In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag describes a shift in how we perceive catastrophes: “A catastrophe that is experienced will often seem eerily like its representation. The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, was described as “unreal,” “surreal,” “like a movie,” in many of the first accounts of those who escaped from the towers or watched from nearby. (After four decades of big-budget Hollywood…
Many of the stories in Visions of Hell must be mediated through physical objects, creating a sequence of confirmations that links the vision to the physical world. Often, the stories layer different forms of validation, forming a web that supports the vision’s version of truth and strengthens the consequences of the vision. In St. Paul’s story, a man receives a vision from an angel about a hidden box in his…
The modern era has forgotten the genealogy of the view on suffering. It defines suffering as pejorative, something mistaken and ought to be avoided and condemned. The negativity of suffering is falsely taken to be universal. Rather, the negativity of suffering is a social narrative specific to our age. In Regarding the Pain of Others, in Susan Sontag’s discussion of Bataillie’s obsession with contemplating the photograph capturing a prisoner undergoing…
Written in 523 and 1674 AD respectively, Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy and John Milton’s Paradise Lost are crucial works of Christian prose and poetry. Despite their clear promotion of the Christian faith, the two works rely on the literary and religious elements of classical Greece and Rome to convey their message. In this post, I aim to highlight two similarities between these works regarding their treatment of classical influences and…
One of the greatest differences between the depiction of humanity’s fall in the Vulgate Bible and the Old English poem Genesis B is the nature of Eve’s temptation by the snake. While in the Vulgate the snake tells Eve that upon eating the apple her “eyes shall be opened: and [she and Adam] shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil,” in Genesis B she is told that she…
Note: Before reading, I just wanted to write that some of the images seen here in this two-part post are quite graphic and may cause emotional distress. I know the topic is already quite brutal and distressing, but I do not want to cause undue harm because my work is work for class. So I urge you to use your judgment and do not read this post if extreme violence,…
Note: Before reading, I just wanted to write that some of the images seen here in this two-part post are quite graphic and may cause emotional distress. I know the topic is already quite brutal and distressing, but I do not want to cause undue harm because my work is work for class. So I urge you to use your judgment and do not read this post if extreme violence,…
Group: Jonah, Spencer, Frances, and Jo The phenomenon of looking can be thought of as consisting of two composite parts: seeing and interpreting. Seeing, the visual experience of something happening before one’s own eyes, or gazing upon a representation such as a photograph or piece of visual art, forms the principal step of looking. However, it is often subservient to the act of interpreting. Seeing is merely the intake of…
Today’s discussion inspired many thoughts about the allure of violence and why some people continue to actively witness violence while it feels disgusting and irrational to others. According to Sontag, she says that “Men make war. Men (most men) like war, for men there is ‘some glory, some necessity, some satisfaction in fighting’ that women (most women) do not feel or enjoy” (3). While it is unclear how true the…
The story of St. Margaret highlights many features of the Christian worldview, perhaps most notably the nature of ideal behavior. Saints are canonized in the Christian religion as role models- they are inherently aspirational figures. St. Margaret is portrayed as an ideal Christian figure in two ways: firstly, through her purity, translated as “virginity” or “chastity” in the text, and secondly, through her endurance in the face of extreme violence.…
