Erich Von Däniken re-visited

I have earlier mentioned that on "Interliber" book fair I bought two books from Erich Von Däniken and now I read them both, curious will I still like them the way I did back in the day.

Well,not exactly."Return to the stars" was published some 42 years ago and it shows - not in the ideas,which are still intriguing but because there were so many authors later following his path that now this important book sounds a bit old-fashioned. For example Graham Hancock covers very much the same territory but he is far more exciting writer and there is a whole new age/ conspiracy publishing industry now with some really interesting titles, if one looks in the bookshops there are shelves and shelves with the books that cover what Däniken said first. Or certainly not first,but he was the one who really got attention.

"Were the Gods the astronauts?" turned out to be collection of essays where different scientists discuss Däniken's theories. I was not aware of this but read it nevertheless. First of all, it is clear from the title that no matter what official legal science thought of him,they admired huge commercial success of his books so they gave this collection equally eye-catching title, basically following Däniken's way and certainly trying to sell the book with his gimmick. Predictably most of these scientists held the opinion that he don't know what he is talking about because he is just a curious and passionate amateur while "they" are educated scientists. Only occasional doctor of this or that would admit that there are no proves against Däniken's theories but still the impression is of a stiff,insulted community shocked that amateur would dare to contradict the official position held by well oiled and financed organizations. What really annoys me here is my gut feeling that world moves because of passionate amateurs going against official knowledge. No matter what official position on Erich Von Däniken is, he was the one who started the whole UFO snowball in publishing world and decades later other authors are following what he started.