Praise Be
Forget that Gibson Praise can read minds, and is a human/alien hybrid and is the walking, talking equivalent of 42. Forget that he’s a cute kid who just wants to watch good cartoons.
Just look how coolly he manoeuvres himself out of the line of fire and lets another – probably innocent – person take the bullet meant for him. How calculatedly cold-blooded is that? And after witnessing this mere boy let another die in his place, we are asked to sympathise with him the rest of the episode!
Actually, let’s not forget that he has become a national sensation by cheating! Chess prodigy, my ass! He reads his opponents minds, God dammit!
What is there to like about this kid?
No doubt, if ever brought to trial, he would claim it was the alien half of his DNA that made him do it! The kid has no honour; it’s not like he’s going to accept full responsibility for his actions!
Why are we asked to see the likes of Leonard Betts as a monster and Gibson Praise as – well, what exactly? Not a monster, certainly, but he isn’t much of anything else either. I, for one, find Leonard Betts far easier to sympathise with than Gibson Praise.
Sure, Gibson cannot help being what he is any more than Betts could - and God forbid I would not wish to justify Betts’ actions towards the end of that episode - yet there remain cavernous differences between the two. Betts was forced, by his biology, to feed off the cancers which grew in others. In the main, he tried to feed his need without recourse to murder, hence his job as an EMT. Yes, he does kill to protect his very existence – very bad, naughty Leonard! Not in any legal sense, but put yourself in Leonard’s position – you got to be thinking justifiable homicide, at least?
Praise doesn’t kill. Not directly, at least. Morally speaking, though, what difference is there between the shooter and Gibson Praise? Both are willing to let innocents die for their own ends! Both are likely just as narcissistic, neither thinking of anyone other than themselves. Leonard Betts is at least sorry that he must take what he needs. Gibson Praise shows not one iota of remorse for the man who dies in his stead.
It is assumed that Gibson’s age and predicament make him a sympathetic character. But he is a boy strangely devoid of passion – even when they Frankenstein his skull he hardly bats an eyelid. That he seems to serve no real purpose doesn’t help his lack of cuddliness. So what if he’s a human/alien hybrid? Where does that get us, offering nothing as it does by way of preventing colonization? And it’s not like panspermia is a new idea – not even in the dark and distant days of 1998.
As the proof of all that Mulder believes, Gibson Praise is either convincing by his sheer lack of humanity or unconvincing by his overwhelming apathy for almost anything going on around him.
He is, in many respects, more frightening than even the Cigarette Smoking Man. Whatever else one may say about the CSM, he is human enough to care. He may care about the wrong things and about himself more than the rest of humanity, but his feelings are entirely human. Gibson Praise never seems engaged with his feelings. What kid, able to read the mind of the Cigarette Smoking Man, wouldn’t be crapping himself? Gibson seems altogether nonplussed.
In this one respect, he could provide Mulder with more information and insight into the machinations of the Syndicate – the passing on of what he gleans from the mind of the CSM – than Mulder could ever hope for. Imagine the benefit to Mulder’s crusade! Yet, not even on this most simple of levels does Gibson Praise offer any help to those who seek to help him.
In Gibson Praise, it really is just his junk DNA which is ‘turned on’.
Just look how coolly he manoeuvres himself out of the line of fire and lets another – probably innocent – person take the bullet meant for him. How calculatedly cold-blooded is that? And after witnessing this mere boy let another die in his place, we are asked to sympathise with him the rest of the episode!
Actually, let’s not forget that he has become a national sensation by cheating! Chess prodigy, my ass! He reads his opponents minds, God dammit!
What is there to like about this kid?
No doubt, if ever brought to trial, he would claim it was the alien half of his DNA that made him do it! The kid has no honour; it’s not like he’s going to accept full responsibility for his actions!
Why are we asked to see the likes of Leonard Betts as a monster and Gibson Praise as – well, what exactly? Not a monster, certainly, but he isn’t much of anything else either. I, for one, find Leonard Betts far easier to sympathise with than Gibson Praise.
Sure, Gibson cannot help being what he is any more than Betts could - and God forbid I would not wish to justify Betts’ actions towards the end of that episode - yet there remain cavernous differences between the two. Betts was forced, by his biology, to feed off the cancers which grew in others. In the main, he tried to feed his need without recourse to murder, hence his job as an EMT. Yes, he does kill to protect his very existence – very bad, naughty Leonard! Not in any legal sense, but put yourself in Leonard’s position – you got to be thinking justifiable homicide, at least?
Praise doesn’t kill. Not directly, at least. Morally speaking, though, what difference is there between the shooter and Gibson Praise? Both are willing to let innocents die for their own ends! Both are likely just as narcissistic, neither thinking of anyone other than themselves. Leonard Betts is at least sorry that he must take what he needs. Gibson Praise shows not one iota of remorse for the man who dies in his stead.
It is assumed that Gibson’s age and predicament make him a sympathetic character. But he is a boy strangely devoid of passion – even when they Frankenstein his skull he hardly bats an eyelid. That he seems to serve no real purpose doesn’t help his lack of cuddliness. So what if he’s a human/alien hybrid? Where does that get us, offering nothing as it does by way of preventing colonization? And it’s not like panspermia is a new idea – not even in the dark and distant days of 1998.
As the proof of all that Mulder believes, Gibson Praise is either convincing by his sheer lack of humanity or unconvincing by his overwhelming apathy for almost anything going on around him.
He is, in many respects, more frightening than even the Cigarette Smoking Man. Whatever else one may say about the CSM, he is human enough to care. He may care about the wrong things and about himself more than the rest of humanity, but his feelings are entirely human. Gibson Praise never seems engaged with his feelings. What kid, able to read the mind of the Cigarette Smoking Man, wouldn’t be crapping himself? Gibson seems altogether nonplussed.
In this one respect, he could provide Mulder with more information and insight into the machinations of the Syndicate – the passing on of what he gleans from the mind of the CSM – than Mulder could ever hope for. Imagine the benefit to Mulder’s crusade! Yet, not even on this most simple of levels does Gibson Praise offer any help to those who seek to help him.
In Gibson Praise, it really is just his junk DNA which is ‘turned on’.
Comments
Post a Comment