From the issue dated September 28, 2001
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Images of Unmediated UglinessBy PAUL LEVINSON
In one sense, these continue a thread that begins with Brady's Civil War photographs and wends its awful way through breathtaking radio reports of the bombing of London. But the WTC images are more, in a class of sheer effrontery to humanity all by themselves. Unlike still photography, there is no separation between us and the atrocity; unlike radio, there is no saving visual curtain drawn; unlike even televised coverage of Vietnam and the Gulf War, there is no military packaging that gets in the way. The images were just reality, in every bit of its full-color unmediated ugliness. There were some bright spots in the communication, too. The Internet emerged as a wonderful backbone of communication. When phone service was down or overloaded, e-mail could still be sent to friends and loved ones around the country and the world. Cell phones, blamed of late for increasing losses of civility, performed heroic service for some of the people on the doomed planes. We've seen the global village on fire before. But never so close to home -- never at home, at the center, the financial and cultural capital of the world. Is there no good in this rubble? Well, there is also the image of the WTC antennae emerging from the devastation, phoenix-like, defiantly flying an American flag hung there by courageous firefighters. I like to think it's saying that freedom and peace will somehow emerge from these shards, no doubt transformed, not like before, but more or less intact. Paul Levinson is a professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University. http://chronicle.com Section: The Chronicle Review Page: B15
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Copyright © 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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Reflections on the Fractured Landscape |
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