X is a Standing Invitation

by Marie Lena Tupot and Tim Stock, scenarioDNA

In the summer of 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson drew a treasure map to entertain his 12-year-old stepson. The story is explained in The Writer’s Map by Robert McFarlane. Robert Louis Stevenson marked the site of treasure with a blood-red X to draw the child further into the story. X was the liminal space between reality and fantasy.

X does not function as an identifying marker.?

There are no X-marked pirate maps in libraries. Pirates were smarter than that explains the Leventhal Map & Education Center. (In case of immediate leap to classic cinematic imagery, the sought-after treasure location that launches the narrative in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World is a W formed by palm trees. Greed blows the found money into oblivion, but that’s a story for another day.)?

However, X does play its role. Centuries ago, X was employed as a signature due to limited literacy rates, allowing even non-literate rulers to express their endorsement on significant papers. During the 18th and 19th centuries, X represented forced agreement within treaties with indigenous Americans (Lyons, 2011).

No surprise then that Jeff Beer, writing for Fast Company, appropriately expresses skepticism towards X. He discusses how Brand X was used in advertising to represent alternative, inferior options. X served a meaningless function.

By 1972, the Federal Trade Commission persuaded television networks to end their prohibition on advertisements that openly referred to competitors.?Good bye, Brand X.

Decades later, Elon Musk enters the scene. He perceives the concept of X as an underdog, a scenario in which X emerges victorious.

Yet, X is not the underdog, nor is it a mystery. X is beckoning in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson for us to jump into narratives and make meaning of stories beyond the obvious. X is the liminal space we are all uncomfortable with. X is not easy. X is our present state of non-normal being.

We need to be comfortable exploring that liminal space of X.

The significance of X, symbolizing a "Wrong answer!" as highlighted by Lora Kelly in The Atlantic, should serve as an invitation to uncover the underlying reasons of why. As Kelly points out, we consistently solve for X. Why limit ourselves to just that?

X is not unlimited. X exists in the context of humanity. Let’s start exploring there. Living is a liminal space.