The X-Files :: essays research papers

The X-FilesThe X-Files is largely acclaimed as the television cult hit of the 1990s. The pilot that aired in September of 1993 introduced FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Together the two work to uncover the right behind unsolved cases that defy normal investigation, the cases that the government has buried or ignored, labeling them the x-files. The two agents argon wonderful examples of modernism and post-modernism world views.     First in order to come across the reasons Scully and Mulder portray the two world views, we must down the stairsstand what modernism and post-modernism mean. Modernism was the era that was dominated by Freud and Marx, a tactual sensation that humans are purely material machines, a belief that we bonk in a purely physical world and nothing exists beyond what our senses perceive. Modernists believe that people should be rationalistic optimists and depend only on the data of their sense of reason. Scully strongly displays the modernist world view throughout the fancy even after the two agents have been through many uncivilized adventures. In the install as a whole in that respect are modernist aspects because both Scully and Mulder are truth seekers. The shows motto is the truth is out there so this produces a strong concept of truth. However the show as a whole is very post-modern because it questions the modernist world view with its themes. It is interesting the show continually suggests that the truth is out there but it is hidden under many different interpretations and perspectives. Post-modernism rejects the modernist ideals of rationality, virility, artistic genius and individualism, in favor of macrocosm anti-capitalist and scornful of traditional morality. Mulder strongly displays the post-modern world view.     Scully is the modernist in the show, she is constantly inquisitive Mulder and always making a new plot or systematization for what is happening. Scully often makes fun of or laughs at Mulders insistence of the humanity of the supernatural or paranormal. Scully values science and rationality and even though the events seem to be unbelievable she never gives in and believes in Mulders theories. The main reason Scully was assigned to the x-files project was because she was a skeptic, they trusted her to indite a clear scientific analysis of the cases. In the pilot Mulder asks Scully if she believes in extraterrestrials, she replies with "Logically I would have to say no. Given the distances take to travel from the of reaches of space the energy requirements would exceed a spacecrafts capabilities ".