Editing 1947 flying disc craze (section)

==Overview==
{{Quote box
|quote=If people saw [[Chimera (mythology)|chimaeras]] back in the days when Greek mythology was being born, it should not be wondered at that people are seeing supersonic discs in this [[Flash Gordon]] era.
|source=Denver Post (July 3, 1947)
|width=30%
}}
In late June 1947, press in the United States began covering reports of flying discs.<ref name="auto51">Bloecher p.21</ref><ref name="UnivIowa"/>  Reports increased, with a sharp rise on July 4; over the course of the next five days, there were widespread reports throughout the entirety of the United States.  Reports crested on July 7, gradually diminishing over the subsequent week, amid numerous hoaxes, pranks, and mistaken identifications.<ref name="bloecher"/>

The flying saucer craze of 1947 was thoroughly and widely covered in media nationwide, with some contemporary observers interpreting the disc sightings as 'modern folklore'.<ref name="G_Arnold"/>  On July 3, midway through the craze, the Denver Post opined: "Even before Plato, scholars were perplexed by what is real and what isn't...Finally Descartes came along with the theory that 'whatever I apprehend clearly and distinctly is true' and on the basis of such authority it seems unimportant whether people actually saw the discs or only thought they did...If people saw chimaeras back in the days when Greek mythology was being born, it should not be wondered at that people are seeing supersonic discs in this Flash Gordon era."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/624924963/|title=3 Jul 1947, 14 - Ventura County Star at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

In 2020, Religious Studies professor David J. Halpern similarly argued "UFOs are a myth {{ndash}} but myths are real."<ref name="auto20">{{Cite book|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781503612129/html|title=Intimate Alien|first=David J.|last=Halperin|date=March 24, 2020|publisher=Stanford University Press|via=www.degruyter.com|doi=10.1515/9781503612129|isbn=9781503612129 |s2cid=240572019 }}</ref>  [[Howard Henry Peckham|Another scholar]] opined: "The 'flying saucers' may have been a hoax, imagination, illusion, mirages, phantoms of preposterous eyesight, et al, yet they caused a phenomenon reverberations of which were heard around the world."<ref name="HHP"/>

The 1947 craze has long been of interest to scholars of [[folklore studies]].<ref name="HHP">{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/27650026|title=Flying Saucers as Folklore|author=Peckham, Howard H.|year=1950|journal=Hoosier Folklore|volume=9|issue=4|pages=103–107|jstor=27650026 |via=JSTOR}}</ref>  Halpern argues that "The power and fascination of the UFO has nothing to do with space travel or life on other planets. It's about us, our longings and terrors".<ref name="auto20"/>  [[Roland Barthes]], a 'founding father' of cultural studies, recalled "The mystery of flying saucers was at first entirely terrestrial: we suspected that the saucers came from the Soviet netherworld, from this world as devoid of clear intentions as another planet."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230361362_12|title=Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century|first=Pierre|last=Lagrange|editor-first=Alexander C. T.|editor-last=Geppert|date=April 29, 2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|pages=224–244|via=Springer Link|doi=10.1057/9780230361362_12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W0VYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA245|title=Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century|first=Alexander C. T.|last=Geppert|date=April 25, 2018|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781349953394 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Folklorist Gordon Arnold similarly writes: "Many aspects of the great flying saucer wave raise questions about human behavior and America's social, cultural, and political inclinations".<ref name="G_Arnold">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8GBVEAAAQBAJ|title=Flying Saucers Over America: The UFO Craze of 1947|first=Gordon|last=Arnold|date=December 17, 2021|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476646527 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

[[Ted Bloecher]] argued that the 1947 craze is "the most fascinating of any to examine because of its unique position at the very beginning" of [[flying saucer]] folklore.  Writes Bloecher: "There were no 'attitudes' about UFOs in June 1947. There were no preconceptions, no misconceptions, no 'policies' by either press or public, or by any official agencies".<ref name="bloecher">{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kBJDAAAAIAAJ|title=Report on the UFO Wave of 1947|first=Ted|last=Bloecher|date=May 19, 1967|via=Google Books}}</ref> Folklorist [[Howard Henry Peckham]] similarly argued that "students of folklore have had a rare opportunity to witness the birth and development of a modern myth -- the 'flying saucers'".<ref name="HHP"/>