easy to please -- difficult to impress

--> infinity does not have your picture in its locker.


-->but it is a house you can build.


-->I wish I knew what you were missing.


-->That's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise.


-->'How could anyone be so blind?' The blindest question of all.


-->not all who wander are decent human beings


-->well, really I wish you didn't want so much.


-->Look at you.

so many of the most iconic images from 'the x-files' feature nothing more or less than mulder or scully--or mulder & scully--viewed from behind as they study something extraordinary: an event that will change them, a place with potential, a phenomenon that cannot be explained. it's such a thematically significant composition that it just about sums up the entirety of the show: the importance of searching (did you find what you were looking for? / no, but i found something i thought i'd lost: faith to keep looking); the importance of witnessing (why do you doubt yourself? / because my partner didn't see them); and the importance of facing what comes (how can i see the future if it didn't already exist? / then if the future is written, then why bother to do anything). for a brief moment we are voyeurs, watching these characters as the conspirators who threaten them do. they are outlined against the impossible, but they refuse to let it remain a nameless enigma... and that is the danger they pose.

This is my most popular post on Tumblr by several orders of magnitude. It was originally published on August 10, 2015, just a few days after I finished watching through The X-Files for the first time. As of right now, it has 7,114 notes--which is not a lot in the grand scheme of Tumblr (or even of xf fandom), but it's a lot for me. I've been on Tumblr since December of 2009 and never had more than 250 followers, so this post is my small claim to fame, crappy Netflix screencaps and all.