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correspondence with Shedona Chevalier, in the book itself this snippet of information
is accorded more or less the same weight as all the rest of the poorly sourced material.
On the same page (183), Harold Chambers is also reported as saying that he had heard
that a syringe containing a morphine-like substance was found in the blast debris, and
that one investigator at the time believed Parsons’ drug use contributed to his
mishandling of explosives. No evidence is put forward to substantiate that Parsons was
addicted to heroin, the clear implication. Was Adam Parfrey also the source for this
piece of information? Surprisingly, Shedona Chevalier didn’t bring this item up with
him. One statement in Sex and Rockets that interests me is that Marjorie Cameron is
supposed to have had an (illegal) abortion to which Jack consented after becoming
pregnant during the Babalon Working (p 151), but knowing now that Parfrey was the
source for the home movies rumour I wonder what else he may have been the source
for. I’d like to know where Cameron mentioned this abortion, what exactly she said,
when she said it, and to who she said it and why—pretty standard questions that ensure
journalistic integrity. And in this, although it may seem like a lot of correspondence on
a single paragraph, Shedona has actually highlighted a genuine concern about the validity
of some of the information in the book. Let it be said, there is plenty of information in
Sex and Rockets that is quite correct, and I know because I have personally checked a
great deal of it, but unless readers have themselves studied the sources then how are
they to weigh what they read when stupid errors have been detected and the citation is
atrocious? It’s a pity this so undermines Carter’s actual work of research.
Some may wonder why mention was made in the book so boldly of the fact that
“John Carter” is a pseudonym, on the dustjacket: “Author John Carter is the pseudonym
of an individual who wishes to remain unknown.” The Feral House press release at the
time said it was because Mr Carter didn’t wish to jeopardize his job by letting his
employers know of his interest in the occult, but this doesn’t quite explain why they felt
it necessary to mention that John Carter was a pseudonym at all. The reason is that
another hardly-known book appeared before Sex and Rockets that was obviously its
precursor that was attributed to a different author. Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon
by Paul Rydeen was published in 1995 by Crash Collusion Publishing, Berkeley ca, an
80 page centre-stapled book that does not mention the home movies rumour, the
hypodermic syringe, or Cameron’s abortion. Sex and Rockets is a greatly expanded version
of this earlier book.
The correspondence between Chevalier and Parfrey can be found on babalon.net,
along with a collection of Jack Parsons’ writings (including his letters to Cameron) and
articles about him, and reviews of Babalon-associated books and movies. Parsons’ fbi
files obtained under the Freedom of Information Act can also be found there in pdf.
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