by Rigorous Intuition » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:09 pm
<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The latest ultra-niche bookstore</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>by Micah Toub<br><br>October 30, 2006<br><br>Two months ago, when Conspiracy Culture opened its doors near Queen Street and Roncesvalles Avenue in Toronto, readers who gravitate toward books about the occult, the CIA’s secret mind-control experiments, and the JFK assassination found a new place to browse.<br><br>Owners Patrick Whyte and his partner, Kadina Yu, have given themselves the very specific mandate to carry only non-fiction books and DVDs of a “conspiratorial nature.” As Whyte explains, however, the topics that fit into this niche are quite broad. “We use ‘conspiracy’ as an umbrella term for subject matter that is controversial or of a conspiratorial nature, stuff that’s mysterious, paranormal, that isn’t accepted by the mainstream or promoted in the news media,” he says. Category labels above the shelves include “Secret Societies,” “Aliens and UFOs,” and “War and Terrorism,” and the books that line them range from the popular anthology Everything You Know Is Wrong, published by Disinformation, to the more obscure Giza Power Plant by Christopher Dunn, a book covering speculation that ancient Egyptians possessed advanced technologies.<br><br>Whyte’s interest in these subject matters was born when he was in hospital for a hernia surgery as a teenager. An elderly man in the bed next to him, who had gone through the same surgery, was up and about the next day, while Whyte was still in bed suffering. The man explained to him that he performed Reiki – a healing touch therapy – on himself. “I became totally turned on to alternative science and healing,” Whyte recalls. “That got me interested in Egyptian stuff – the pyramids, the sphinx, lost science, and supressed technology.” After 9/11, Whyte’s interests grew to include politics and current events, and soon he was on his computer until 3 a.m. researching conspiracy theories. When Yu suggested last December that he open up a store where he could turn his hobby into profit, he decided to go for it.<br><br>So far, traffic in the store has been slow, but Whyte is hoping that in-store events and a future media launch will start drawing people. On Nov. 22 – the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy – Conspiracy Culture will present a lecture by Bob Ryan, a Toronto JFK researcher who has interviewed people such as Marina Oswald and witnesses of the assassination. Topics will range from the usual question of whether Oswald acted alone to the more far-out theories that Jackie Onassis or the Cuban government were involved.<br><br>While Whyte admits that some of the ideas posed in the books he carries are likely to elicit some eye-rolling, he’s happy to be promoting “a variety of ideas and opinions that are available, so people can stop regurgitating everything they hear on TV.”<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.quillandquire.com/news/article.cfm?article_id=7449">www.quillandquire.com/</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://toronto.nowtoronto.com/buyselltrade/classifieds/ViewAd?oid=oid%3A262611&name=miscellaneous">hours</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->:<br><br>mon - thurs 12:12pm - 7:07pm<br>fri 12:12pm - 9:11pm<br>sat 11:11am - 9:11pm<br>sun 12:12pm - 5:55pm<br><br>1696 queen st west, m6r 1b3 <br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
