“You only see a shadow. That’s the only way you know it’s there, by the shadow on the ground.”

so simple and sensitive in its storytelling, so intricate and artful in its thinking. effective as a travelogue to an extent I've never seen - reading this feels like being on a trip and talking to UFO watchers yourself, every new idea fitting in perfectly, revealing a little more of the hidden pattern. also insightful American ethnography, clearly articulating ideas at which not much other writing I've seen has been able to take more than wide potshots. very very good