Watching Strange Angel, about Jack Parsons, the rocketry pioneer who helped found JPL and was also into weird Alesteir Crowley magic, Scientology/L. Ron Hubbard.
The rocketry part is fun, but the gonzo shit is surprisingly tedious.
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Sometimes I think people are desperate for Weird Causation™
Other things being equal, they’ll read more into the story of a pioneer who also happened to be into colorfully weird shit than an equally impactful one who happens to be drab and boring in other ways
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It's not just that. Stories that include diverse elements will have a larger draw due to tapping into diverse audiences. Filmmakers and authors take advantage of this. It also gives them more contrasting elements to build counterpoint within their narrative.
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