Meta for "Paper Clip"
So sorry this is sooooooo late.
Memory is taken for granted in our culture today. People don’t trust its power, opting instead for the physical archives to tell the story of the past. Since digital cameras have become ubiquitous, many people rely on these images for their memories. If there are no pictures, did the event happen? Why keep these moments in your mind when you can outsource them to another technology and store them there?
When did our memories lose their power? Why have they become worthless? The first time I watched this three-parter, I didn’t understand why Albert Hosteen’s memorization of the digital tape (with the twenty other Navajos who also memorized it) was such a bargaining chip, changing the course of the episode and ending Skinner and CSM’s game of power play. Looking at the three episodes as a whole, however, one can see how the episodes subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) build the idea that memory is important-so important, in fact, that people’s lives depend on it.
Albert Hosteen’s opening speech at the beginning of “The Blessing Way” presents the kernel of this theme. “My people have come to trust memory over history. Memory, like fire, is radiant and immutable while history serves only those who seek to control it….” One would normally think the other way around, that history is immutable and memory is gray and fuzzy, especially as one ages. A cultural difference, perhaps-do Navajos value memory and others do not?
In these episodes, Mulder and Scully begin to see that their memories are valuable. As Mulder’s father tells him during his spiritual journey, “You are the memory, Fox. It lives in you. If you were to die now, the truth will die.” This is the most valuable information that Mulder receives during his spiritual journey, and possibly the most valuable information he’s ever received from his father: Memory equals truth.
Many of the characters are afraid of their memories because they are afraid of this truth. Scully and Melissa’s final conversation (aside from their brief phone call) is an argument over memory. Scully refuses to access the memories of her abduction. Mulder’s mother won’t remember the people in her husband’s photographs. This is an active forgetting. These memories are accessible to these people if they want them.
Operation Paper Clip itself is an example of forgetting, as the US government is willing to forget what these men have done in order to get scientific knowledge from them. In this case, the loss of memory equals evil and wrongdoing.
The contents of the digital tape-all that proof, all that truth-still exists in memory. Some may think that without the physical proof information and experiences do not exist. Skinner knows they do, however, and so does CSM. Since these memories exist, this particular game is over.