From the middle of nowhere, Canada, howdy!
In all inboxes this week, we were proud to feature guest writer Sheila Wille. What happens to knowledge when nobody bothers to preserve it? From a contraceptive flower erased by overuse to ancient machines, Newton’s private prophecies and a suspicious amount of dolphin mythology, this essay digs through some of history’s missing pages. If you haven’t already, be sure to get your eyes on A History of Dusty Holes: The Tantalizing Nature of the Not-There. You’ll want to find a cozy corner for this one.
Out to paid subscribers was Unknown Event, a look at the mysterious 1989 death of Cindy James. Was she stalked for seven years and ultimately murdered, or did she manufacture a campaign of terror that eventually killed her? Kennedy revisits an old obsession to examine what happens between fact and narrative.
Also out to our paid subscribers was High Spirits Volume 17. This week, Justin takes us through some of the lesser-known impacts of the Second Indochina War, commonly referred to as the Vietnam War. We cover spiritual warfare and listen to some audio clips that people may find disturbing. Listen with care.
What Justin Recommends
War and Shadows by Mai Lan Gustafsson
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt7zk2w
"The war created a population explosion in Vietnam’s otherworld. More than five million people were killed, many of them dying in action, others succumbing to diseases like malaria and typhoid fever picked up somewhere along the twelve thousand miles of paths and roads making up the Ho Chi Minh Trail…at least three hundred thousand are still missing: they are presumed dead, and because their bodies are missing they have been forced to join the rest of the con ma (angry ghost) in hell..."
This book, stemming from the late Dr. Gustafsson's dissertation, is one of those rare glimpses more deeply into the life of a researcher, but also into a world where political decisions have spiritual outcomes. Written in the 1990s, when Vietnam was undergoing a different kind of change, Gustafsson connects the war, oppression, Confucianism, spiritualism, and feminism together from a lens that is unique, terrifying and heartbreaking. An absolute must-read, and a rare find.
And that’s all she wrote.
For now.
We always come back. (Unlike some of our dads).
Love,
Your Bullshit Hunting Crew