Skinner's red anorak
What wouldn't you do for a boss like Walter Skinner?
He's read the book and can quote it chapter and verse and still be there to catch your back when you need him.
He's an army man who lives by the rules of which Mulder is blissfully unaware. When Skinner acts he does so knowing full well what it is that he is doing. Skinner is strong and a man, he takes on X in a lift in the belief that they are equals. And they are. He just hasn't lost his humanity enough to win that particular battle.
This is the thing about Skinner, he is human. It stands out in a show about aliens. "If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs…". Kipling's poem could have been written about Skinner.
Skinner has been drawn into a world he doesn't understand and, truth be known, doesn't really want to understand. Unfortunately for him, it is the world in which he exists and must deal with. He deals with it according to his values, his own sense of what is right, by a book that allows for interpretation - if only by one wise enough to recognize that interpretation isn't contradiction.
Skinner is a man shaped by his experiences. Some of which he cannot explain. We all have such experiences.
We can either confront such experiences, make them a part of who we are, whether we understand them or not. Or we can hold them at arm's length, separate, unreal. If we choose the latter course, they will plague us throughout life, disrupt our equilibrium and keep us awake at night. This is what we see happening to Walter Skinner in 'Avatar'. Something he experienced in Vietnam, which has been with him ever since, is finally taking its toll, despite all his efforts to keep it neatly tucked away in its own tidy compartment. This is the nature of these things, they can never be dealt with; there is no Blue Beret clean-up team to make them disappear.
Things happen that make us the person we are. That is what they are for.
Skinner doesn't speak of what happened because he is a strong man, molded by training and life to stand as a bulwark for justice and all that is right. But he stands alone, unable to share his self even with his wife. No wonder she has decided to leave him.
Skinner loves his wife. Of this there is no doubt. But he is unable to tell her things because they are his to hold unto himself. This is the paradox. Skinner firmly believes he is dealing with his 'issues' while, in reality all he is doing is trying to maintain the image of who he sees himself as being. Skinner is his own Avatar.
Carl Jung, who, along with Friedrich Nietzsche, had a great influence on the show, said that all men have a feminine side, just as all women have a masculine side to their personalities. Skinner's apparition takes the form of a woman because that is precisely what he negates in himself. It is hard to see how one can be stalwart and true and in touch with one's feminine side. This is to make the same mistake Skinner makes. The feminine is a concept in its own right, but my feminine side is the feminine embodied in me. It doesn't require me to become some touchy-feely newager, only to accept that I can trust all aspects of my nature, even those that ask me to open myself to others, share my self, trust that I will be accepted for who I am. This is the lesson Skinner learns in 'Avatar', largely because Mulder forces him to. And without a single moment of sharing one's feelings.
Mulder, to his credit, sees a friend in need and proves himself a true human being by doing all he can to help, whether wanted or not. Mulder forces Skinner to confront and accept the old woman, not as an enemy, but as a way of being himself. In doing so, he is able to be there when Scully needs him. In effect, by accepting a side of himself he'd always refused, Skinner is better able to be the man he wants to be.
He's read the book and can quote it chapter and verse and still be there to catch your back when you need him.
He's an army man who lives by the rules of which Mulder is blissfully unaware. When Skinner acts he does so knowing full well what it is that he is doing. Skinner is strong and a man, he takes on X in a lift in the belief that they are equals. And they are. He just hasn't lost his humanity enough to win that particular battle.
This is the thing about Skinner, he is human. It stands out in a show about aliens. "If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs…". Kipling's poem could have been written about Skinner.
Skinner has been drawn into a world he doesn't understand and, truth be known, doesn't really want to understand. Unfortunately for him, it is the world in which he exists and must deal with. He deals with it according to his values, his own sense of what is right, by a book that allows for interpretation - if only by one wise enough to recognize that interpretation isn't contradiction.
Skinner is a man shaped by his experiences. Some of which he cannot explain. We all have such experiences.
We can either confront such experiences, make them a part of who we are, whether we understand them or not. Or we can hold them at arm's length, separate, unreal. If we choose the latter course, they will plague us throughout life, disrupt our equilibrium and keep us awake at night. This is what we see happening to Walter Skinner in 'Avatar'. Something he experienced in Vietnam, which has been with him ever since, is finally taking its toll, despite all his efforts to keep it neatly tucked away in its own tidy compartment. This is the nature of these things, they can never be dealt with; there is no Blue Beret clean-up team to make them disappear.
Things happen that make us the person we are. That is what they are for.
Skinner doesn't speak of what happened because he is a strong man, molded by training and life to stand as a bulwark for justice and all that is right. But he stands alone, unable to share his self even with his wife. No wonder she has decided to leave him.
Skinner loves his wife. Of this there is no doubt. But he is unable to tell her things because they are his to hold unto himself. This is the paradox. Skinner firmly believes he is dealing with his 'issues' while, in reality all he is doing is trying to maintain the image of who he sees himself as being. Skinner is his own Avatar.
Carl Jung, who, along with Friedrich Nietzsche, had a great influence on the show, said that all men have a feminine side, just as all women have a masculine side to their personalities. Skinner's apparition takes the form of a woman because that is precisely what he negates in himself. It is hard to see how one can be stalwart and true and in touch with one's feminine side. This is to make the same mistake Skinner makes. The feminine is a concept in its own right, but my feminine side is the feminine embodied in me. It doesn't require me to become some touchy-feely newager, only to accept that I can trust all aspects of my nature, even those that ask me to open myself to others, share my self, trust that I will be accepted for who I am. This is the lesson Skinner learns in 'Avatar', largely because Mulder forces him to. And without a single moment of sharing one's feelings.
Mulder, to his credit, sees a friend in need and proves himself a true human being by doing all he can to help, whether wanted or not. Mulder forces Skinner to confront and accept the old woman, not as an enemy, but as a way of being himself. In doing so, he is able to be there when Scully needs him. In effect, by accepting a side of himself he'd always refused, Skinner is better able to be the man he wants to be.
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