A Fate Worse than Death
Sitting at home one day, alone in the house, not expecting any visitors, I was mildly surprised when the bell rang, though I suspected who my visitors were. With a Kingdom Hall not five minutes up the road, it was a good bet the bell ringer was a Jehovah’s Witness.
Sure enough, upon opening the door, there stood two women – one young and very shy looking, the other small and wizened – Jehovah’s Witnesses both. I greeted them cordially, then the little old woman – who looked like she was on her third lifetime, at least – asked her question: “Would you like to live forever on earth?” To which I responded with my usual tact and decorum, “Good God! No! Why would I want to do that?”
I can understand why a woman who could pose Before to Maz Kanata’s After in an Oil of Ulay advertisement would be horrified by my reaction. But, really, unless you are a Highlander with the constant excitement of having to duck every time a sharp implement swings your way, I just feel eternal life would get excruciatingly boring.
In ‘Tithonus’, Scully (apparently) attains eternal life when Alfred Fellig takes her place when Death comes a-calling. She doesn’t seem particularly aware of her new found deathless state, and continues through the remaining seasons acting as if Death could take her at any moment. Scully’s immortality hinges on two pieces of evidence: Clyde Bruckman’s answering her question concerning how she dies by saying, “You don’t.”, and Alfred Fellig’s immortality resulting from someone taking his place, as he then takes Scully’s place, thus conferring his curse upon her.
Heidegger held that death is what defines life, “[i]t is only in being-towards-death that one can become the person who one truly is.” (cf. Simon Critchley) Alfred Fellig would seem to confirm this perception of death, his immortality seeming to have drained all the life out of him. Maybe it is just as well that Scully is unaware of her immortality.
I suppose one’s acceptance of immortality might depend upon a few things. For instance, aging. Tithonus, the titular character from Greek Myth, was granted immortality but not freedom from aging. Tithonus was either the son or the brother of Laomedon and possibly the brother of Priam – you can never tell with these mythic personages. Eon, the goddess of the morning, who brings the light of day from the East, loved Tithonus and prayed for him to be granted immortality. As with Jenn in ‘Je Souhaite’, the gods could be tricky buggers when it came to granting wishes. Eos got her wish, an immortal Tithonus who continued to age – until he eventually shriveled up to nothing. Not a form of immortality many would wish for, I imagine.
Imagine you were immortal and free from aging – like Claudia in ‘Interview with the Vampire’ (1994), for instance, or Homer in ‘Near Dark’ (1987) – would it be bearable to remain the same age eternally. Claudia and Homer are extreme examples, but would it be any easier to be 25 for always and forever? How Narcissistic would you have to be to want to see the same image staring back at you every time you looked in a mirror? Someone so narcissistic could never fully enjoy immortality for there almost assuredly would be long tracts of time when there would be no admiring crowds by which to measure one’s own success, beauty, brilliance.
However, this would appear not to be the kind of immortality enjoyed by Scully. Whatever else Scully has been up to over the fourteen years away from the X Files, she hasn’t escaped the aging process. Which seems pretty obvious from the title of the episode.
We face the prospect of watching Scully wither away to nothing. Surely, a fate worse the death – or marriage to Fox Mulder?
Sure enough, upon opening the door, there stood two women – one young and very shy looking, the other small and wizened – Jehovah’s Witnesses both. I greeted them cordially, then the little old woman – who looked like she was on her third lifetime, at least – asked her question: “Would you like to live forever on earth?” To which I responded with my usual tact and decorum, “Good God! No! Why would I want to do that?”
I can understand why a woman who could pose Before to Maz Kanata’s After in an Oil of Ulay advertisement would be horrified by my reaction. But, really, unless you are a Highlander with the constant excitement of having to duck every time a sharp implement swings your way, I just feel eternal life would get excruciatingly boring.
In ‘Tithonus’, Scully (apparently) attains eternal life when Alfred Fellig takes her place when Death comes a-calling. She doesn’t seem particularly aware of her new found deathless state, and continues through the remaining seasons acting as if Death could take her at any moment. Scully’s immortality hinges on two pieces of evidence: Clyde Bruckman’s answering her question concerning how she dies by saying, “You don’t.”, and Alfred Fellig’s immortality resulting from someone taking his place, as he then takes Scully’s place, thus conferring his curse upon her.
Heidegger held that death is what defines life, “[i]t is only in being-towards-death that one can become the person who one truly is.” (cf. Simon Critchley) Alfred Fellig would seem to confirm this perception of death, his immortality seeming to have drained all the life out of him. Maybe it is just as well that Scully is unaware of her immortality.
I suppose one’s acceptance of immortality might depend upon a few things. For instance, aging. Tithonus, the titular character from Greek Myth, was granted immortality but not freedom from aging. Tithonus was either the son or the brother of Laomedon and possibly the brother of Priam – you can never tell with these mythic personages. Eon, the goddess of the morning, who brings the light of day from the East, loved Tithonus and prayed for him to be granted immortality. As with Jenn in ‘Je Souhaite’, the gods could be tricky buggers when it came to granting wishes. Eos got her wish, an immortal Tithonus who continued to age – until he eventually shriveled up to nothing. Not a form of immortality many would wish for, I imagine.
Imagine you were immortal and free from aging – like Claudia in ‘Interview with the Vampire’ (1994), for instance, or Homer in ‘Near Dark’ (1987) – would it be bearable to remain the same age eternally. Claudia and Homer are extreme examples, but would it be any easier to be 25 for always and forever? How Narcissistic would you have to be to want to see the same image staring back at you every time you looked in a mirror? Someone so narcissistic could never fully enjoy immortality for there almost assuredly would be long tracts of time when there would be no admiring crowds by which to measure one’s own success, beauty, brilliance.
However, this would appear not to be the kind of immortality enjoyed by Scully. Whatever else Scully has been up to over the fourteen years away from the X Files, she hasn’t escaped the aging process. Which seems pretty obvious from the title of the episode.
We face the prospect of watching Scully wither away to nothing. Surely, a fate worse the death – or marriage to Fox Mulder?
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