Laura Marks- Actually just a vector?
Although I was not fortunate enough to attend the Colloquia presentation of Professor Marks, I have spent a large part of the weekend looking at her website and the readings we were given. Does Laura Marks ever sleep?
In the letters she speaks to things I have wondered about, like the intensity of the psychological power that jet noise must wield over the ground bound people in a conflict. When I lived in Madison and drove a taxi, sometimes they would scramble fighter jets from the airport. The sound is incredibly loud, and the most that I even heard was 5 or 6 taking off one after the other. I cannot imagine the sound of the tens of thousands of sorties flow over Middle Eastern skies in the last 15 years, punctuated by explosion. I cannot imagine that sound as a familiar backdrop to childhood. We are a spoiled populace, and truly I must include Dr. Marks in that as well, for as she rails against policy makers and her treatment in the evacuation, there is a sense of the left out- that for thousands of everyday people everywhere who are simply bystanders in every conflict their only hope is not homeland, not righteousness, but simply safety and deliverance. Today I am left wondering what the world would be like if it were suddenly stripped of the armed and protestant minority of insulated policy makers and their holy envoys were to suddenly disappear. What if suddenly we were left only with people who attended only to the needs of population, without the needs of power? What if suddenly we stopped being so primitive? The world is so often like an adolescent not living up to its potential.
This is not a railing rant. I am certainly quite grateful for my own spoilage. I am also quite excited that Professor Marks is coming to class. I like the fact that she brings with her ideas that take on questions of responsibility in representation through media. Questions like how and whether we should represent the past, what is encapsulated in our images besides the image itself, and the political questions that are raised in the letters from Beruit. It sparks all kinds of questions of my own. And she can answer my french question...
In the letters she speaks to things I have wondered about, like the intensity of the psychological power that jet noise must wield over the ground bound people in a conflict. When I lived in Madison and drove a taxi, sometimes they would scramble fighter jets from the airport. The sound is incredibly loud, and the most that I even heard was 5 or 6 taking off one after the other. I cannot imagine the sound of the tens of thousands of sorties flow over Middle Eastern skies in the last 15 years, punctuated by explosion. I cannot imagine that sound as a familiar backdrop to childhood. We are a spoiled populace, and truly I must include Dr. Marks in that as well, for as she rails against policy makers and her treatment in the evacuation, there is a sense of the left out- that for thousands of everyday people everywhere who are simply bystanders in every conflict their only hope is not homeland, not righteousness, but simply safety and deliverance. Today I am left wondering what the world would be like if it were suddenly stripped of the armed and protestant minority of insulated policy makers and their holy envoys were to suddenly disappear. What if suddenly we were left only with people who attended only to the needs of population, without the needs of power? What if suddenly we stopped being so primitive? The world is so often like an adolescent not living up to its potential.
This is not a railing rant. I am certainly quite grateful for my own spoilage. I am also quite excited that Professor Marks is coming to class. I like the fact that she brings with her ideas that take on questions of responsibility in representation through media. Questions like how and whether we should represent the past, what is encapsulated in our images besides the image itself, and the political questions that are raised in the letters from Beruit. It sparks all kinds of questions of my own. And she can answer my french question...
posted by Daniel Kelly at 8:53 AM
1 Comments:
Man is primitive. Ask the Earth.
Man seeks power because ultimately he knows he is powerless. It is a sad flaw in his thinking that makes him assume he can somehow control the world around him when deep down he knows he cannot.
Show me the man who has licked death and I'll show you a powerful man.
We shouldn't need fighter jets over head to remember that we could go at any time.
In fact, I'm going right now... the lemon bars are done!
Post a Comment
<< Home