Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to Cyberspace

207 Pages·1998·10.04 MB·English

by  Jodi Dean

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A L I E N S
i n A M E R I C A
Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to Cyberspace
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Copyright © 1998 Library of Congress
by Cornell University Cataloging-in-Publication Data
All rights reserved. Dean, Jodi, b. 1962
Except for brief quotations in a Aliens in America : conspiracy cultures
review, this book, or parts thereof, from outerspace to cyberspace /
must not be reproduced in any form Jodi Dean,
without permission in writing from p. cm.
the publisher. Includes bibliographical references
For information, address (p. ) and index.
Cornell University Press,
Sage House, paper).—isbn 0-8014-8468-5 (pbk.: alk.
512 East State Street, paper)
Ithaca, New York 14850. 1. Human-alien encounters—Social
First published 1998 by aspects—United States. 2. Alien abduc­
Cornell University Press tion—Social aspects—United States.
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 1998 L Title.
Printed in the United States of America BF2050.D43 1998 97-44509
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Contents
Acknowledgments, xi
Introduction: Alien Politics, 1
1 Fugitive Alien Truth, 25
2 Space Programs, 62
3 Virtually Credible, 98
4 I Want to Believe, 126
5 The Familiarity of Strangeness, 155
Postscript: Commemorations, July 1997, 182
Notes, 199
Index, 233
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Acknowledgments
Countless people have watched television, tabloids, and the skies
for signs of alien life. They have kept me supplied with clippings and car­
toons, ever on the alert for something I may have missed. Many people
have told me their personal stories, some of whom have requested that
their names not be used. More have given me their opinions on aliens, ab­
ductions, and cover-ups. Thanks to Walt Andrus, Hubertus Buchstein,
Claudette Columbus, Bette Jo Runnels Dean, Dave Dean, David Dean,
Brenda Denzler, Iva Deutchman, Leslie Feldman, Dawn Feligno, Joey
Feligno, Dahn Dean Gandell, Rachel Gandell, Mindy Gerber, Robert
Girard, Judith Grant, David Halperin, Alan Hill, Budd Hopkins, Bill
Hudnut, Debra Jordan Kauble, Marty Kelly, Bill Kenyon, Sue Kenyon,
John Mack, David Ost, Craig Rimmerman, and Dave Stainton.
E-mail conversations with the members of Alan Hill’s UFO movement
discussion list kept me up to date, stimulated, and supported as I wrorked on
this project. Faculty research grants from Hobart and William Smith
helped to fund fieldwork and supply hard-to-find research materials. Stu­
dents and faculty from the colleges were helpful audiences for the early
presentations that became chapters of this book. Critical feedback from
participants in the 1996 and 1997 Prague Conferences on Philosophy and
the Social Sciences challenged me to clarify and sharpen my arguments.
I am fortunate to have had the excellent volunteer research assistance of
two William Smith students. Kim Crocetta helped me on the astronaut
chapter, persistently contacting the NASA History Office and poring
through back issues of Life. Ayesha Hassan was the backbone of the abduc­
tion research. Her interviewing skills were invaluable at the 1996 Mutual
UFO Network (MUFON) symposium, and her diligent and creative inter­
pretative work proved invaluable.
I give special thanks to people who supported this project in its early
stages. Without their encouragement, this project would have not been
possible. Thomas Dumm, whose beautiful writing and provocative work at
the intersection of political and cultural theory provided a powerful ideal,
contributed valuable suggestions and advice. Lee Quinby taught me about
apocalypse, accompanied me to lectures by abduction researchers, and gave
me crucial advice on every chapter. Elaync Rapping, w hose detailed review
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of the manuscript was unrelenting, pushed me to pay greater attention to
the significant work done in media studies and talked me through point
after point. Thanks also to Maura Burnett and Ken Wissoker for their
interest in the project and to William Connolly, Bruce Robbins, Thomas
DiPiero, and Michael Shapiro for their responsive recommendations on
the proposal, Chapter i, and Chapter 5, respectively.
Alison Shonkwiler has been a wonderful editor. She believed in this proj­
ect (if not in the aliens) from the beginning, both taking a book about aliens
to a press more likely to be associated with Carl Sagan (indeed, Cornell
published a critical collection on UFOs edited by Sagan in the 1970s) and
realizing that this was more than a book about aliens. Alison also provided
meticulous, insightful, and immediate responses throughout the project.
Often, after reading her suggestions and rereading my original words, I
wondered what I could have been thinking. No doubt many of the faults
that remain are the result of my failure to heed all of her advice.
Shane Kenyon wras and continues to be the source and inspiration for my
thinking on the various networks of the contemporary present (and for
much, much more). Kian Runnels Kenyon-Dean, coincidentally (?) bom
nine months after UFOs were sighted over Albany, New York, reminded
me of the resemblance between aliens and fetuses, especially after I first
saw the sonogram of what became Kian. Both prevent my world from be­
ing a totally alien place.
A draft of Chapter 5 was previously published in Theory and Event as
uThe Familiarity of Strangeness: Aliens, Citizens, and Abduction.”
The art used on pages 47, 106, 128, and 159 was provided by Jeff West-
over, himself an experiencer. He can be contacted by E-mail at jeff.west-
[email protected].
Geneva, New York jodi dean
xii Acknowledgments
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Introduction
Alien Politics
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Aliens have invaded the United States. No longer confined to
science fiction and Elvis-obsessed tabloids, aliens appear in the New York
Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, at candy counters
(in chocolate-covered flying saucers and as Martian melon-flavored lol­
lipops), and on Internet web sites. Aliens are at the center of a battle at
Harvard, caught in the university’s furor over the psychologist John Mack’s
work with alleged abduction experiences and its attempt to revoke the
Pulitzer Prize-winning professor’s tenure. Aliens have been seen in cred­
ible company at MIT. There, at the 1992 Abduction Study Conference,
psychiatrists, abductees, ufologists, and professors in sociology, religion,
and physics seriously discussed the possibility that aliens are abducting
people from bedrooms and cars and using their sperm and ova to create a
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Graycie (Gary Tenuta)
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hybrid human-alien species.1 In Nevada, a stretch of interstate near the
secret military base and alleged crashed-disk hiding place Area 51 was re­
named the Extraterrestrial Highway. Attending the dedication ceremony
were Nevada government officials, the stars, directors, and writers from
Independence Day, and county, state, and national directors from the Mutual
UFO Network.2 Walt Disney World added a newr attraction, the Extra-
TERRORestrial Alien Encounter. Disney invited abductees to Orlando to
promote it.3
Aliens have been used to market AT&T cellular phones, Milky Way
candy bars, Kodak film, Diet Coke, Stove-Top Stuffing, T-shirts, Rice
Krispies, air fresheners, toys, abduction insurance, skateboard accessories,
and the backlist at MIT Press. Titled “Subliminal Abduction,” the catalog,
with its “totally alien prices,” features the typical big-eyed gray alien and
the alien’s remarks on various books. For example, about Thomas Mc­
Carthy’s Ideals and Illusions, the alien says “Item 120 explicates earthling
delusions with grace, wit, and savage sarcasm. A must read!” Fox Network s
popular show, The X-Files, with its focus on abductions, conspiracies, and
the search for truth, has generated its ow-n line of products (mugs, hats,
books, T-shirts, comic books) as wrell as a lively discussion group on Amer­
ica OnLine. CompuServe features a closed abductee discussion forum. Ab­
ductees Anonymous has a site on the World Wide Web where abductees
and experiences (those who feel more positive about their alien encoun­
ters) recount and interpret important events in their lives. A special section
is reserved for abductee problems, such as spontaneous involuntary inrisi­
bility. Entertainment Tonight says that ETs are one of the most accessed
subjects on the Net, second only to sex.4 The Penthouse site, promoting the
September 1996 issue, features both: it displays photos that publisher Bob
Guccione claims come from the “real autopsy” of the alien wrho crashed in
Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 (as opposed to the fake alien autopsy broad­
cast by the Fox Network first in 1995 and frequently thereafter). The pho­
tos are actually of the model alien body used in the Showtime movie Rosu'ell
and on display at the town Rosw ell’s International UFO Museum.
Word on the Net is that former Entertainment Tonight host John Tesh is
an alien. The tabloids claim that twelve U.S. senators are space aliens. Scott
Mandelker says that 150 million Americans are aliens.5 (At least they have
political representation.) A Roper poll suggests that at least one in fifty
Americans has been abducted by aliens.6 A Gallup poll says that 2 7 percent
of Americans believe space aliens have visited Earth.7 The Penthouse site
raises the number to 48 percent. A Time/CNN poll says 80 percent of its
respondents believe the U.S. government is covering up its knowledge of
Introduction 3
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