A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
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<strong>of</strong> conscious design. It was seen by a wide variety <strong>of</strong> persons <strong>in</strong> broadly vary<strong>in</strong>g locales, both<br />
day and night. If it was a vision, it was one that manifested <strong>in</strong> an unprecedentedly public fashion<br />
and <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> form <strong>of</strong> an apparently solid object. The saucer <strong>in</strong>creased <strong>the</strong> strangeness factor both<br />
by its very public visibility and via <strong>the</strong> fact that it refused to stay still for any susta<strong>in</strong>ed<br />
exam<strong>in</strong>ation and was ultimately resistant to any f<strong>in</strong>al <strong>in</strong>terpretation. Whereas <strong>the</strong> space bro<strong>the</strong>rs<br />
and spirits before <strong>the</strong>m were endlessly voluble, <strong>the</strong> UFO was characterized by silence both <strong>in</strong> its<br />
passage and its refusal to <strong>of</strong>fer up an explanation for itself. It was highly visible yet wholly<br />
mysterious—<strong>the</strong> very epitome <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> uncanny. The UFO, like <strong>the</strong> space bro<strong>the</strong>rs, allowed for <strong>the</strong><br />
co-presence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> human and <strong>the</strong> O<strong>the</strong>r—<strong>the</strong> fully conscious witness and <strong>the</strong> saucer both <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
presence <strong>of</strong> each o<strong>the</strong>r. It was apparently <strong>the</strong> apparatus <strong>of</strong> empirical verification that could not<br />
be co-present with <strong>the</strong> saucer. As a figure that disallowed empirical verification, <strong>the</strong> UFO<br />
established itself as rationality’s O<strong>the</strong>r and as such dictated a zero-sum relationship with <strong>the</strong><br />
latter. The presence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> UFO dictated rationality’s absence and vice-versa.<br />
With <strong>the</strong> advent <strong>of</strong> abduction, <strong>the</strong> encounter between human and O<strong>the</strong>r became fully<br />
embodied and <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> strangeness reached a po<strong>in</strong>t whereby <strong>the</strong> experience <strong>of</strong> contact came to<br />
be def<strong>in</strong>ed by terror. Abductees are removed bodily from <strong>the</strong>ir cars and/or beds, taken aboard<br />
wait<strong>in</strong>g saucers and subjected to decidedly body-centered ordeals. The figure <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> alien <strong>in</strong> this<br />
scenario is most <strong>of</strong>ten what has come to be known as <strong>the</strong> gray, a figure def<strong>in</strong>ed as much by what<br />
is absent as by what is present. Bipedal with roughly humanoid facial features, <strong>the</strong> gray is<br />
similar enough to <strong>the</strong> human to set <strong>of</strong>f its strangeness. The gray seems utterly lack<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> a<br />
variety <strong>of</strong> ways. It seems to have no true jo<strong>in</strong>ts, resembl<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> bendable toy figures equipped<br />
with a wire core ra<strong>the</strong>r than bones. Its mouth, nose and ears all seem merely cosmetic. With <strong>the</strong><br />
exception <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> leader or “doctor” figure, <strong>the</strong> gray is wholly lack<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> affect. The grays are<br />
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