Recent events (i.e., Heaven's Gate) have gotten me thinking about UFOlogy in
general, and abduction by aliens in particular.
Some time ago there was an article in the Chicago Tribune about the guy
(don't remember his name) who wrote that bestseller (never read it and don't
remember its name) about alien abduction. I barely skimmed the first few
paragraphs before I turned the page to find Dilbert, but the little I read
made it clear that this guy maintains he really was abducted.
This got me wondering about the whole genre of alien abduction writings. If
a work is a hoax then it is fiction, I thought, so you could term the book
"science fiction." OTOH, if the writer's delusional and really believes he
was abducted, the work is nonfiction. Carefully skirting the uncomfortable
but inescapable conclusion that the difference between fiction and nonfiction
is the intent of the writer, it occurred to me that maybe I wasn't looking at
them the right way. Maybe the best way to view accounts of alien abduction
is as folklore. Modern fairy tales, if you will.
Let me say here that I have had no formal education of any kind into folklore
or fairy tales. In fact, the only shred of a credential I could possibly
drag up is that as a little girl I read the local library dry of fairy tales.
(Given the time {early 60's] and location [midwest US], it goes without
saying that these fairly tales were European in origin.)
I'm counting on the folklorists on this list to set everyone straight about
my inevitable blunders. ("The ignorance displayed in Anny's post is matched
only by her triteness. The few parts she didn't get totally wrong are
incredibly hackneyed....")
I also have to admit that I've never read any of the books on alien
abduction. All I know is what anyone these days has picked up from the
occasional newspaper or magazine article. (I imagine most people,
discovering they know damned little about either aspect of a topic would be
hitting the Delete button about now. But while a ditty about fools and
angels echoes in my brain, I forge on.)
Anyway I started to look at alien abduction stories as modern folklore. The
basic story runs something like this:
"I was minding my own business driving one night when I saw a bright light.
The next thing I knew it was morning. At first I didn't know what happened,
but over time my memory returned and I remembered being sucked up into a
spaceship. The aliens there performed hideous medical experiments on me.
When they were done they returned me to my car."
It seems to me that fairy tales are popular because they touch some universal
concern. But universal concerns are pretty timeless, so the development of a
new theme would be unusual. I asked myself: Are there any traditional fairy
tales that parallel the alien abduction story?
And quickly came up with the Taken by Elves/Fairies story. An example:
"A drunken farmer stumbles on a group of dancing Twlwyth Teg and passes out
in their midst. The dancers were outraged! They tied him up and covered him
with cobwebbing which hid him from view and completely muffled his snores.
The next night they felt sorry for him and let him go. He wandered for
hours before getting his bearings and then realized he had been only a short
distance from home the whole time."
I find the similarities between this story and the alien abduction story
striking. In both stories the human is taken by intelligent but nonhuman
beings. Bad things happen to the human, but he is released basically
unharmed. (The cynical part of me [which is most of me] wonders if both
these stories didn't start out as Creative Excuses: "Honestly, honey, I was
taken by fairies/abducted by aliens! I wasn't out all night making the
two-backed beast with that cute bartender with the tight butt! Really, I
wasn't!" But although the Creative Excuse may indeed explain the origin of
these stories, it doesn't explain their popularity. I could talk at length
about why I think the Alien Abduction story is so popular now, but that takes
me out of the realm of speculation and into conjecture so wild it's
indistinguishable from pure bull, so I'll refrain.)
The major difference between the Alien Abduction and Taken by Fairies stories
seems to be in their setup. The Taken by Fairies story typically starts with
wrongdoing, (deliberate or by mistake) on the part of the human, who is
therefore an agent in his own misfortune. The farmer is drunk, the girl
disregards warnings about entering the woods at night, the young man gives in
to the sexual urgings of the female fairy. The Alien Abduction stories
however seem (to my admittedly limited knowledge) to make a point of the fact
that the narrator is blameless. Why should this difference occur?
When attempting to answer this it occurred to me that there is another wildly
popular type of story these days that also has a counterpart in traditional
fairy tales. Consider these:
"I was minding my own business when a stranger approached and told me to do
something. For some reason I followed his advice and it turned that doing so
saved my life. I know now that this stranger was really an angel."
"A person walking through the woods comes upon a starving beggarwoman and
gives her his last crust of bread. She gives him a magic talisman. Later
that talisman saves his life."
Again the similarities between these stories is great (a life is saved by a
person who appears human but really isn't), but the setup differs. In the
traditional fairy tale the person puts things in motion by an act of
kindness. In the modern angel story, it just happens.
Two possibilities for this difference between current popular stories and
traditional fairy tales occur to me. The first is that these stories are
still unfinished in a way, and that over time the elements of personal
responsibility will be added to make the story richer. The second is that
we're seeing a trend away from cause-and-effect views of the universe towards
one where events are more random and chaos rules.
Personally, I lean to the second explanation. But this is starting to get
off-topic, so I'd better close.
Anny
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