<HTML>I started writing this as a response to John Wall in the BSC thread, but it seemed to take on a life of its own. John had just mentioned the fact that GH's work doesn't hold up under "close scrutiny"...
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You bring up a fascinating concept that has been gelling in my mind for some weeks now.
GH's theory stands up PERFECTLY well under HOLISTIC scrutiny. As a matter of fact, it relies on a "big picture" to maintain its integrity.
In the investment banking community, however, they use a method for calculating the value of a business called a "sum of the parts model"... and this is where GH's theories fall apart. When you value the parts individually and in detail, they tend to crumble and become worthless to his theory, as a whole. (Like the Piri Reis map, for example).
Yet, as a superficial explanation for unrelated phenomena, we, as humans, are quick to jump on a "big picture" explanation... it makes life easier.
And this may be the rootsource of his popularity. People would LOVE to understand the past... and do it all in one fell swoop.
<b>ATLANTIS<b/>
Ooooooo........
So, we can look at ANY ancient site and understand that they ALL just came form the Atlanteans... and we don't have to learn anything else or understand anything else or worry about carbon dating or pottery styles or construction technology or languages.
And the best part?
Atlanteans appear to have been, basically, Europeans. Wow. What a great stroke of luck that this book was written in Europe, and not South America... or China... or Africa. They probably wouldn't have been interested in how ANOTHER people had been the forefathers of everybody's intelligence and technology. Sure does help book sales, now doesn't it?
I don't think Graham INTENTIONALLY did this, and I'm not suggesting anything malicious or rastist by it... but the concept sprung from Europe, so by de facto, it is centered there. Based on Yonaguni, there will be Japanese Grahamo Hankioto's who will write of the Asian Atlantis, and how IT was the source of all the world's technology, I'm sure.
And, by the same human desire for simplicity in understanding, they will sell well in Asia.
You see, understanding LC theory doesn't require a PhD in archeology or chemistry or history... just a leap of faith based on similar "findings" around the planet.
So long as you ignore the other 99% (as you say) of the evidence which fairly clearly shows that no such thing happened.
BUT...
If you think of Graham as the "commercial" for ancient history... the teaser... the advertisement with a cleverly worded disclaimer ("I am not a scientist... I am an author")... then his work has done ENORMOUS good. It has brought people from all over the world together to observe, discuss, and discover new theories... new technologies... and new understandings of the ancient peoples of this planet. And he's done so in an ENORMOUSLY engaging fashion that FORCES people to learn MUCH more than he has ever conveyed in his book.
Seriously... would ANY of us have found each other if it were NOT for the Graham Hancock Message Board?
Ma'at wouldn't exist, because IAB would not have existed.
IAB would not have existed, because he never had a GH to get kicked off of. (pardon the grammar).
Kat would never have known Mikey Brass. John Wall would never have met Claire. (now Claire knows who to blame...lol)
And my first draft would have been rejected by a publisher who already had too many books on Egypt in his portfolio, so didn't want to take on any more. .. and I might have dropped the whole thing there.
No, we owe a LOT to Graham and his Marketing Machine. He opens the door to amateur historians... and generates more interest in the subject than ANY peer reviewed paper has EVER done in the history of the planet.
So, my hat is off to Graham Hancock. May his theories continue to hold up under holistic scrutiny, and may he add to them in ways that we can only imagine...
Underworld... Earth's final frontier.
Can you IMAGINE what this book could do for the university budgets regarding marine archeology? More kids will be growing up and DEMANDING that they be allowed to make Marine Archeology their major. Departments will be increased in size.. and budget. Digs will increase. Knowledge will increase.
It may be a little Machiavellian of me, but I kinda think, in this case, that the ends really do justify the means.
Yours,
Anthony</HTML>
