Don't forget the Y-Files

• Published in: Fortean times no. 405; p. 29
• Main Author: Randles, Jenny
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Diamond Publishing Ltd 01.05.2021
• ISSN: 0308-5899

[...]all those multichannel exposes, retrofitting every incident in human history: aliens caused Pompeii to be destroyed and abducted Leonardo da Vinci to inspire his genius. [...]we want to learn things about the UFO phenomenon and are suspicious that the government are up to something, as they usually are - but I doubt they keep tabs on the Little Piddling UFO Society because they think you have cracked an intergalactic conspiracy (though they might suspect you are intruding unawares into some military intelligence op and keep tabs to ensure you do think little green men were behind it rather than grumpy grey men in suits who would rather you 'keep watching the skies'). Or working on a video taken by security staff at a shopping mall who filmed a late-night UFO buzzing the car park. The X-Files was fun as fiction, but instead of pretending to live that dream ufologists should consider their cases as 'The Y-Files'. Because explaining why someone saw what they did gives them a neat story to tell the folks and erases ongoing trauma - a job well done, surely?