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Article Excerpt
Mulder: I want the Smoking Man smoked out. I want him exposed to be the murdering son of a bitch that he is.... I want his name....
Skinner: These men don't have names.
--From The X-Files episode, "Talitha Cumi"
FOR MUCH OF its nine-season run, The X-Files achieved both cult and mainstream success with tens of millions of viewers each week, hundreds of websites devoted to it, and millions in revenue from merchandising. (1) Despite the fall in ratings over the last two seasons, the show has always generated much scrutiny. (2) This is understandable given the unusual premise of the show. For several seasons, FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully tracked down mutant serial killers, other-dimensional monsters, supernatural horrors and, most frequently, investigate cases that may involve extraterrestrial visitations and a government conspiracy to hide that fact. Critiques consistently note that the show's bizarre stow lines resonate with audiences of all ages because it instills what The New York Times calls a "vague, insidious paranoia" into our daily relationships, especially with the government (James, 1998, p.9). The Chronicle of Higher Education echoes that sentiment, writing that the show's popularity comes from the challenge viewers have to "seek that fine line separating informed skepticism and suspicion from full-blown political paranoia" (Rosen, 1997, p. B7). "The beauty of "The X-Files" is the seamlessness with which it unites the two strains" of the political and the paranormal, notes The Washington Post, revolving around the belief that the "government has concealed a major alien appearance" (Powers, 1995, p. G01).
Scholarly critiques of the series run the gamut of explanations for its cultural resonance. Joe Bellon (1999) argues that The X-Files is best seen as an "ontological detective story" that helps viewers to deconstruct and reconstruct their perceptions of authority. In fact, Bellon believes that the narrative "alerts us to the dangers of authority we have been taught to ignore" (p. 152). Mark Wildermuth (1999) concludes that the show acts as a commentary on science and epistemology in American culture. For him, the show's self-reflexive nature on such issues as clairvoyance and angels and their supposed impact in our lives reflect the "millennial thinking that mainstream culture shares with the paraculture, which seeks to save us from irrationality even as its presence challenges norms of rationality" (pp. 155-156). An edited volume of essays on The X-Files interprets the show from a number of perspectives. For instance, it demonstrates how: the show has adapted the modern horror/science fiction genre; the main characters depart from television's stereotypical gender roles; fans enhance their interest in the show via the internet; patriarchy and institutional authority are linked; and it demonstrates how the show is indebted to folkloric sources (Lavery, Hague, and Cartwright, 1996).
These studies explore the uniqueness of The X-Files, recognizing the problem of interpreting the show because it does not fit traditional genres. Ironically, when these studies do discuss, in varying degrees, the recognized source of the show's popularity--The X-Files-as-alien/ government-conspiracy-text, with Mulder as the lead conspiracy buster (3)--they do so in a traditional fashion. Conventional conspiracy drama describes a belief in vast, arcane networks comprised of abnormally evil conspirators who engage in the most demonic of acts (Hofstadter, 1965, p. 14; Moscovici, 1987, pp. 154-155). Confronting these villains are equally typical heroes who stalwartly defend the foundations of American culture (Medhurst, 1993, pp. 130, 134). Scholars' critiques of The X-Files embrace this classic conception of conspiracies and the characters within them. For example, Allison Graham's (1996) focus on The X-Files-as-conspiracy-text in that edited volume contextualizes the show as a reflection of the conventional conspiracies of the 1970s, narratives that increasingly featured the government-as-villain (pp. 52-62). Furthermore, given the bipolar roles of the protagonists in the traditional conspiracy genre, Bellon holds Mulder and Scully as virtuously stalwart, claiming that only they, as representatives of official authority, refuse to "abuse their power in some way" (p. 147). By placing this show with the confines of a classic conspiracy with its stark, one-dimensional storyline and character types, the scope and the influence of the show cannot be fully accounted for or derived. In other words, what is it about this foundational component of The X-Files that allows it to act as a coherent narrative for what scholars believe to be the intricate confluence of epistemology, ontology, science, gender, and postmodernism expressed in the show?
The X-Files represents more than just a repeat of the traditional conspiracy rhetoric of staunch, larger-than-life, populist heroes battling secretive, omnipotent villains in order to safeguard the status quo of American culture. The show's unconventional narrative of the conspiratorial alliance between the government and extraterrestrials is held together by the unconventional nature of its protagonists in such a story. In fact, The X-Files' protagonists resemble an age-old character known as the "trickster." From Native American folktales to Greek mythology to contemporary American literature, the trickster is one of the most complex characters in legend. Claude Levi-Strauss (1963) notes that the trickster "occupies a position halfway between two polar terms," yet retains "something of that duality--namely an ambiguous and equivocal character" (p. 226). Identified in various stories as a swindler and a selfish deceiver, or as a clown and a culture hero, the trickster essentially defies neat categorization (Doty & Hynes, 1993, p. 24). Such a character allows The X-Files conspiracy myth to popularize more than a standard tale of heroes challenging villains in a post-Cold War world. The trickster's "ambiguous and equivocal character" blurs the typical images of villainy and heroism in the contemporary myth, blurs the distinction between right and wrong, making this character essential to the fidelity of such a multi-layered story.
Thus, this essay examines the first four seasons of the show, illuminating what I term a "contemporary conspiracy myth:" a myth whose protagonists have evolved beyond traditional depictions of heroes fighting the good fight against secretive evildoers. Specifically, I argue that such a contemporary story has abandoned the typical portrayal of conspiracy characters' motivations and behaviors, introducing protagonists--tricksters--whose beliefs are nebulous and whose actions are less clear given the complexity of their universe. As a result, traditional concepts of "good" and "evil" are rendered more ambiguous, making the major characters representing those states more accessible for viewers who likewise negotiate such conflicts in their lives. While trickster characters are not new in literature, their introduction in the conspiracy myth heralds a change in the way such discourse has traditionally functioned. Now, such characters might very well render the government-as-scoundrel more sympathetic and the hero-as-savior more suspect. For instance, the paranoia produced in such myths works toward the benefit of the institutional authority, since the latter could be seen as providing relief to audiences by giving them hope that "maybe in the end things really do fit together" (Powers, 1995, p. G01).
This essay begins with a discussion of the ubiquity of myths in American culture, followed by an examination of the similarities between the universe of traditional conspiracy rhetoric and the world-scene of contemporary conspiracy myth. The contemporary universe, however, generates a more complicated, morally ambiguous existence that cannot be managed simply by the traditional minions of overwhelming evil or the typical forces of absolute good. As a result, two primary trickster protagonists populate the contemporary conspiracy myth of The X-Files. First, the trickster-as-villain in this contemporary myth (The Cigarette-Smoking Man) engages in both immoral and humane acts, and whose motives are not simply presented as twisted and self-seeking but also as protective of the status quo (a behavior usually reserved for the hero). Second, the conventional, stalwart champion now resembles a tricksterish "anti-hero" (Mulder) who still attempts to bring down the cabal, but whose methods are ethically questionable. (4) Furthermore, his motivations are less than pure since they may lead to the destruction of all that is known (a goal usually reserved for the villain). Thus, the contemporary conspiracy myth, populated by trickster-protagonists who live in their own complex and shadowy world, provide a vicarious outlet and a familiar point of reference for those viewers who struggle in their own ambiguous universe.
Myths, Conspiracies, and Tricksters
Myths have suffused human culture since the Stone Age (Patai, 1972, p. 9). According to Lance Bennett (1980), these stories link an individual's private experiences with "public history," creating "powerful frameworks of understanding" within the political arena (p. 169). In other words, myths act to popularize the legal, political, and moral edicts negotiated by a culture with the individual. By nature, people tell stories of wondrous entities, ideal worlds, and supernatural events in order to give purpose to their own mundane lives (Eliade, 1963, pp. 2-5). "The fundamental function of myth," W. Taylor Stevenson (1975) writes, "is one of cosmicization; of...
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