- Professor Richard Doyle, aka mobius, Penn State University

 

A Commentary for SLSA, Portland Maine, 2007

Also Available as Radio Free Valis

Other mobius podcasts

 

Once upon a time I found a fragment of information inside an image I was hacking. I had downloaded a very cool image of a blob of mercury while receiving the language snippet "Hermes Alien Peekaboo" in my noggin. Don't tell me this doesn't happen to you - spontaneous poetics? Hermes is of course the god Mercury, who I sometimes imagine, along with Carl Jung, that I channel.

FIN

---

 

scribbling associated with this wikidelic response to SLSA

SLSA Podcast

Special Bonus Track from Valis, \"The Grasshopper Lies Heavy\", a fake spoken wyrd opera about Philip K. Dick, with Peacefeather

 

MUDs, Moos, Wikis - interconnectivity and the alien; artificial life forms sprouting in the infosphere to seduce us into our own futures. Valis - a perturbation in the reality field, a vortex.

Clive Barker and Bob Barker

Bob Barker as Transhuman Buster Friendly Wannabe with Whirling Numerological Mandala Prayer Wheel Mothership Cipher

 

 

 

Usually I have theoretical points to make; here I don't have theoretical

 

points to make. What I have is a mess:

 

 

 

Grays Anatomy: How to make a flying saucer

 

 

 

Gray Barkers relationship to UFOs and UFOlogy is inherently problematic;

 

he simultaneously collected (and to some extent believed)and created

 

paradigmantic objects representative of the alien. The photography and

 

rephotography of these objects contributes to an apocalyptic strain in

 

American culture.

 

 

 

For this presentation, I will use Barkers constructions from wood and

 

plaster; I will offer a phenomenology and deconstruction of these objects;

 

and I will present the possibility of deeply alien spaces online in such

 

venues as Lambda MOO and Second Life.

 

 

 

ALIENS IN SL:

 

 

 

1. We are all alien.

 

2. Rather than morphed extensions of FL (first life), consider inconceiv-

 

able forms and behaviours. For example are you bound by 3S/1T coordinates?

 

3. MOOs relied on imagination; anything that could be described was possible.

 

4. MOO: Description about (introjected description of X / symbolic)

 

 

 

 

I will argue against both Cyborg and prosthetic models, instead favoring

 

the anatomical analysis of Vesalius and Grays Anatomy. The presentation is

 

multi-media, and will utilize research tools from the Virtual Environments

 

Laboratory at West Virginia University.

 

 

 

IN OTHER WORDS/BODIES:

 

 

 

CYBORG / PROSTHETIC = {A + B} - ABJECTION

 

 

 

But: Saucer Goo - nature of abductions - Mike Kelley's essay

 

 

 

Abductions recuperate the hysteric body (1840 essay on Hysteria)

 

 

 

"The author reveals the starting truth about extraterrestrial visitation:

 

contact has been established.

 

 

 

Scientific ufologists, more interested in 'hard' evidence (like radar

 

traces, photographs and forensic samples) condemn this 'wet' material as

 

too subjective, relegating claims of sexual assault and abduction to the

 

fields of psychology and folklore (which they likewise distrust)."

 

 

 

 

 

Flying Saucers over Clarksburg, West Virginia (Clarksburg jpgs)

 

 

 

I photographed these flying saucers (there seem to be two types??) over

 

Clarksburg, West Virginia, in the north-central sector of the state. A

 

slight amount of detail is visible. Clarksburg is known as the hometown of

 

Gray Barker, who was first visited by "the men in black" - he was also the

 

first to write about this top-secret government organization. The saucers

 

were silent, propelled by a new kind of drives which relies on elements

 

and physical principles unknown to modern science.

 

 

 

I photographed these wooden and plaster models (there were two types) as

 

they were thrown vertically in Clarksburg, West Virginia. These were made

 

by Barker himself and were a prototype for many of the flying saucer ima-

 

ges from the 1950s-60s. Barker created the concept of "the men in black,"

 

as well as secret letters purported to originate with the US government,

 

which encouraged the saucerian movement.

 

 

 

===================================================

 

 

 

I want to proceed through a classification scheme to

 

issues of the _absence_ of abjection in relation to cleansed or clean

 

objects and the 'purity' of sightings and classification schemes - then

 

again there are messy abduction scenarios.

 

 

 

Or rather, how do you classify the abject?

 

Think of abject and other/alien as resistance to classification:

 

bringing them into the corral already creates the simulacrum of

 

identification.

 

 

 

We have in general:

 

 

 

1 There are things in the sky

 

2 The things appear unfamiliar

 

3 They often hover

 

4 They often fly 'erratically'

 

5 They often have flashing or other lights

 

6 They are unidentified, i.e. fit in no acceptable category.

 

7 There are witnesses

 

 

 

8 As with Freud, description, not explanation, i.e. no substructure

 

9 Or rather substructure on the level of the anecdote

 

10 Perhaps a relationship between this substructure and psy-a entities

 

 

 

11 In general the things appeared 'manned,' i.e. guided by

 

alien intelligent organisms

 

12 The intelligent organisms may make themselves visible to witnesses

 

13 There are varying degrees and qualities of contact

 

14 The aliens are defined, i.e. not abject as in many contact films

 

 

 

In the background: Massification (see Harper's New Monthly

 

Magazine, January 1856, Vol XII, January 1, A.D. 3000)

 

 

 

15 There is a double projection at work:

 

abjection in contact films, literature, etc.

 

dialectical and defined in reportage

 

16 One might say the films are the literal cinematic projection of the

 

imaginary

 

17 And the reportage is the literal introjection of the symbolic

 

 

 

18 Classification from:

 

The Ranking of UFO Reports: A Possible Methodology, John Prytz,

 

PFOCON 6, Adelaide, South Australia, October 1981:

 

 

 

Categories:

 

 

 

Four Quarters:

 

The "Object"

 

Evidence

 

The Witness

 

The External Environment: Influences between the object and the witness

 

 

 

Movement / Duration (of movement or event) / Characterics: Color|hint

 

of shapedefined shapeextra details|extra details defined "(legs,

 

windows, etc.)"|"Indepth description - occupants noted - high strangeness"

 

 

 

Mechanical Witness: photos/series/cinema/sonar/radar

 

 

 

Physical Evidence:

 

radioactivityelectro-magnetic tracegeological traceenvironmental trace

 

UFO fragment

 

 

 

Biological, Physiological and/or Psychological Reaction and Changes:

 

various durations

 

 

 

Witnesses: numbers of|same or different locations

 

types of: wild animalsdomestic animalsyoung child|adult human or

 

teenagermechanicaletc.

 

 

 

Reliability factor of:

 

poor mental physical condition, known hoaxer through

 

average to above average in mental/physical condition; expert in

 

observing abilities and experience

 

 

 

Distance from object:

 

greater than 10 mi. through less than 50' through inside object

 

 

 

Weather:

 

Fog mist etc. through unlimited visibility

 

 

 

Time of day:

 

Twilight through absolute darkness through daylight

 

 

 

my additions below

 

 

 

Communication:

 

viewingcommunicating (physical signifiersverbal-acousticthought)

 

touchscentsmellother (static in airmagnetic)|apparent ascertained

 

causality|action at a distance

 

 

 

Abduction:

 

rememberedabductee revealing thru hypnosisrevelations by others|

 

person returnedperson not returned

 

 

 

- this leads into the social: (surgical/sexual/coversant/education/etc.)

 

 

 

Emotional:

 

Perceived dangerarousalhystericcryingscreamingwhisperingawefear

 

empathy or sympathy|etc.

 

 

 

19 "Tell me a story": Narrative issues:

 

To the extent that a story can be told (i.e. plot development), abjection

 

is excluded.

 

(Or abjection 'bends' the text towards a-coherency, obscenity, etc.)

 

 

 

License to fuck, be fucked, face terror, oneself, abject fluids (excluded

 

by medical science, returned through medical science).

 

 

 

SUMMARY: The panoply:

 

 

 

There's cleansing and filth filtered through technology, narratologies,

 

standardized classification schemes.

 

Truth is problematized from within.

 

The alien is too easy (which doesn't mean in real life that the alien

 

isn't too easy).

 

Let's do it here.

 

 

 

They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, Gray Barker, orig. 1956

 

The Mothman Prophecies, John A. Keel, orig. 1975

 

Interstellar Communication, edited A.G.W. Cameron, 1963

 

Flying Saucers, Serious Business, Frank Edwards, 1966

 

The Flying Saucer Reader, Jay David, 1967

 

West Virginia UFOs, Close Enounters in the Mountain State,

 

Bob Teets, orig. 1995

 

Flying Saucers and the Three Men, Albert Bender, annotated/intro/

 

epilogue by Barker, 1962-68

 

An Essay on Hysteria, Thomas Laycock, 1840

 

A Practical Treastise on the Management and Diseases of Children,

 

Evanson and Maunsell, 1838

 

 

 

 

The Men in Black can pretty much be traced back to Barker’s 1956 book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. The Men in Black actually play quite a small role in this book…hardly more than a mention…but they are certainly a central theme. The premise is this: in 1953 Alfred Bender was forced to dissolve his International Flying Saucer Bureau (the IFSB) due to unidentified commands. The October 1953 issue of the IFSB’s newsletter, Space Review, came with the following message, “The mystery of the flying saucers is no longer a mystery. The source is already known, but any information about this is being withheld by order from a higher source. We would like to print the full story in Space Review, but because of the nature of the information we are very sorry that we have been advised in the negative. We advise those engaged in saucer work to please be very cautious." Bender then suspended the publication of Space Review, and dissolved the IFSB. He gave an interview to his local newspaper where he offered vague, evasive descriptions of the men that met with him.

 

 

 

Gray Barker seized this story and described the agents who contacted Bender like this, “Three men in black suits with threatening expressions on their faces. Three men who walk in on you and make certain demands. Three men who know that =you= know what the saucers really are! They don't want you to tell anyone else what you know.” And that’s about the extent of it. Barker also connects the men in black suits with some other cases such as the 1947 Maury Island Affair (which was a beginning of the flying saucer phenomenon) when witness Harold Dahl was asked out to breakfast by a man in a black suit. The strange man repeated the events before they were reported anywhere and threatened Dahl if he told anyone what he saw.

 

 

 

These initial descriptions of the Men in Black are certainly tame. At least far tamer than what they soon became. In 1962, six years after They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, Barker published Alfred Bender’s own account Flying Saucers and the Three Men which was immediately followed by The Bender Mystery Confirmed (a collection of letters from Bender believers). Flying Saucers and the Three Men presents an account of the Men in Black radically different than Barker’s conservative portrayal. No longer just intimidating government agents, they were now from the planet (*silent z*) Kazik. They floated in the air in Bender’s room and had glowing eyes. Before leaving, they gave Bender a piece of metal which he could use to contact them if he held it tightly in one hand, turned on his radio, and repeated the word (*silent z*) Kazik. When he did it, it transported him to Antarctica. On one visit there he was even massaged by three beautiful women in white (“every part of my body without exception,” Bender wrote).

 

 

 

Though it became one of the most widely read and referenced books in ufological circles, the Men in Black phenomenon hardly needed Bender’s book. In the years between They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers and Flying Saucers and the Three Men, the Men in Black had taken on a life of their own outside of Barker’s direct manipulations. One of the most widely reported cases involving the Men in Black was the "kidnapping" of Betty and Barney Hill. They were driving home at night on September 19th, 1961 when a flying saucer appeared above them. A break in their memory occurs and they can't remember anything that happened for the next two hours until they found themselves in their car several miles away from where the UFO was seen. They started seeing a psychiatrist, and under hypnosis they revealed that they had been taken aboard a flying saucer. The Hill's descriptions of the entities controlling the spaceship match up fairly well with primary features described in most Men in Black accounts.

 

 

 

Descriptions of the Men in Black are very diverse, but characteristics can generally be grouped into three standard levels: what is (1) extraneous, what is (2) typical, and what is (3) essential.

 

 

 

 

So that’s kind of a general synthesis of all the different accounts of the Men in Black.

 

What probably interests me most about the Men in Black is their relationship to

a peculiar kind of knowledge.

 

 

 

I might as well begin with what kind of knowledge the Men in Black themselves have. One strange but typical characteristic of the Men in Black is that they show unfamiliarity with common objects such as pens. They might pick up a pen, inspect it carefully, attempt to use it in an awkward and incorrect way. This is in striking contrast to their connection with some of the most advanced technology imaginable…whether it be highly classified government research or interstellar flying saucers. Though it should be noted that the Men in Black themselves usually don’t employ this technology in any explicit way.

 

 

 

The Men in Black also possess detailed knowledge of the individuals that they meet. A recurring feature of Men in Black accounts is a feeling of total vulnerability, especially on a psychological level.

Cf Malleus malfocarum

The glowing eyes of many Men in Black have powers of sight that extend beyond simply the material world...they can literally see what is being thought. Barney Hill said, "Oh, those eyes! They're in my brain!" Notice that it’s not that the Men in Black

take up the subjectivity of who they visit…they always remain clearly distinct…and notice the focus on vision…on seeing…on the gaze. And notice also, depending on one’s theoretical proclivities, either the possibility of analyzing this in terms of Lacanian metaphysics or studying the cultural concurrence of this sort of psychoanalysis and the Men in Black.

 

 

 

So what might we make of this? I suppose there’s a bunch of different ways this can be taken and I’m unsure of which would be the most fruitful. One way to begin is to note that the Men in Black appear when one “knows too much”. When an unsuspecting person sees a UFO or a dedicated investigator gets too close to “the Truth”. With book titles like The Truth About Flying Saucers and an almost reverent obsession with revealing what is truly going on, it seems quite clear that “the Truth” is a fundamental theme of this kind of literature.

 

 

 

But the “Truth” that ufologists are after is hardly the truth as correspondence that many argue is the domain of science. Indeed, John Keel, a ufologist most famous for writing The Mothman Prophecies, said in regards to investigating UFOs and the Men in Black, “This is a matter for spy-like intelligence techniques, not for ‘science’.” Without getting into a discussion of this purported binary between

“spy-like intelligence techniques” and “science”,

as fun as that might be, what I want this quote to emphasize is the general ambivalence, even among someone as, well, socially normal as John Keel, towards searching for “facts” . Keep in mind that Keel wasn’t exactly a kook and at least based his research on fairly reasonable principles and consistent methods (“the so-called scientific method” as he revealingly put it in a 1967 speech).

 

 

 

Research into UFOs, rumored government programs, and other similar phenomena and conspiracies necessarily breaks with, at the very least, how the scientific method is traditionally defined. One way of understanding the Men in Black is to position them…to phrase it in a certain way…as standing in for what it is that can not be known. Consider their otherness, emphasized by everything from their oriental features to their atypical behavior. Also consider their penetrating knowledge of the individuals they visit…a kind of seeing that reaches psychological depths the individuals themselves have never encountered…indeed, the reaction they tend to have after an encounter with the Men in Black is nausea or psychological trauma. Perhaps most importantly, consider their relationship with UFOs and other conspiracies. Direct evidence cannot be examined, and the Men in Black conveniently function to not only account for this, but utterly displace its importance.

 

 

 

Gray Barker may have started the phenomenon of the Men in Black, but the reason it had so much power and was able to saturate this culture so quickly and so thoroughly was the need it fulfilled for a sort of explanation of…justification for…or perhaps diversion towards…the peculiar kind of non-knowledge sought by UFO enthusiasts, broadly construed. After all, UFO enthusiasts were hardly interested in knowledge in any of the ways it has traditionally been defined, “justified true belief” or otherwise. What fascinated them was what can not be known…but in a strange way that did not exactly make it a certain kind of traditional knowledge inversed. The Men in Black satiate a craving for that ambiguous thing one might call the non-known, neither true or untrue, known or not known (when literally understood).

 

 

 

But this is just wandering, you know? Because in attempting to analyze the Men in Black as what cannot be known, all one can do is dance around it. But a contrast might be particularly illuminating. Keel wrote regarding the Men in Black, “We have not been viewing the masters, only the slaves.” And that they are “possibly neither good nor evil but can be ‘used’ by those who know how.” This is a conception, here brought explicit, that is consistent with most of the literature on the Men in Black. It suggests them to be mysterious, ambiguous, contradictory…and, in the reading I’m suggesting…standing in for what it is that cannot be known.

 

 

 

Later on, in the 1980s, Lowell Cunningham created the Men in Black comic books which the two movies were based off of. These comics and movies are far removed from the eerily enchanted tradition they emerged from. The Men in Black no longer represent what cannot be known, but what can be known. What there is to know, in a sense, the Men in Black know…as evidenced by their intergalactic technology. They don’t show unfamiliarity with common objects such as pens, and they are not strange, paranormal or otherly entities. In other words, they are not at all satisfying to UFO enthusiasts.

 

 

 

Gray Barker responded in a letter to people who denied the existence of the Men in Black, writing, “Many people are going to say differently, and you can’t convince them differently. When the truth is finally known, who’s going to believe?...Maybe some people…will then break down and think, “Am I really right?”

 

This focus on non-knowledge…on “the truth” simply causing people to ask, “Am I really right?” rather than revealing anything in particular…demonstrates the way Barker subtly played to the culture he wrote for, as well as highlights the role of the Men in Black as standing in for what cannot be known.

 

 

(Show Barker)

 

 

(Show Drawings p. 70)

 

 

(Show Original Flatwoods drawing)

 

 

(Show telescope)

 

You’ll notice that this telescope is a very literal vortex, a convergent point of interstellar signals.

 

 

(Show Barker’s Pastiche)

 

The Barker archive is a vortex. As the information begins to proliferate in the archive, so too does the paranoia as the reader attempts to connect information that is largely chaotic and unconnected.

 

(Show Feschino)

 

believes what he is saying, Barker didn’t.

 

(Feschino’s Cyborg)

 

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