"In the Shadow of No Towers"
I've just finished Art Spiegelman's "In the Shadow of No Towers" and I wanted to share my thoughts on it here. First, it is full of overwhelming images that simultaneously convey the horror/fear/shock/disgust/numbness and confusion that Spiegelman (and the world?) felt on September 11th but also the horror/fear/shock/disgust/numbness and confusion of the repetitious onslaught of traumatic images that have not left national (international?) consciousness since. So I found myself while reading it, stuck wanted to look at every inch of every page and yet unable to take it all in. You can't look away nor can you absorb or process much of what you are "consuming." I think it is brilliant that Spiegelman does this. I get the same damn feeling on those rare occasions that I do watch t.v. and particularly "Headline News" as there are usually at least five different frames within your field of vision, all vying for your attention and you can't help but feel a little A.D.D. from the experience. Think about it though. What is accomplished by repeating an image, especially of something like the planes hitting the Twin Towers, or of the Towers falling, or of the people standing there with signs of loved ones asking for any information in their own state of shock? What is accomplished by reliving that moment again and again and again, in rhetoric, memorial, words and visceral images that assault the eyes, body, and mind every time, anew? Why do this? To heal? To remember, Spiegelman argues, but why? Why must we remember it as if it were yesterday? As if it could be tomorrow? Why? My point with the endless child routine here is to reflect upon how trauma creates a wound but what point does the consciousness become infected, unable to think beyond the fear and pain and fear of repeated pain/future trauma? Spiegelman articulates this with images depicting a man who is constantly "displacing" his attention, projecting himself onto other things and others onto himself. First he has his own head, then he has the lamp for a head and his head for a lamp and then the cat becomes him (reading the newspaper) and then his foot is his head. He also speaks about post-traumatic stress disorder and it is important to think about ptsd and how it functions in the brain as a survival mechanism. I've read and heard stories from soldiers who've been diagnosed with PTSD speak about how a loud noise can take them back to a war zone or the smell of something burning. So if seemingly every day things, common place things, can confuse space and time, projecting a person back into their trauma no matter where they are or how many years have passed, then what happens when you flash these images to a traumatized nation? A traumatized (terrorized?) world?
It makes me think of "A Clockwork Orange" and how the "treatment" for decriminalizing was to terrorize the young man with repeated images of brutality, coupled with an overlay of symphony music that he loved. He was not allowed to shut his eyes, nor look away. Food for thought...
Anyhow, Spiegelman's book is at times funny, (sadly) ironic and satirical in its criticism of the current administration. I especially enjoyed his constant reference to "waiting for the other shoe to drop" and the new third party, the "Ostrich Party." What an amazing book. I finished it and yet I'm sure I could spend longer looking at it and still find important themes/images I missed.
Peace!
2 Comments:
Jen,
This is a nice first response to the graphic novel. One thing I would ask you to consider, however, is the way that the September 11th events figure into our consciousness versus other people's. Do you think we'd think about it in the same way if it wasn't used as a political tool and rhetorical spin tactic? Perhaps there may have been more international sympathy if our administration didn't use it in the way that it did. This is precisely why I think some of the analysis you're doing with the Frankfurt school becomes crucial. Why are these images all consuming? Who is responsible for this? If you can begin to piece together the relationship between the theory and this novel I think you'll begin to get a handle on the essay you're writing.
The PTSD stuff here is important too, but put that on hold for now until you read through the trauma theory which will give you more tools with which to tackle that piece.
Marcy
I've not seen/read In the Shadow of No Towers, but I am a big fan of Maus--in which Spiegelman depicts both his father's trauma suffered from his and his wife's internment in the camps and his (Art's) own trauma as the child of a Holocaust survivor (not as extreme, to be sure, but still an issue).
Anyway, Jen raises the issue of remembrance and wonders about its value and whether it can be manipulated. Her questions reminded me of a couple of chapters from Paul Ricoeur's book, Time and Narrative, in which he discusses the interrelationship between fiction and history. He makes the argument that some events, such as the Holocaust, so exceed our capacity to comprehend them that "mere" history actually does an injustice to conveying their scope and, yes, their trauma. Thus, he says that fiction CAN convey that scope and trauma, that, indeed, fiction helps us obey the Old Testament imperative "Dahkor!" (I think I've spelled it right; I'm working from memory) which means "Remember!"--but, Ricoeur notes, not in the sense of "memorizing."
And that leads to the issue of whether "remembrance" can lead to manipulation. Of course. I wish I could recall titles, but I know of books written by Jewish writers who make the argument that some Jews, including many who have no personal or familial connection to the camps, use the Holocaust as a means of, at best, garnering sympathy or, at worst, as a weapon of defense against real or perceived injustices.
I don't know if any of this clarifies or complicates anything for you, but your comments, as I said, brought a couple of things to mind for me.
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