probably my favorite exchange from the X-files ~

[lookingland]

"Quagmire" ~ 3.22

SCULLY: It's funny, I just realized something.

MULDER: [Queequeg is a] bizarre name for a dog?

SCULLY: No, how much you're like Ahab. You're so consumed by your personal vengeance against life, whether it be its inherent cruelties or mysteries, everything takes on a warped significance to fit your megalomaniacal cosmology.

MULDER: Scully, are you coming on to me?

SCULLY: It's the truth or a white whale. What difference does it make? I mean, both obsessions are impossible to capture, and trying to do so will only leave you dead along with everyone else you bring with you. You know Mulder, you are Ahab.

MULDER: You know, its interesting you should say that, because I've always wanted a peg leg. It's a boyhood thing I never grew out of. I'm not being flippant, I've given this a lot of thought. I mean. if you have a peg leg or hooks for hands then maybe its enough to simply keep on living. You know, braving facing life with your disability. But without these things you're actually meant to make something of your life, achieve something earn a raise, wear a necktie. So if anything I'm actually the antithesis of Ahab, because if I did have a peg leg I'd quite possibly be more happy and more content not to be chasing after these creatures of the unknown.

~ * ~

ah, for those halcyon days when that show was something to be reckoned with. X-files may well be the last bit of mainstream pop-culture i was ever actually plugged into.

sad, that.

: D

Comments

[codepoet.livejournal.com]

wow, that ended a lot niftier than I expected it to.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

it's a swell moment in an otherwise very silly episode.

it's stayed with me and given me much to think about ever since.

: D