“The X Files” TV Show
Introduction
Most of the people watching various forms of entertainment, seldom try to recognize the different directions to which these forms have shifted. This statement would be true even in the case when the viewers chronologically follow the development of a particular form, e.g. cinema. Nevertheless, the shift of ideology can be evident after thorough examination even in works that are far from discussing contemporary art movements. An example of such work is the movie “X-files”. “The X Files: Fight the Future”, is a film which has been produced based on the well-known television serial “X-files” – a cult American fantastic series which has been shown by Fox television channel 1993 and demonstrated for 9 years. The film follows the plot of the series, which is investigating paranormal phenomena by the main characters of the series –agent Fox Mulder and Agent Dana Scully. This paper analyzes the aforementioned film in the context that it represents the merging of modernism with postmodernism. The paper argues that the film’s characters represent two ideological perspectives that eventually were transitioned into one postmodern perspective.
Modernism and Postmodernism
Cinematography as an invention and a form of art is an obvious product of modernism. At the same time, a modernist perspective is a culture with a uniformed semantic field built around the idea of rationality, and its goal was overcoming the chaos of the world and an aspiration to place chaos to standards, laws, and style, thereby giving it a certain shape. The modernist perspective even when dominant, had postmodernist features in it. However, “modernism had not only lost its ability to shock and disturb; it had become centered and canonized as the high culture of the modern capitalist world.” (John Storey, p. 64).
Postmodernism reflects the change of a scientific paradigm in the postindustrial society, connected with a ripening of a new order from chaos. The modernist style tears external and internal communications with nature, society, and people, while postmodernism recreates them, being engaged in a persevering search of laws in a variety. Postmodernism is a mode with an aggravation of the open and nonlinear system, where the information exchange with the environment is carried out not only through borders, without a sense of history, but at the same time feeds “vampirically” on the past. As Jameson defined it, Postmodernism in the film is “a culture of images and surfaces, without latent possibilities, it derives its hermeneutic force from other images, other surfaces, the interplay of intersexuality…-the complacent play of historical allusion” (John Storey, p. 66).
X-Files Analysis
Providing the relation of modernism and postmodernism in “The X-file”, an analysis of the characters and personalities of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully should be given.
Fox Mulder, a special FBI agent whose goal in the movie and through the series is to uncover a governmental conspiracy of hiding the facts of contacts with extraterrestrial life. “Mulder succeeds only to the extent that he abandons his role as an officer of the federal government – a mere cog in a bureaucratic machine that itself part of the problem. Only to the extent that Mulder can overcome his modernity and recover the role of shaman himself – become a sort of postmodern shaman – can he hope to triumph over his adversaries.” (Paul Cantor 131)
Dana Scully, also a special FBI agent and a partner of Mulder, is working together to solve the cases in the movie and the series. If the character of Mulder can be described as having a specific sense of humor and irony, Skully is more of a skeptical person who in the course of the film, despite the obvious signs of her interest in Mulder were put to follow him.
If assigning each of the characters a perspective of modernist and postmodernist ideology, it could be said that Mulder is a postmodernist type with the irony being his specific feature, and at the same time the quality of postmodernism, as mentioned earlier, to feed on the past can be evident in Mulder goal through the series to find his sister Samantha who was lost in early childhood. Scully, on the other hand, with her skepticism and rationality, evident through the film through her refusal to leave the crusade, “if I quit now, they win” is a modernist who likes modernism “deeply suspicious of most things popular”. (John Storey 64)
If following the TV series their ideologies and distinct characters remain almost unchanged through the show, however, in the movie it could be assumed that they both transitioned into postmodernism as the end implies the reopening of the X–files which is a feature of postmodernism, i.e. returning to history where “the old is not simply replaced with new, but is recycled for circulation…” (John Storey 64)
Conclusion
The analysis of ideologies in films can reveal interesting facts on the development of art, where the characters and the plot can represent different directions and perspectives. In that sense, even a science fiction film can be a solid ground for such examination.
The Simpsons: “The Springfield Files” Episode
Introduction
Cartoon films for the majority of modern people are the first cultural impressions of life. Books enter people’s lives in a later stage, where they even are taught in the form that the letter “A” is “Aladdin”, and the letter “D” is “Donald Duck”. As it is known, the first impressions are the most durable; therefore even the adult person involuntarily expects from the drawn picture the naiveté and the fabulousness that is familiar since childhood. In this particular case, the viewer is disoriented. The Simpsons — the longest cartoon serial in the history of American TV, consisting of 427 series in 20 seasons, is an animated sitcom saturated with satire (including social), and a show, derides many clichés and stereotypes, particularly the lifestyle of the average American, features of world cultures as a whole, celebrities and even TV covering adult themes such as gay rights and brothels. A cartoon film is something from childhood and suddenly a brothel. How to reconcile one with another? It is necessary to tell that the brothel from this cartoon film shocks much more than a brothel from any documentary film. While things are being decided, the rating counters are off-scale – “The Simpsons” mad, and stunning popularity is almost not explainable. Perhaps, the matter is in the self-ironicalness of this cartoon that is extolled in every possible way. This paper analyzes an episode of “The Simpsons” called “The Springfield Files” addressing the issue of parody as having a role in transitioning from modern to postmodern ideology.
Modernism, Postmodernism, and Parody
Describing postmodernism regarding popular culture, “it replicates and reproduces…the logic of consumer capitalism”, where culture as an ideology no longer exists becoming “an economic activity, perhaps the most important economic activity of all” (John Storey, p. 65)
In that sense parody is a “privileged quality” of postmodernism (John Storey 70), wherein a literal sense parody is a form of satire with the help of which ideology hostile to class is attacked. In a wider sense, parody is a form of art, intentionally repeating characteristic features of other forms of art, usually widely popular, in the form that intends to create a comic effect.
In a way, parody not only underlines the original works but also creates a vision were stereotypes, not evident initially, are exaggerated and recognized. In that sense, modernism although often quoted from popular culture, most of its canon “had been deeply suspicious of most things popular.” (John Storey 64) Thus, it can be seen, that in regards to popular culture modernism and postmodernism are somewhat contradicting each other.
Analysis of “The Simpsons”
Analyzing “The Simpsons” in general, it can be said that in addition to being a post-modernist show, it also bears the ideology of postmodernism in which parody and satire are distinct features. The ideas implemented in the show establish a total reference to popular culture even in acknowledging existent problems in society. In that sense a remarkable episode could be mentioned when Senator Schumner visiting a high school praised the Brady bill for its role in preventing crime, “a student Kevin Davis cited an example no doubt familiar to his classmates but unknown to the senator from New York: “It reminds me of a Simpson episode.” (Paul Cantor 67)
In the episode “The Springfield Files” which parodies the series “X-files”, it can be seen that, unlike many empty parody movies, the Simpsons require not only watching x-files but also require knowledge of typical stereotypes, general social problems, and even be familiar with politics.
The portrayal of Simpsons as the average family living in average small-town forces the viewers to associates themselves and the ones around them with the characters searching for typical similarities. These similarities when exaggerated outline the most obvious phenomena in society. Aliens, talk shows that discuss trivia, FBI, references to popular series, and much more are narrated through the adventures of this “average family”. It could be pointed out that the narration through parody can be seen as more effective, at least for the generation that was raised post the seventies. In that statement it could be said that parody shifted from pointing the obvious narration to more delicate, where people should associate the phenomenon to popular culture, which in the case of the aforementioned episode it is represented as alien movies, x-files, and alien shows, to make it obvious.
Conclusion
Postmodernism as a “a celebration of the mixing of high and low” can be found as an evident example in “The Simpsons” Mixing a cartoon with adult themes that are pointed out in a way that makes a satire of itself, and parodies even the process of the series creation along with the ground on which it has occurred.
Works Cited
- “The Springfield Files.” The Simpsons. Fox Broadcasting Company. 1997.
- Cantor, Paul. Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization. Rowman, 2003.
- Storey, John. Inventing Popular Culture: From Folklore to Globalization (Blackwell Manifestos). Wiley-Blackwell, 2003.
- The X-Files (Movie). Dir. Rob Bowman. Perf. David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson. VHS. 20th Century Fox, 1998.