Eat The Corn celebrates today its 10th anniversary! The site was launched on this day in 2005.
It’s been a wild ride, with periods of intense activity and long periods of calm, but the X-Files passion always somehow returns. The site started as a repository site for remarks I had on the mythology episodes, trying to “prove” that the mythology did make sense, despite its many mysteries and its tendency to put itself in question all the time. Since then:
The remarks grew into full-blown “Field Reports” on every single mythology episode of the series. If put together they would total into a book of several hundred pages! While some early reviews have aged with my evolving writing style, several still hold well, and in all cases they capture a unique energy and enthusiasm about the series.
The reviews led to the synthetic picture presented in the Mytharc Primer, a complete explanation of the mythology connecting all the dots. Since it was written, the site and its collaborators have developed Spanish and German translations! — contact me if you want to help me translate it into your language.
The search for quotes in the behind-the-scenes making of the series led to the creation of the Ten Thirteen Interviews Database, an archival database with interviews mainly from Chris Carter and crew but not only, that has about 500 entries and aims to expand in the future.
The passion for Mark Snow’s music and the great releases of soundtracks in recent years led to the Massive Music Compilation with music list and requests from 150 episodes.
In recent years the site has become known for its in-depth “Lowdowns” of the IDW comics, and been thanked by comics author Joe Harris.
…and much more in the Dossiers section, such as a Chris Carter interview with partner site the X-Files Lexicon, a review of all visual influences on the X-Files, and more.
The site has expanded to Facebook and Twitter, where there’s much more activity now than on the core website.
The site began just as the entire series finished being edited in DVD. It went through a period of low activity in all things Chris Carter, then through the resurgence of activity around the release of the second film and the Back to Frank Black campaign, the rumors of Carter’s new series — then again a period of calm until the comics started in 2013, and with them a wave of 1990s revivals that brought the X-Files back to current pop culture discussions. And so here we are in 2015, on the verge of the release of the definitive BluRay edition of the series, and of the return of the X-Files on the small screen!
EatTheCorn has become, dare I say, one of the reference sites worldwide for the X-Files and Chris Carter. It’s been a great ride! And I hope you’ll continue sharing the rest of the road with me.
After the Spanish version a few months ago, EatTheCorn is proud to present its Mytharc Primer, the definitive chronicle and explanation of the X-Files mythology (until further notice in barely a few months’ time!…) — in German!
Begrüßen unsere Besucher aus Deutschland, Österreich, der Schweiz und anderen Ländern!
Hier finden Sie eine Zusammenfassung und eine detaillierte Erklärung über die X-Files Mythologie finden.
Vielen Dank an Lady3Jane und Antje für die Übersetzung.
Hinweis: Der Text wurde trotz monatelanger Suche und mehrfachen Anfragen innerhalb des deutsch-sprachigen X-Files Fandom noch nicht durch einen zweiten Bearbeiter gegengelesen und kann grammatikalische und/oder inhaltliche Fehler enthalten. Helfer können sich via die Kontaktseite melden.
#mythXplained 4 writers, 1 essential ep: “Memento Mori”, or how to elevate the series to unprecedented emotional heights without introducing any mytharc elements that were not introduced before. The painful “cancer arc begins. Note: watch *after* Never Again.
Eat The Corn Dossier: An examination of what @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files] has left unresolved, in what ways it could develop, and what new it could add to the mix, in 3 parts
Eat The Corn Dossier, Part 2/3: An examination of how the world has changed since @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files] has left the air and what it could incorporate in its storylines from the news
#mythXplained Tempus Fugit/Max, or how to do a double episode nearly independent from the rest of the mythology with quality set design and action pieces — this could be a feature film of itself! RIP Pendrell.
Part 3/3 on the future(s) of @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files]: some speculation, some wild theories, some creative paths the show could take — and there are several!
Full liveblog of Chris Carter at world premiere of @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files].
“It’s really a dream come true for me to do something.”
“Every day I look at the newspaper and I see a possible X-Files episode, so this is obviously something that – I did it for a long time and you never quite lose the eye for what would be good X-Files storytelling. It’s a perfect time to come back with the X-Files considering global politics.”
Asked about the future potential for new episodes, Carter was optimistic. “I love telling X-Files stories. The truth is out there! If we satisfy audience expectations, certainly there’s an opportunity,” he said.
#XFilesRevival premiere first reactions by French journalists Romain Nigita Alain Carrazé: Great! + thank you for the non-spoiler policy!
7 Oct 2015, 11:11
#XFilesRevival premier Italian review: “uno dei più grandi ed importanti eventi televisivi dell’anno prossimo” — did Carter really say “dopo le prime sei puntate” (after the *first* six episodes)?
#XFilesRevival premiere press in German: its fulfilling! “Um es kurz auf den Punkt zu bringen für diejenigen, die an dieser Stelle lieber nicht weiterlesen möchten um so wenig wie möglich zu wissen, nur so viel: Es werden viele Erwartungen erfüllt.”
#XFilesRevival premiere: short Carter interview: answers coming, but questions too
9 Oct 2015, 08:57
#mythXplained “Zero Sum”: Skinner specialist Howard Gordon teams with @[108381559187017:274:Frank Spotnitz] for an episode making the fullest out of the very serialized story-telling in the last half of season 4
#XFilesRevival premiere press: Carter only mentions seasons 1-3 eps as essential viewing before the revival. That + forgetting that the opening credits were different in seasons 8-9 says quite a bit!
10 Oct 2015, 21:46
#XFilesRevival press: US premiere at #NYCC before a crowd of 3000: despite some fans who know how to keep a secret, expect spoilers to hit the internets soon (and, who knows how good rule-keeping was, perhaps video clips of the episode will surface as well). The January premiere is still over 3 months away.
#XFilesRevival premiere press: It’s back to classic X-Files!
Alien conspiracy theorists treated as an X-Files in of itself: “Mulder has been diagnosed as depressive by his wife” Will we learn more about what happened between Mulder and Scully? “I don’t think so, that’s for other shows” + teasing the stand-alone episodes, like Darin Morgan’s “Curse of the Were-Lizard” (interview below does go into some spoilers)
There have been plenty of articles and some interviews that have come out, some go into extremely spoiler territory. I will not relay all this here, those who want them can look for them.
I am very intrigued and interested to see where this goes. It really feels like Carter took a long break and is back with an X-Files for present times, and has kept a good memory of old-school seasons 1-3 X-Files as if these defining seasons is what should really remembered about the show. Wait and see.
12 Oct 2015, 00:25
Lets we forget! #mythXplained “Demons”: producer Bob Goodwin provides the story, Chris Carter turns it into a mytharc episode full of half-truths, deliciously ambiguous about what is real and what is memory warped by obsession. An oft-forgotten gem
#mythXplained “Gethsemane”: Carter’s very personal themes of faith and skepticism cry out in pain for the whole world to hear in this episode that tries to shake everything in the world of the show’s mythology, kicking off one of the show’s very best multi-part episodes
This philosophical existential dialogue between our two heroes is one of the best in the series:
MULDER: I’m as skeptical of that man
as you are, but proof… definitive proof of sentient beings sharing
the same time and existence with us, that would change everything.
Every truth we live my would be shaken to the ground. There’s no
greater revelation imaginable, no greater scientific discovery.
SCULLY: You already believe, Mulder. What difference would it make?
I mean, what would proof change for you?
MULDER: If someone could prove to you the existence of God,
would it change you?
SCULLY: Only if it were disproven.
MULDER: Then you accept the possibility that belief in God is a lie?
SCULLY: I don’t think about it, actually, and I don’t think it can be
proven.
MULDER: But what if it could be? Wouldn’t that knowledge be worth
seeking? Or is it just easier to go on believing the lie?
Apart from some other anniversaries, October 13 is also the anniversary to one of @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files]’ best episodes.
Read genius Darin Morgan with his typical self-depreciation:
“A lot of that free will and fate stuff had to do with the fact that I was really bad, at the time, at plotting.”
“I left it in there as my own inside joke; I laugh every time I see it.”
“My pitch to Chris was, because Mulder’s interested in the psychic ability, that’s all he focuses on, and doesn’t really treat Clyde Bruckman as another human; he’s just interested in the phenomenon. Because Scully didn’t believe in it, she could treat him as a person, and see how his belief that he could see the future had ruined his life.”
#mythXplained It’s 1989! Vince Gilligan professes his love for the Lone Gunmen, gets all MK-Ultra on them, plus we get those vintage shoebox-sized cell phones
The leaks are out there! 4 promos with unfinished VFX are spreading through the internet. Our first glance at the non-mythology episodes — monsters, mutants, psi powers, medical experiments — and it’s touching all the notes it’s supposed to touch (maybe too much so?). The X-Files are back!
#mythXplained “Christmas Carol/Emily”: an acute sign of torture porn on Scully on the second half, but brought about so smoothly, beautifully, ethereally in its first part. A wonderful mix of mythology and character study — despite a link of these episodes with the core mythology that is problematic at best, besides they were written by John Gillnitz and not Carter
#XFilesRevival is going to be a mix of same-old same-old and radical break with what came before.
Chris Carter: “I jumped at the idea when I found out the actors were interested. I can tell you the idea of a reboot wasn’t the way I wanted to go. I didn’t want to come back to do a victory lap, to do sequels, or anything like that. I wanted fresh, new material, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Then why not do an original series instead of more X-Files? And why not use the opportunity to wrap up the X-Files properly instead of opening all-new mysteries?
@[362989843738755:274:The X-Files] Massive Music Compilation has been updated! Find @[107907589230040:274:Mark Snow] music requests from no less than 150 episodes! FYI @[56031953754:274:La-La Land Records].
#mythXplained Patient X/The Red and the Black: A pivotal 2-parter. The aliens-as-God parallel at its apex, a continuation and reversal of Mulder’s crisis of faith, the introduction of the Faceless Rebels, cinema-quality direction by Manners & Carter and memorable music by @[114444205294473:274:Mark Snow]. As “Fight the Future” approaches, definitve answers in the mythology come in spades.
This exchange in particular becomes more and more relevant as the #XFilesRevival approaches:
Mulder: It all comes down to a question, one that hasn’t been answered or I don’t think honestly addressed. Who made that chip in your neck? That chip was found in a military research facility. Our government made that chip, implanted it in your neck as part of a secret military project to develop a biochemical weapon, to monitor your immunity or to destroy you like a lab rat… if the truth were to be exposed. Your cancer, your cure. Everything that’s happening to you now. It all points to that chip. The truth I’ve been searching for? That truth is IN you.
Scully: (pauses, looks down) Mulder, when I met you five years ago, you told me that your sister had been abducted… by aliens. That that event had marked you so deeply that nothing else mattered. I didn’t believe you, but I followed you… on nothing more than your faith that the truth was out there, based not on facts, not on science, but on your memories that your sister had been taken from you. Your memories were all that you had.
Mulder: I don’t trust those memories now.
#mythXplained Travelers: It’s back in time within a back in time episode, exploring a very Dark Skies-like type of alien we never see again. Also never referenced again: Mulder’s ring, a Duchovny improvisation, that could be linked to the later introduction of Diana Fowley. Nice reuse of actors (young version of Mulder’s father from “Musings”, “Demons”; same actor for J.E.Hoover in Millennium’s “Matryoshka”)!
Two interviews with Chris Carter on the big twist in the mythology in the #XFilesRevival, preparing the ground for what ought to be some massive questions:
(6:40) Question: we’ve been lied at the whole time
“Not necessarily the whole time, he [Tad I guess] makes a reference to something. But you don’t know to take people to face value and to trust what they’re saying. Everyone’s got their version of the truth and they may be lying as well. So, we wanted to sort of throw that out there.”
(1:05) “People are not necessarily to be trusted. So when someone says something you can’t necessarily take it at face value in The X-Files.”
#mythXplained This is the end…of the best period for XF, the Vancouver era, and of Carter’s initially planned 5-year span for the series. The first of many ends. For the occasion, a scene actually takes place in Vancouver (@[802493469802487:274:Every Frame a Painting] 😉 ), we meet a boy who is “the key to everything”, and with Spender and Fowley and the Syndicate shenanigans the show is more an ensemble than ever. Bye bye Bob Goodwin & Vancouver crew!
Progetto Con X-Files – Find the Truth
**************************************************************************
The 1st #XFiles Italian Convention is coming. Go to #ProgettoConXFiles facebook page to discover more and SUBSCRIBE.
The more we are, the more it will become true! #findthetruth #Xfilesitaliancon, #Xfilesitacon.
Go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1480399608947522/
**************************************************************************
Sep-10-1993: 22 years since we first saw Mulder & Scully meeting the Class of ’89
10 Sep 2015, 23:14
#TheXFiles201Days #mythXplained The X-Files continues exploring the memory of World War II and the Black Oil makes its radioactive, spooky entrance with Carpenteresque music from @[114444205294473:274:Mark Snow]
#mythXplained Atención a tod@s los X-philes hispanohablantes: la cartilla de la mitologia XF ahora en español!
Aquí podeis encontrar un resumen y una explanación detallada de la mitología de Expedientes X.
M-S romance: “I had been thinking about it” and this is probably the one thing Carter wanted to ‘correct’ in the story of the series. What remains to be seen is if this will be a well-managed evolution or just a gimmick die to lack of imagination in order to have tension.
#mythXplained Avatar puts the spotlight on Skinner, w/ story by Gordon & Duchovny, mixes well a monster-of-the-week story and serialized mythology #TheXFiles201Days
“The date is set”: Carter & Duchovny deliver a literate ep that is calm but drives the mythology in a definitive direction. Colonization, manipulative conspirators, undercover aliens, musings about faith and science and power, the Campbellian hero who discovers where he comes from, Mark Snow’s atmosphere, a very “meta” guest star, it’s all there. A memorable finale to perhaps the show’s best season.
Chris Carter’s “The Red and the Black”, DVD vs HDTV comparison. Is the BluRay planned yet, The X-Files?
23 Sep 2015, 21:17
Chris Carter interviewed by @[127419440630254:274:Kyle Thiermann] – a great insight into the man, his creative process, his approach to time management and multitasking, and some real complicity between fellow surfers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skX67bhMT1k
25 Sep 2015, 15:34
#XFiles photorealistic art by James Zark – for Stephen Harber’s article series
25 Sep 2015, 19:58
“Medici”: After @[1600262146899838:274:The Man in the High Castle], another very interesting development from @[108381559187017:274:Frank Spotnitz] — who has been developing TV projects with diverse international teams in Europe for a while now. The Medici have links to banking, the Vatican, Galileo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo…there’s a big potential in this!
Vancouver in film & TV: The X-Files get a mention. What @[802493469802487:274:Every Frame a Painting] doesn’t get right though is that upon leaving Vancouver, XF payed the city a tribute and set a scene in Vancouver: the chess match at the opening of 5X20: The End!
26 Sep 2015, 10:04
#XFilesRevival trailer coming soon — via @[8273206453:69:The X-Files Lexicon]
#mythXplained “Tunguska”: after examining World War II in s3, The X-Files get into Cold War territory in s4, in one of the most complex, multi-layered and satisfying two-parters of the series. Among the spookiest scenes with the worm-like Black Oil, cult scenes for Skinner & Krycek!
So. @[362989843738755:274:The X-Files] trailer is here. Weary Mulder and reluctant Scully, check. Dark spaces and flashlights, check. Supportive Skinner, check. Shadowy old informant, check. The immortal Cigarette-Smoking Man, check. Modern paranoia and secrets from our post-World War II past, check. Beautiful photography, check. The date is set.
Some heavy-weight work on the promotional material for the #XFilesRevival! It’s good to see FOX putting its trust on the material (unlike, say, with I Want To Believe).
Jan 23, 2015
Everything on the #XFilesRevival news + The After no more + Season 11 coming https://www.eatthecorn.com/2015/01/23/revival-revival/ @FoxTVStudios @joeharris @FrankSpotnitz
FYI @nerdist @sambarsanti @zhandlen @DenofGeekTV @DeadlineNellie @robbricken @rtg0nzalez @bradmiska @devincf @Darren_Mooney @XFiles_Truth @axepisodes @EsX @GrupoTheXFiles @XFilesArg @Lady3Jane1013 @XFilesManiade @XFBluebook
Jun 10, 2015
@XFilesNews @NoBordFromOrbit Impressive amount of info and its only Day3 #XFilesRevival! Welcome to 2015–but at this rate massive spoilers!
Aug 27, 2015
FIND THE TRUTH: The first Italian Convention for The X Files. FOLLOW FOR MORE INFO #xfilesrevival #xfilesitaliancon https://www.facebook.com/groups/1480399608947522/
@EsX @Expediente_X_Es Proyecto convencion XF organizando en Italia,inscribete para hacerlo realidad #Xfilesitaliancon
As the X-Files reaches its 22nd birthday, EatTheCorn expands into non-English speaking populations with this first translation of the Mytharc Primer, in Spanish!
Bienvenida a nuestros visitores de Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Estados Unidos de América, España, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Cuba, Guatemala, República Dominicana, Honduras, El Salvador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Panama, Uruguay y Guinea Ecuatorial!
Aquí podeis encontrar un resumen y una explanación detallada de la mitología de Expedientes X.
