ESSAY#5: Iconography
Loligo Opalescens
Essay #5 Topic: Analyze the unique X-Files religious symbolism.
Am I the only one who thinks Mulder's Samantha-photo thing is really
WEIRD?
For example, there's that photo on his desk in a number of episodes, a
nice framed photo of happy Sam. Just like those photos of family
members that so many of us have on our desks at work... except for our
family members didn't disappear under mysterious and tragic
circumstances!
See, here's my point: those photos are conversation starters, like,
"Oh, who's that lovely girl? Is she your daughter? Your niece?"
"No, she's my little sister. She was abducted when she was eight.
I've never seen her since."
"...Oh."
End of conversation.
Isn't it weird? And in Miracle Man, he has a framed photo of her in
his hotel room! How many of us travel with framed photos of husbands,
wives, or children, even? Wallet photos, yes, framed photos, no.
Here's the difference -- Samantha isn't a real person anymore. As so
many of you argued this week, she's a symbol in a religion, and those
photos are ICONS. Objects of devotion, reminders of faith,
advertisers of belief. They serve the same function as the painted
icons of the Orthodox Church, *not* the functions that our family
photos serve.
(The feeling is totally different, and to me much more moving, in
those episodes where the photo of Sam is a crumpled snapshot dragged
out of a pocket or tacked to a board. It seems so much more human...)
L.O.
(Sister EP, OBSSE)
Coleen Sullivan-Baier
In <33499...@news1.ibm.net> fea...@ibm.net (Loligo Opalescens)
writes:
>Isn't it weird? And in Miracle Man, he has a framed photo of her in
>his hotel room!
>(The feeling is totally different, and to me much more moving, in
>those episodes where the photo of Sam is a crumpled snapshot dragged
>out of a pocket or tacked to a board. It seems so much more human...)
Either way, it is part of his obsession, his quest, his
all-consuming focus. Even though he KNOWS it may never be...much like
those size 5 French-cut jeans I keep hanging on the back of my bedroom
door, which I will fit into again at about the same time Samantha
Mulder returns....
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Yolanda Korver
Coleen Sullivan-Baier wrote:
>
> much like those size 5 French-cut jeans I keep hanging on the back of my bedroom door, which I will fit into again at about the same time
Samantha Mulder returns....
>
> XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Better start exercising, gizzie - Sam's back in season five.