Alien Abduction

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Basil writes (in response to Jan):
"If you had read the relevant article in the `New Scientist' about the
abduction by aliens story you would have seen that the explanation given
there is that people see the same (or vaguely the same) alien because they
hear on TV other people describe that type of alien abducting them. Now it
may not be the type that popular culture has of aliens but maybe its the
type our mind has of aliens..."

Given some of the research on cognition of the last decade or two, it may be
that the prototypical alien is in fact a template of cues for facial re-
cognition.  Think of how many SF artists used similar depictions of humanoid
aliens (as opposed to Bug-Eyed Monsters).  There are similarities in
Wells' description of the Eloi in THE TIME MACHINE, the Mushroom Planet
people (a great children's SF series), and many, many others.  The
prototype is also evident in ET and the aliens of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS.
The ultimate image one has is Charlie Brown with eyes by Keene (on black
velvet).

The big eyes are important.  Several people have noted that big, dark eyes
are used by Disney to give sympathy to cartoon characters--and that
Spielberg stole the idea for ET (as he stole a lot from Disney in many
of his films).

Now, as to Pynchon . . . 

--Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN