Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Virginia Tech Tragedy (this thread is NOT for the debate of "gun control")

roachboy · 04-18-2007, 07:47 AM

it is very strange, this play of press coverage and "reality" in a situation that is traumatic. i found myself fascinated by the 9/11/2001 coverage because it seemed clear to me that the folk who make up this apparatus--the chain of information relay within the networks in particular, which is made up of human beings (which folk--including myself--tend to put aside behind the language of bureaucratic systems, across terms like "apparatus")
--these folk were themselves traumatized and were engaging in a bit of compulsive repetition as a way to neutralize the implications of what they were watching. so in that situation, i understood myself to be watching a breakdown of the normal type of coverage of death and so forth and its replacement with a kind of therapeutic ritual.
one asserts such control as one can over potentially damaging information by repeating it.
if the consequence of that repetition is the collapse of the meaning of an event back into the formal structures of the image, so be it, i guess.
what shakran has posted above is really quite interesting as in a strange way it dovetails into this idea that i have harbored about that particular phase of tv coverage.
(it is not the same interpretation, obviously--it simply dovetails into it)

on this shooting/murduer-suicide:
i find very strange indeed reports and emails that i have been getting about cranked up "security" at other campuses around the country in "response" to the vt shootings. what is that about? security at the art institute of chicago, for example, was tripled yesterday--cops everywhere. i do not understand this: it seems that administrations understand uniformed people as themselves therapeutic...all this in the interest of reducing the meaning of singularity, of arbitrariness, of uncertainty. this has bizarre political implications, when you think about it.
this perhaps for another thread....

04-18-2007, 07:47 AM	#102 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	it is very strange, this play of press coverage and "reality" in a situation that is traumatic. i found myself fascinated by the 9/11/2001 coverage because it seemed clear to me that the folk who make up this apparatus--the chain of information relay within the networks in particular, which is made up of human beings (which folk--including myself--tend to put aside behind the language of bureaucratic systems, across terms like "apparatus") --these folk were themselves traumatized and were engaging in a bit of compulsive repetition as a way to neutralize the implications of what they were watching. so in that situation, i understood myself to be watching a breakdown of the normal type of coverage of death and so forth and its replacement with a kind of therapeutic ritual. one asserts such control as one can over potentially damaging information by repeating it. if the consequence of that repetition is the collapse of the meaning of an event back into the formal structures of the image, so be it, i guess. what shakran has posted above is really quite interesting as in a strange way it dovetails into this idea that i have harbored about that particular phase of tv coverage. (it is not the same interpretation, obviously--it simply dovetails into it) on this shooting/murduer-suicide: i find very strange indeed reports and emails that i have been getting about cranked up "security" at other campuses around the country in "response" to the vt shootings. what is that about? security at the art institute of chicago, for example, was tripled yesterday--cops everywhere. i do not understand this: it seems that administrations understand uniformed people as themselves therapeutic...all this in the interest of reducing the meaning of singularity, of arbitrariness, of uncertainty. this has bizarre political implications, when you think about it. this perhaps for another thread.... __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 04-18-2007 at 07:49 AM..