Thoughts in a File Marked X

There are many forms of communication. Animals are said to communicate using signals, of which there is a wide variety, the common types being: pheromones, auditory, visual, and tactile cues. (cf. KhanAcademy ) According to an article in the May, 2014 edition of Scientific American , "we have yet to find direct evidence of [pheromones] in humans." That said, there can be no doubt that human beings employ auditory, visual and tactile forms of communication. A hug helps to make one feel loved, a smile cheers one up, and how welcome it is to hear the voice of another when we feel alone? Or, as the great Les Dawson quipped, "I haven't spoken to my mother-in-law for two years. We haven't quarreled. I just don't like to interrupt her." For all the technological wonders of this information age, can there ever be any greater achievement than the acquiring of language? Human language: spoken with so many different tongues, seemingly infinitely adaptable and...

Scully is an enigma. Maybe, as a woman in a man's world, she can be nothing else but perplexing. Certainly, as a character, she is far more complex than her partner. Where Mulder is all surface, Scully is full of contradiction and depth.  First and foremost, we know Scully as a sceptic, assigned to assist Mulder only so she could "debunk" the X Files. She is a medical doctor, with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the vast field of medicine. In the early series, whatever phenomena Mulder encountered, Scully had a scientific term by which to explain it. And yet, she wears a gold cross on a chain, the very pendant Mrs. Scully, just before the end of ' Ascension ', gives to Mulder so that he can return it to her daughter  when  he finds her (cf. Season Two: Episode 5 ' Ascension '). It is something Mulder admits never having considered; "if she was such a sceptic, why did she wear that?" To which Mrs Scully replies, "I gave it to her on h...

Mulder is a lost soul. He is forever in search of that which will give meaning to his life, enable him to understand all that he has experienced and holds important. He catches glimpses of it often enough, sometimes indisputedly so. But always he is left without that tangible proof that would prove conclusively to the world that he has been right all along. Mulder's chasing around after shadows is nothing less than the modern condition. For a culture that has dispensed with the myths of antiquity, there can be nothing but conspiracy theories and wild goose chases. Always there is enough ambiguity for those who are so-minded to see Ancient Aliens lurking around every corner; never is there tangible, physical evidence. Despite the desperation that simmers just below Mulder's surface, in actual fact, the finding of incontrovertible evidence would be destructive to his own sense of self and what he sees as his position and purpose in the world. Look at his reaction to the cl...

Human beings build societies. It is something we are actually pretty good at. Obviously, this is a handy survival tool, at a basic level being merely a question of safety and numbers. In early human history, such societies would have been small, little more than family affairs. Though human nature has probably always been duplicitous, it is not hard to imagine a higher degree of trust in these societies, directly proportional to the higher levels of immanent danger. Human history moved on and our societies grew bigger and far more complex. Where once each member would have known each other- strengths, weaknesses and, not least important, trustworthiness - now, the individual, evolutionarily designed for small, bonded communities, must negotiate vast, internecine conglomerations. Of course, to make sense of such a wilderness of connections and interrelationships, human beings continue to construct smaller, more manageable, societies within the belly of the whale that is the great ...

Ed Funsch - now there's a name to conjure with. Ed is one of life's victims, the little man that fate plays with for its own amusement.  Peremptorily fired from his job as "low man on the pole", the closest he comes to being shown an act of generosity is when he is told, " Look, why don't you stay on till the end of the week? '  The brutality of this firing should not go unnoticed. It comes with no warning, no procedure is followed, no official reason provided.  The only explanation Ed is given is his supervisor telling him, " You know the story. Cutbacks and seniority and ... you're low man on the pole. " (cf. insidethex.co.uk ) The situation captures perfectly what Mark Ames describes as " the bland, easily recognizable nastiness of contemporary corporate America ", in his book ' Going Postal '. For those familiar with mass shootings in the United States, the title will be clear, for others it will be clarified ...

A scene so common in America today: a lone individual, armed to the teeth with everything from a handgun, through hunter's rifle to AK47 - which he probably bought at his local Walmart - positions himself - for such individuals are invariably male - ready to shoot anybody who passes before his sights. On August 1st, 1966, Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower of the University of Texas and proceeded to shoot 43 complete strangers. Thirteen of these unfortunate passers-by died.  As is so often the case in such mass killings, Whitman began with the murders of his wife and mother before heading off to kill strangers. It may be that Whitman set a trend which, unfortunately, over fifty years later, shows no inclination to fade the way of most insanely-popular-for-a-moment-only-to-disappear-without-trace crazes.  So what is it about shooting one's fellow Americans that keeps it a viable option for the disgruntled?  While it should acknowledges that such mass shoot...

Is there any more frightening thought than something alien invading the body? We objectify cancer, the great John Wayne famously calling it the "Big C". But cancer is not an invader, not a parasite using the internal organs for food or incubation. Cancer occurs for several reasons - inherited or an error in cell division or as a result of damage to the DNA from environmental factors. Environmental factors can be created by the advance of science, whether deliberately or as the aftermath of some man-made disaster. The people of Flint, Michigan have first-hand experience of this. As do those Russians unfortunate to be living around Chernobyl in 1986. When Mulder is sent to investigate the finding of a decomposing corpse, he initially believes it to be another 'shit' job (the body is found in the New Jersey sewers); all part of the punishment meted out after the closure of the X Files. The complexity of the X Files timeline is as much due to its cancerous growth on...

Imagine the mixed, even confused, feelings of the average American in 1969. On July 20th , Neil Armstrong took his giant leap of a small step onto the surface of the moon in fulfillment of President Kennedy's 1962 dream. In seven short years the USA had achieved the seemingly impossible. How it must have seemed as if anything were possible. Or it would have if not for the war in Vietnam, which reached its peak as far as American involvement was concerned, that same year. At the same time as new worlds were being explored and new futures were being made possible, America found itself embroiled in one of the most futile, pointless and little understood wars in its history. Also in 1969: the Stonewall riots, Chappaquiddick and Charles Manson. At the very moment when America showed the world that it probably could lead the world to a brighter future, it came apart at the seams. But, America is, after all, built on a dream. It is no accident that "I have a dream" is one ...