Christmas Author Quotation
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 9th, 2007
Lauren Daley writes in the Standard-Times on December 9, 2007, of her recent interview with The Polar Express (1985) author Chris Van Allsburg, 58, of Providence, Rhode Island.
Daley mentions a good quotation in Van Allsburg’s 1986 Caldecott Medal-winning acceptance for the now classic Christmas book:
“A world that might have Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster is clearly superior to one that definitely does not.”
Certainly, a world with cryptozoology in it appears to be one that is more hopeful about new animals and species, the human imagination and various possibilities, than one that only reflects some kind of view of a dark, static, frozen orb.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Terry Pratchet summed this up well in his book ‘The Hog Father’
they needed to keep belief in the hogfather alive so the sun would come up in the morning
if he died then a flaming ball of gas would rise instead
as humans are defined by their stories and myths
That is certainly a revealing comment from the author of a really wonderful Christmas story. I have the movie based on the book (I bought it last year), and it is a wonderful movie. Great find, Loren, and keep up the good work.
Great quote.
As far as Van Allsburg goes, THE POLAR EXPRESS is great, but MY favorite Van Allsburg yarns are JUMANJI and ZATHURA.
The Robin Williams movie and the ZATHURA one were good, though.
The Yeti left a little bell under my Yule Tree last year. (At least I believe he did.) OK – it probably wasn’t a Yeti. It might have been my wife. And technically it was Season 1 of Star-Trek TOS – but it was cool anyway. I DEFINITELY do have a blurry picture of a bipedal hairy hominid sitting with my kids drinking a cup of coffee on Christmas morning.
i love this quote.