I have much respect for (and many books by) Sontag, but I think her argument ignores the crucial importance, for society, of remembering. A couple of cases in point: the way British Muslims are being treated at the moment (and I understand it's even worse for American Muslims); the way disabled people in this country are currently being so demonized by the press and the government that I fear for people's lives in the near future if it continues. Sometimes remembering that all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again is the only way to fight human, or social, nature.
She says few lines before the quote I brought that society should remember the big events. What I truly find interesting in this argument is the difference between "remembering" and "thinking". Of course it's not black and white situation, but there's only so much growth that can be achieved by focus on "remembering".
The book, btw, is Regarding the Pain of Others, and I still consider it one of the best (if not the best) non-fiction work I've ever read. Even if I don't agree with her on few things.
Edit: sj, sorry to hear about the dress. Do you have alternatives?
He still falls asleep mid-sentence when he takes his pain meds, which embarrasses him but I think is kind of adorable.
Ha, don't be embarrassed. Be proud of the awesome power of painkillers. What he needs to work on, is the skill of picking up the sentence when he wakes back up. That! Is true talent.
Tons of love and brackets! {{{{{ ND }}}}}
Seska, congrats on the new home! Fabulous news. Can't wait for the access aids to be installed. Very exciting.
ion, I didn't know anything about buckyballs until today.
Buckyballs are awesome. Very relaxing. I have them at my recliner. Tough day? Make some magnetic art.
ION- Handyman canceled AGAIN! Uggg. "I forgot my wife is getting baptized today..." We scheduled this time last week. We confirmed it yesterday. Why do you wait to tell me 15 minutes after the scheduled meet time? And I had to call YOU to find it out. Very frustrating.
Congrats on the house, Seska! It has a Buffista guest room, right? ;)
O-A, you need to call the landlord and bitch about this. That's ridiculous.
Congrats on the house, Seska!
I managed to mostly avoid the football traffic. The road that I usually take toward the campus isn't a main highway, and then once I got right near campus, I was going in the opposite direction from the football traffic. So I went to services, then got lunch at the mall, then went to Bed Bath & Beyond and bought way more stuff than what I went in for. But I did get a bunch of hangers, which is what I was looking for.
Edit: sj, sorry to hear about the dress. Do you have alternatives?
My first stop is going to see if it can be let out at all, and if not, keep looking.
Good luck with the alterations, sj. Seamstresses are pretty amazing.
Yay, house!
That is messed up, omnis.
Good luck with the dress, sj!
I wonder if a better way to put it is the difference between remembering and obsession. Something relevant on the slant is a study that was done a few years ago where it was found that people heal better from emotional trauma (or trauma with a strong emotional component) if they don't talk about it while it is too fresh. The healthiest approach was to go into denial for a time, and then after it was not so fresh, then deal with the trauma and discuss and vent. Because if you talked too much about it right a way, it sort of set the trauma and made it much more difficult to heal.
Also it is interesting how the meaning of memory changes. Prior to 1967, it was a common Israeli attitude to be contemptuous of both survivors and dead of the Holocaust. "Briquettes" was a common epithet, convenient packages ready to be burnt without fighting back. And after 67, the other strain that had always been there of turning Holocaust victims into martyrs into some holy became predominant, because the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel was now in full swing. It was now taken for granted that Israelis were tough guys, so it was more important to sanctify the toughness.
