Last week, I wrote about how I identified with Fox Mulder on this show. But ever since the beginning of this series, I've also strongly identified with the character of Dana Scully. She's a scientist - always curious, always wanting to know more about the world, even if it disrupts her assumptions about the way the world works.
I believe in science. I believe in a world rooted in reality, not fantasy. I enjoy fantasy - obviously, since I'm watching The X-Files - but I know the difference.
But that's not to say I'm unwilling to accept things simply because they are unproven, as Scully is not. She simply wants to pursue a scientific approach to every problem, investigating all possible causes of some previously unexplained phenomenon.
I think this is a reasonable way to look at the world. I'm not going to accept what I'm told just because someone else makes a claim and believes strongly in it. That's not enough for me. I need to see it with my own eyes. Or at least see solid evidence for it with my own eyes.
This occurred to me especially the other day when I read this article about a very unusual bug on Apple computers. I had no particular reason not to believe it, and in fact, I really didn't disbelieve it at all. I was sure it was true, and yet I had to test it myself.
And yes, I crashed many applications on my computer. Not just one, of course. I had to see if it worked in Adium (yes), Safari (yes), Firefox (no), and others. Not entirely scientific, but curious. It's not that I didn't believe it, I was just so amazed it was even possible that I was simply compelled to see it with my own eyes.
In the opening to 'One Breath' (I must mention that episode in an awful lot of posts, huh? It's a really good episode! I can't help it!) we see Scully's curiosity about a snake she and her brothers killed. Her compassion for the snake in its suffering and death comes at least partly from the fact that she doesn't know where it's going. We don't understand death very well, especially what happens to us afterwards. And during the course of 'One Breath', Scully learns about herself and death and what it means, and when she recovers at the end, she's stronger for it.
It's not otherwise something we can test. Sure, you could shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die, but you wouldn't really be experiencing death.. You'd only be observing someone else's death, and that we already do know plenty about. We will only find out once and one way what it is like to die, and even if we have some form of consciousness beyond that, we won't be able to tell anyone still living about it.
Of course, Scully is apparently immortal, according to Clyde Bruckman (the more I think about it, the more I think he would have no reason to lie to her - he was up front enough about the guy dying in a car crash, so even if Scully were to meet a gruesome end, he would have said so rather than hide it from her), so maybe 'One Breath' is the only chance she'll ever get for a closer understanding of one of life's greatest mysteries.
Otherwise, though, I appreciate a good, testable hypothesis and a strong foundation. I think Scully is resistant to a lot of Mulder's ideas because they seem to come out of nowhere. As he explains in more detail, though, and she sees some evidence to back up what he's explaining, she often does begin to accept the idea that they may be possible. (Except for aliens. She's hung up on that one for some reason.) I feel very close to this attribute of her character because I have little patience for wild theories that have no logical backing. (For this reason, I also find many Republicans extremely frustrating.) If you can't give me evidence, at least give me logic.
But again, as with Mulder, Scully is a complete character, not just a caricature of a constant skeptic, always shooting holes in Mulder's absurd theories. But she's also the voice of reason a lot of the time, especially when the people around her (not just Mulder, either) are being wholly unreasonable.
And I do like that she's not perfect. Her skepticism can often lead her to a place of stubborn non-belief, which can be frustrating to those who aren't on the same page, or even to the viewer who can sometimes clearly see that she's just wrong. I can't imagine how boringly unwatchable this show would be, though, if Mulder always accepted the least plausible theories and Scully always refused to believe them and then one of them always turned out to be entirely right. It's nice that there's a middle ground, and I think it's one of the keys to the series' success.
It keeps me coming back, at least.
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