Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Mapledurham's avatar

I really appreciate your emphasis here on the conversation that was never had, which I think was because the events were immediately (as intended) made the central radioactive core of the cultural and actual wars that have engulfed us ever since. I suspect I’m not alone in struggling still to articulate my thoughts and feelings about what happened that day. It stands as a line in the sand in my life between before and after, even though I was thousands of miles away in London and had yet to visit the States, let alone New York itself. For a long time, I also struggled with people who could so quickly think their way out of recognising the sheer horror of it, even though I also knew there were material causes for what happened. I remember meeting a guy at an academic conference the following Spring who was giddy with excitement about the new course he was about to teach, deconstructing images of 9/11 in terms of aesthetics - and I literally retched just hearing him talk about it, even though I also LOVE deconstructing images and could happily read nothing but Barthes for the rest of my days.

Expand full comment
E2's avatar

"The argument is that we are shown these things because they are news; because we don’t yet fully understand that they are happening, and once we do, we will do something about it."

It's really just the first clause. All kinds of horrors are depicted or described in news accounts; for the most part you're not expected to do anything about it, at least not directly. (Shaping your knowledge and world view is theoretically valuable, directing future actions that might mitigate other events.)

There's no media conspiracy to hide 9/11 images—obviously they can be found if you look—it's just that time has passed, and they're not news any more.

Expand full comment
4 more comments...

No posts