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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o<strong>the</strong>r by <strong>the</strong> popular television program, X-Files. But that trajectory does not emerge ex nihilo,<br />
nor is it <strong>in</strong>augurated by <strong>the</strong> cessation <strong>of</strong> hostilities <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Second World War—ra<strong>the</strong>r, it is part <strong>of</strong><br />
a broader arc that has much to tell us about shift<strong>in</strong>g discourses <strong>of</strong> race, gender, science, technè,<br />
religion and <strong>the</strong> utopian imag<strong>in</strong>ation. The extraterrestrial native to <strong>the</strong> past half century <strong>in</strong><br />
America is one <strong>in</strong> a series <strong>of</strong> figures <strong>of</strong> alterity that <strong>in</strong>habit <strong>the</strong> displaced utopian imag<strong>in</strong>ary.<br />
Intersect<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> more traditionally political utopian impulse, <strong>the</strong> displaced utopian imag<strong>in</strong>ary<br />
envisions a world transformed not by revolution or direct political action but ra<strong>the</strong>r through <strong>the</strong><br />
agency <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rworldly be<strong>in</strong>gs—be<strong>in</strong>gs that always already reside <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> “no-place” denoted by<br />
“utopia.” The imag<strong>in</strong>ed location <strong>of</strong> that “no-place” <strong>of</strong> orig<strong>in</strong> shifts over time. The aliens <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
late twentieth century hail from <strong>the</strong> far-flung reaches <strong>of</strong> star systems like zeta-reticuli. Earlier<br />
visitors were ostensibly native to <strong>the</strong> less exotic climes <strong>of</strong> Venus and Mars. Those aliens native<br />
to <strong>the</strong> previous century, <strong>the</strong> po<strong>in</strong>t <strong>of</strong> our imm<strong>in</strong>ent departure, emerged from more traditional<br />
realms <strong>of</strong> alterity such as heaven, <strong>the</strong> astral plane and <strong>the</strong> Far East (home to <strong>the</strong> “celestial” vs. <strong>the</strong><br />
terrestrial). It is <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>se latter spheres that we will f<strong>in</strong>d <strong>the</strong> home <strong>of</strong> two key figures <strong>of</strong> alterity—<br />
<strong>the</strong> dead and <strong>the</strong> ascended master—figures that serve as <strong>the</strong> key <strong>in</strong>terlocutors for modern<br />
Spiritualism and Theosophy respectively. These two figures both serve as <strong>the</strong> extraterrestrials <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong>ir day and provide some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> basic attributes that come to def<strong>in</strong>e <strong>the</strong> e.t. <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> late twentieth<br />
century. The movements <strong>of</strong> which <strong>the</strong>se figures are emblematic are, <strong>in</strong> turn, n<strong>in</strong>eteenth century<br />
exemplars <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> displaced utopian imag<strong>in</strong>ary.<br />
One central <strong>the</strong>me that runs throughout <strong>the</strong>se iterations <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> displaced utopian<br />
imag<strong>in</strong>ary is communication. Throughout modernity, <strong>the</strong> dream <strong>of</strong> utopia consistently depends<br />
upon <strong>the</strong> perfection <strong>of</strong> communication; between <strong>in</strong>dividuals and groups, across space and time,<br />
between humans and <strong>the</strong>ir environment, and between humans and <strong>the</strong> cosmos. In <strong>the</strong> modern<br />
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