Thoughts in a File Marked X

"2Shy  would lose very little outside that scene if Jenny were removed, and the story would arguably be streamlined." (cf. The m0vie blog ) Jenny is a pretty young girl, the daughter of the serial killer's landlady. She is well aware of her mother's courting of Incanto, ostensibly as a means of having her poetry read by someone in the publishing industry - Incanto is a "translator of Italian literature", but what else could he be with a name like Virgil Incanto? It's a very clever name. Vergil was the poet who wrote the Roman epic, the " Aeneid ". It was a deliberate policy of Rome to appropriate Greek culture as a means of giving their own a sense of gravitas. They took the Greek pantheon of gods and simply renamed then, so Zeus became Jupiter, Poseidon became Neptune, etc. But Rome had no epic, so Vergil 'translated' Homer , taking the ' Iliad' and ' Odyssey ' as models, he had Aeneas, a survivor of the Trojan W...

Why does a woman, who admits her husband is very likely capable of returning from the dead, lie to his face right before his execution? If his belief is so strong she could feel the power through the glass, why wouldn't she realize this is a man who is likely capable of seeing through a lie? What is the purpose of the lie? Her husband has been behind bars for eleven years and his execution is immanent. It can't possibly be false comfort - Neech Manley does't seem the kind of man who needs comforting. He faces what's coming like, well, like a man. So, what does Daniele Manley hope to achieve with this lie? It would be normal for her to be seek solace for her own pain but, it appears, that is waiting at home in the form of Parmelli, the prison guard who arrived six months ago. With only three personal visiting days in the last eleven years, a woman's gonna want some loving. It becomes obvious that Daniele is scared of her husband. Her lie was a last attempt to di...

Like all good Messiahs, Mulder died and returned on the third day. From the other realm in which he reposed, he sends Scully a metaphysical text message, claiming they are now bound together "in dangerous purpose".  Of course, because this is Scully and Mulder, the danger is more real for those unfortunate to be close. Mulder has already lost a sister; in this three-part arc he loses his father and Scully loses her sister. There is always the nagging feeling that Mulder is willing sacrifice others in his pursuit of the 'Truth'. Scully feels the tragedy in a way alien to Mulder. Mulder is the flawed Messiah, the one who never quite grasps the significance of his own purpose. I've said before that only together do this pair form a whole. This is not accurate. Scully is fully human. Mulder is like Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen, he needs constant reminding of the importance of human life. This is why he searches for his truth among mutants, monsters and modern myt...

Nobody bearing the name Oswald, in the conspiracy-driven world of the X Files, is going to be anything but a destroyer of all that America holds dear. It might appear that, after the ‘ Anasazi ’, ‘ The Blessing Way ’ and ‘ Paperclip ’ arc, that things are reverting to normal. The two best X Files review sites on the Internet have it down as either “just a well-done, garden variety episode of a show that could do so much more than that” or "a rather small episode", which "takes a great deal of pride in how small it is.” (cf. A.V. Club and The m0vie blog , respectively). If you watch this episode immediately after the above mentioned three-parter, there is no escaping the feeling of “What? After war-criminal-nazi-scientists and alien conspirators and sister and father dying, this week it’s, what, a boy barbequeing cows? Tell me, this is not happening !" Well, it is happening - and it’s not. It is happening because D.P.O. is set in small town America and is a...

"OK this is my penance for having got pregnant when they had invested so much in the show and me." (cf. ' Gillian Anderson bares all ) "They would have loved to have punished me but they realised there was steam picking up… I would have been bloody p---ed if I had been them and had cast a girl, against my better judgement, who got pregnant after the first season." (cf. ' Gillian Anderson bares all Gillian Anderson was well aware she wasn't everyone's first pick for the role of Dana Scully. Clearly, the name ' Anderson ' was fated, but the executives of Fox wanted it to be Pamela rather than Gillian. She's right though. Almost the whole of Season Two can be seen as 'them' being p---ed at Anderson. After getting to play the hero in the Season opener, ' Little Green Men ', Scully is then abducted in ' Duane Barry ', experimented on in ' Ascension ', Mulder deals with his loneliness by having a fling with ...

The science had been done, the results recorded. It remained only to be seen who would benefit: the Russians or the Americans! The means by which the knowledge was gained might be of some concern, but neither side were going to undo the learning. Just imagine that scene in Paperclip , when the Syndicate meet at 46th Street, New York, at 7:09 am: 1st Elder/President: This is a serious mistake. Eleven million innocent people have died. 2nd Elder/Vice-President: Can this be traced? This is in no way meant to be flippant on such a serious matter. But how else do we think about the conversations that must have taken place, the decisions made that brought over 1500 German scientists to the United States after World War II? How could the budding superpower build its future on the bodies of so many dead? It’s difficult sometimes to understand the machinations of the mighty, until you realise they are no more human than ordinary folk! It is one of the great insights of Papercli...

History is the written form of what we choose to remember. Memory is the personal form of what we perceive. Oral tradition has no greater claim to truth than does history. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it might be a rabbit.   "During the Easter period, people are more likely to see a rabbit first but in October, seeing the duck first is more common." (cf. The Independent ) Perception isn't about seeing, even if seeing is believing. Consider Mulder's perception. As he lies at the mercy of the holy ones, they appear to him as Deep Throat and his father. Could there be two less likely holy ones? In truth, we perceive only what we are able to conceptualise. Think of any myth, legend or fantasy and you will find them peopled with variations of humans and animals well known to all: Medusa is but a woman with snakes for hair; the Minotaur is but half man and half bull. Maybe the most valiant attempt to conceptualise a creature unknown...

The Anasazi act as a salve on the American conscience. The Ancient Ones provide a way to talk about the disappearance of a culture without having to admit culpability. Kind of like an Englishman talking about the railways in India as a way of deflecting the past. The past will not just go away because we refuse to look at it. Many years ago, when I was much younger, back in the late 80s, I was in Tanzania . Hadn't been there long when we went to visit a village. I was with four others: two from Poland, one Vietnamese, one Australian and me. An equal number of young guys from the village started asking where we were from; the usual introductory routine. They'd never heard of Poland , couldn't say Vietnam , and were very interested in Australia . Then it was my turn. I'd deliberately hung back. Ever had one of those moments when you know what's coming next? Eventually, when asked, I said England. (Curiously, England isn't listed in the CIA 's World Fact...

Chaco: No. He was no good, Doris. He had no values. He didn't fit in here. (' Our Town ') Thinking back to the textual view of a person, we can see three sources of influence that create pressure and confusion. As texts produced by others, there is the pressure to conform to what was originally intended for us. The author (our parents) hold sway over our formation and inculcate us with values and expectations that will sometimes align with and sometimes conflict with who we later become. Upon our being set free, to be buffeted by a free play of interactions, there is added the pressure to tell the story others want to hear, to conform to society's needs and values. Amidst this storm which tosses us first one way and then another, we must find a way to tell the story that we read in ourselves. These are the choices we face, this is the balance we must strike. Tell the story our author intended, provide the meaning that our readers seek, while producing our ow...

We live in a world of light. So much light is there that NASA and others find out of the way spots, like the top of Mauna Kea , for their telescopes. They must rise above the light of this world to catch the light from others. Always afraid of the dark, we live in the light. It is the very symbol of who we are. God's act of creation began with the proclamation: "Let there be light." (cf. Gn. 1:3 ) Prometheus, the god who acquainted humanity "with architecture, astronomy, mathematics, the art of writing, the treatment of domestic animals, navigation, [and] medicine," was also the giver of fire, a source of light. If we find God, we have seen the light. (cf. theoi.com ) The period which gave birth to the modern world is known as the ' Enlightenment '. Even as the rational beings that we are, having a good idea is akin to finding God for, at that moment too, we see the light, as the bulb burns brightly above our heads. Interestingly, he who rebell...

Prison is a test of our humanity. First, ask yourselves, why do prisons exist? Why do we have these monoliths of incarceration standing gauntly in our midst? Are we reminded to be good boys and girls as we walk past them, constantly reminded of what awaits if our behaviour deviates from the social norm? Do we feel a sense of justice being done, that the bad guys have lost the freedom to walk down the street just outside their barred windows because of their misdeeds? Or injustice at their being fed three times a day and housed at the tax payers expense after what they have done? Prisons serve several functions:   retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. (cf. Stop the Crime ) Incapacitation: It is necessary that the doers of wrong be taken out of society - that they are prevented from further acts of harm and we are protected from them. If, for no other reasons, prisons are necessary. Retribution, vengeance, the need to punish those who have wronged. ...

All great empires fall. It is one of the unmistakable lessons of history. Even the mighty Egypt, after 3000 years of developing civilization, fell - first to Alexander the Great in 332 B.C., then, ultimately, to the Romans in 31 B.C. Maybe it was just a case of, for much of its history, there just wasn't another civilization equal to the Egyptians - but that was never going to last. Maybe, having shown what was possible, the Egyptians sowed the seeds of their own downfall, it being inevitable that someone would build on and develop their basic idea. And how does any beta prove its worth if not by taking down the alpha? America did the very same thing when it defeated the British in the War of Independence. It is one of the ways all empires fall. The other, the one that the United States appears to be suffering presently, is decay. Egypt was able to survive Akhenaton's attempt at undoing; the United States will, almost assuredly survive, to some extent, its current Presi...

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." ( Mt. 7:1 ) A noble injunction, indeed. Unfortunately, totally impossible to adhere to. Almost as pointless as "You shall not kill." ( Ex. 20:13 ) The most blood-thirsty species ever to walk the face of the earth is to be stopped by four little words? Like a T-Rex on crack, we will! We impose such injunctions on ourselves precisely because we are fully aware of our inability to live up to them. Mind you, difficult to live up to something we can't even conceptualise. Not kill? And we're being told this in a book steeped in bloodshed, by a God who sanctions and orders the killing of innocents? There is room to quibble over whether we are actually being told not to kill per se or not to commit murder, but what's the difference really? To kill another human being is quite clearly justified under certain circumstances, so obvious they need no discussion here. To murder another human being is just as clearly a s...

An object falls from the sky. How to respond? Obviously, it is an evil god, to be worshipped "by staying away." Of course, it is a meteorite, easily explained by modern scientific methods. Two world views - the sacred and the profane. One is a story to tell around the camp fire - or in a warm bar - over a mug of ale. The other, a question in need of an answer and a paper in need of publication in a respectable scientific journal, to be shelved in a forgotten corner of the library, gathering dust as it is read by no one. The locals are not American and will not be persuaded or bought; too superstitious to want anything to do with disturbing an evil god. Fortunately, not all the Norsemen are Norwegian. One was "born and raised in Pensacola" and will go as soon as a price is agreed. All religious faith, we are told, is but the living of life by superstition . There is no desire in the Norsemen to discover what it really is that fell from the sky. They...

For the second time this season, we have a reference to Norse mythology. In episode 10, the leader of the ' Red Museum ' went by the name Odin , a somewhat curious choice of name for the leader of a community of vegetarians. Now, nine episodes later, in ' Død Kalm ', which takes place largely on board an American destroyer escort, adrift in the Norwegian Sea, Scully makes a note in her journal that she has found a "children's book of Norse legends ". As we, the audience, never see the book, we cannot comment on what she finds therein or on its title. Is it actually called a book of legends, or is that just Scully's interpretation of the contents? If the former, then we must put it down to some marketing ploy by the publishers; if the latter, then Scully shows her lack of knowledge regarding the difference between myth and legend. Being an account of the end of the world, what Scully is able to make out from the pictures in the book cannot be lege...

The fears are understandable. Millions of dollars are invested and it is natural to want to do all that can be done to ensure a profitable return. If similar amounts have been invested in similar projects and been demonstrably successful, it's only reasonable to expect others to follow the formula, seeking equal success for their own investments. Pamela Anderson , then, would seem like a no-brainer of a choice. Well, except for a couple of points. The nature of the role demands a certain authenticity; the audience must gaze upon this character and find her believable - real, even. And there is something patently unreal about Pamela Anderson! So, despite the power of the male gaze, Gillian Anderson became Dana Scully . It just goes to show that even ex-surfer dudes can think with the appropriate part of their anatomy occasionally. One would have to be either brave or stupid to argue with Laura Mulvey's canonisation of the 'male gaze' in her 1975 essay ...