terrorism, popcorn, and the american way
i couldn't help but wonder as i turned to the news yesterday: does the successful foiling of yesterday's airplane terrorist plot give anyone the deeply patriotic urge to see oliver stone's world trade center?
did i just hear my mother gasp?
probably, but it's not that hard to make that connection. watching clip after clip of willing travelers discarding everything from lotion to contact solution while the crawler on the bottom of the screen repeatedly flashed the phrase "mass murder," television viewers had to be thrown back into that morning five years ago to make the current moment legible. and what helps americans process a traumatic moment (particularly in the greater service of the nation) better than oliver stone in a director's chair?those who were worried about the success of the film should worry no longer. this san francisco chronicle article only bolsters my point.
and i quote..."Dragon had been waffling on seeing "World Trade Center" over the last few days. He wasn't sure he was ready. But the minute he heard of the terror plot Thursday morning, his decision was made. "I felt like it was my duty as an American to see it," said Dragon. "I felt like I had to see it, and I am glad I did."
now i'm not saying that we just threw away hundreds of bottles of lotion and lube to promote an epic film...but it would be marketing genius wouldn't it??
posted by shuck'n'jive at 10:48 AM
2 Comments:
good observation. as someone with the rare fortune of actually having a flight booked that very day for Los Angeles, i was sure to pack my hair product in my checked luggage. my favorite story was from a womyn who was traveling to my same destination and involved the close scrutinizing of a liquid gel pen. she kindly asked to be able to keep it, as it was one of her favorite pens, and after some thinking, he gave it back from her.
airport security tends to push my buttons. i'd love to see the US govt invest some of that money they put into paying people to make sure they discard chapstick into universal availability to basic health care and counseling (let's get some anger managment for these people who desire to blow other people up!).
all that said, i want to see the world trade center movie. maybe not at the theater...but i think it's going to have a big affect on our historical memory (maybe something like the passion of the christ) and forever change the way we remember 9/11. i also like sappy dramas. is there a way to see it, enjoy it, and be critical too?
hey-o alisha, this is a response to your comment on my paper. I agree that there is tons of good stuff going on right now w.r.t race and new media...just in the past two years it really has exploded. I just think you mis-read the comment--I was talking about how race and technology *has been* discussed in African American studies (particularly in literary studies) over the past 15 years or so. (maybe that genealogy was more clear when I was reading the paper out loud)
The present is surely opening up into great possibilities in this area of inquiry.
However, as I sit here at the "TechnoSphereS" New Technologies Seminar at UC-irvine as we speak (or type), I can't help thinking that there is still **tons** of work to be done. The very terms of "technology"--what and how it means, and its conditions of possibility--remain largely unquestioned so that race, gender, class and sexuality are just absent....or spectral (at best).
if you're interested, Cathy Davidson is running a blog throughout the entire two weeks on the HASTAC website: www.hastac.org
check it out. she's typing away furiously, probably right now.
Herman Gray and Judith Jackson Fossett will be here tomorrow morning (afternoon for ya'll in Durham)
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