IF you grew up with Nirvana, Soundgarden, R.E.M. and other “alternative rock” bands from the 1990s, then we are kin. “Generation X” they call us – in American popular culture, it was the era of the valorisation of the slacker to whom ennui is a loaded and unbearable condition to be in and MTV still played actual music videos instead of “reality shows”.

Chances are, since we share parallel space and time of the era, you grew up watching a lot of television even though there were only three channels (two until 1994) and “real” TV programming didn’t begin until 4.30pm when you heard the Negaraku playe and you sat in attention in front of your family TV set (families shared one screen back then).

On these TV channels, most of the shows were imported ones – American ones, of course – were the most popular and through these we were exposed to different genres of not only TV shows but also films.

Yes, we watched what was given, unlike now where choices often left you petrified in indecision.

As a child, I grew fascinated with space – as in the galaxy, planets, stars and all that stuff. I don’t remember exactly when this fascination first surfaced, but it made me curious about what lies outside of our terrestrial existence on this third rock from the sun (Earth).

This fascination was most probably encouraged and fanned by TV shows about space, spaceships, lasers, planets, galaxies, warp speed, and so forth – science fiction. The popular TV shows set in space for me was Battlestar Galactica (starring the guy who also starred as Face in The A-Team – another important 1980s staple of any kid then).

But let’s not forget, while there were a lot of popular cartoons that were also set in space, the champion of them all for me was Transformers – a series premised on the idea of alien robots from out of space that transformed into vehicles (check out the fascinating tale of how Transformers came about from the need to sell the toys).

However, the sifu of it all, hands down, were the original Star Wars trilogy – Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi (I’m sticking with the original titles I grew up with – screw the retroactive longer titles that made up later).

Looking back, the central figures in all of these stories are essentially aliens – or extraterrestrial life – since all of the characters and places in the stories do not originate from Earth.

Of course, we are socialised to believe aliens that look like humans (or were at the very least humanoid) were the good guys (and girls) and the ugly reptilians or just plain monstrous-looking were the bad guys (and girls).

Remember: these are all mere fictional representations of what we collectively agree to assume what “aliens” may look like aside from the typical bug-eyed green humanoid. And when we think of aliens, probably the first thing comes into mind are UFOs – unidentified flying objects. They are often seen in low-resolution or pixelated video footage recorded by eyewitnesses, and TV shows often feature eerie music to accompany most of their narration.

Objectively, a UFO is defined as “any aerial phenomenon that cannot immediately be identified or explained”. UFOs are fascinating because of its evasive nature: no one has ever officially caught, tagged, and identified one (unless you consider the conspiracy theories, Area 51 and the popular TV show Ancient Aliens).

In my teens, The X-Files used these as the backbone of the entire TV series (on top of having a killer opening theme song). More recently in the real world, the Pentagon has released declassified UFO videos taken by US Navy pilots.

I find it interesting that in Malaysia, very little fuss is made about UFO sightings in the public domain until one goes on the weird world of the Internet – aside from the plenty of websites on incidences and eyewitness accounts, it’s always interesting to find a Malaysian one.

A video I found on YouTube from a curious channel called Detektif Mat Despatch lists five incidences of sightings (did you know that a sighting at a high school in Bukit Mertajam in 1970 even has its own tribute sign?).  

From my own recollection, I remember a news story in the mid-90s reporting strange bright green lights illuminating the area where the Kuala Lumpur International Airport was being constructed and also reports of strange lights in Prang Besar during its metamorphosis into Putrajaya.

These areas are very close to my hometown and it reignited my childhood fascination with space briefly.

What I’m getting at here is the need for us to reconnect ourselves to things we found interesting as a child, but seems strange to us now as adults; it elevates us from the rational concerns and mundane routines of adulthood.

Just being perplexed now at “why” you liked something so much as a kid is an enlightening thing to do itself. To look outward for meaning we have to also look inward.

The cultural fascination of societies with space, UFOs and aliens are interesting indicators of our strong desire to understand ourselves as a species by juxtapositioning itself against what it is not.

Fantasy is a mirror of a given reality – the media is the petri dish of who we are.

As much as you are what you eat, you are also what you watch, listen to, and find entertaining – especially as a child. – January 8, 2021.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.