed-minded, and an overall lazy lout. In fact, his constant lecturing about how scientists are such a narrow-minded group of losers gets very old very fast. Clearly, Meldrum's ego is even larger than the mighty apeman he so fervently wishes was lurking in the woods.
Next, we have problems with known hoakers like Ivan Marx and Paul Freeman providing the bulk of his sample of data. HUH?! If he was really interested in a hard, scientific look at the evidence, he would throw all their evidence out. But then he would have next to nothing.
A cast that's obviously that of a resting elk is touted as being from a Bigfoot rolling in mud. An elk's buttprint is promoted as being from a female Bigfoot. Some guy running on a hillside half a mile away? Why...that's GOTTA be Bigfoot! Bear tracks are interpreted as being from Bigfoot. Strange sounds? Yep...Bigfoot. Rocks tossed at a tent? That's Bigfoot. Food stolen from your backpack on a camping trip? Oh, you better believe that's Bigfoot!!! In fact, Meldrum seems to never seek any explanation for ANYTHING other than "Bigfoot." In that way, he's very similar to religious zealots who see Jesus and the Virgin Mary in every piece of toast and every cloud formation. He would have MUCH better credibility if he would expose some of the known hoaxes and giver serious consideration to alternate (more likely) explanations.
Notably absent are several of his previously televised, smug assertions that the "Snow Walker" video is real (it wasn't), and that the "Redwoods video" is real (it wasn't). Clearly, Meldrum has a real problem with being proven wrong.
If you LOVE Bigfoot and can get this book at half the publishers price, well, go ahead. If you're expecting a truly "scientific" treatment, you'll be sorely disappointed. It's really just more sci-fi masquerading as science.