They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves: The History and Politics of Alien Abduction

by Bridget Brown

Overview

What's really behind Americans' persistent belief in alien abductions?

Since its emergence in the 1960s, belief in alien abduction has saturated popular culture, with the ubiquitous image of the almond-eyed alien appearing on everything from bumper stickers to bars of soap. Drawing on interviews with alleged abductees from the New York area, Bridget Brown suggests a new way for people to think about the alien phenomenon, one that is concerned not with establishing whether aliens actually exist, but with understanding what belief in aliens in America may tell us about our changing understanding of ourselves and our place in the world.

They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves looks at how the belief in abduction by extraterrestrials is constituted by and through popular discourse and the images provided by print, film, and television. Brown contends that the abduction phenomenon is symptomatic of a period during which people have come to feel increasingly divested of the ability to know what is real or true about themselves and the world in which they live. The alien abduction phenomenon helps us think about how people who feel left out create their own stories and fashion truths that square with their own experience of the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814799222
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	247
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Bridget Brown teaches writing at Montclair State University. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies from New York University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Elusive Shreds of Memory: The Trauma and Recovery of Alien Abduction
2 The Invisible Epidemic: Abduction Traumatists
3 Good Subjects: Submitting to the Alien
4 My Body Is Not My Own: The Intimate Invasion of Alien Technology
5 An Ongoing and Systematic Breeding Experiment
6 They Have the Secrets: Conspiracy Theory as Alternative History
7 This Is Worse Than Friggin’ Aliens: Conspiracy Theory and the War against Citizens
8 Look and See What You Have Done: Abductees and the Burden of Global Consciousness
9 You Have a Sensitivity: The Limits of Chosenness
10 Reality Gets Exploded: Abductee Culture, Abductee Belief
Conclusion: Alien Abduction and the New Face of Terror
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A fascinating addition to the literature.”
-CHOICE

,

“Brown argues convincingly that alien abduction stories speak to several key issues in our culture, from environmentalism to changing ideas about reproduction. Extending far beyond textual readings, she instead tells the stories of individual people, treating them with respect, but with a critical lens as well. Her analysis of the role of ‘experts’ in alien abduction-their power and the misuses of that power-is utterly compelling.”
-Melani McAlister,George Washington University

“Brown’s brilliant study is so much more than a book about alien abduction—it is a flesh-and-blood inquiry into the nature of belief in a technologically advanced society.”
-Andrew Ross,author of Fast Boat to China

“This thoughtful and penetrating volume is the newest contribution to a suddenly fashionable exploration of the UFO subculture in academia, this time in a cultural studies vein, but with high potential interest for folklorists and other social scientists.”
-Christopher R. Roth,University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating addition to the literature."

CHOICE

"Browns brilliant study is so much more than a book about alien abductionit is a flesh-and-blood inquiry into the nature of belief in a technologically advanced society."

Andrew Ross

"Brown argues convincingly that alien abduction stories speak to several key issues in our culture, from environmentalism to changing ideas about reproduction. Extending far beyond textual readings, she instead tells the stories of individual people, treating them with respect, but with a critical lens as well. Her analysis of the role of & experts in alien abduction-their power and the misuses of that power-is utterly compelling."

Melani McAlister

Brown’s brilliant study is so much more than a book about alien abduction—it is a flesh-and-blood inquiry into the nature of belief in a technologically advanced society.”
-Andrew Ross,author of Fast Boat to China

“A fascinating addition to the literature.”
• CHOICE

From the Publisher