Fear Indexing the X-Files

by Nora Khan

In this extended illustrated essay, artists Steven Warwick and Nora Khan analyze key episodes of The X- Files to address the evolving climate of fear during the Clinton era, which marked the birth of the commercial internet and a new era of networked communication and deregulated neoliberalism.

44 pages, Paperback

Published August 22, 2017

Reviews

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

"fear wasn't always personified or embodied. In the absence of an external political or cultural threat that simply couldn't be defined, The X-Files also posited ambient interior space - inside the home, within walls, within computers - as a threat. Fear could be abstract, slowly constructed through atmosphere, an idea of harm just hovering on the periphery of awareness."

My parents have always been big X-Files fans, the show for me is so ingrained into my childhood. The first episode I watched was the Tooms episode, probably too young (it terrifies me even today) and whenever we would go on holiday I would lie awake staring at the hotel room air conditioning vents, awaiting my death. When I went to uni I started to properly watch the show through and a couple of years later they showed reruns on television which my parents watched every evening. So we spoke a lot about the show and how things had changed (politics, technology, fear), and it was interesting to hear my dads perspective. So with that in mind, this extended essay is extremely my shit and something i want to dig into further.

[Eleanore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inject this exact type of extremely nerdy shit directly into my veins, I live for this stuff.