The fact that my final HA gened comes from reading and watching movies about memory is ridiculous...
In the Introduction of Trauma Culture, E. Ann Kaplan questions the "distancing and displacement characteristic of some political scholars" after 9/11. How could these intellectuals so easily look towards America's imperialism and foreign policy or relate it to the American attack on Hiroshima? Kaplan wants these scholars to live in the "present emotion." Yet, while the trauma and emotional reactions that 9/11 clearly brought on should not be delegitimized, Kaplan seems to miss the importance of such a distancing reaction to allowing the nation to take a next step. By distancing themselves, these scholars allowed themselves to forget the trauma of the event (however it may have affected them) opening up the opportunity to truly and rationally think about where to go to next. Retaliation, new attacks, and a renewed sense of patriotism (which, does not seem to have carried on through the six years since) have emotional undertones that highlight the "Never Forget" attitude from the initial response to the events of 2001. If this slogan is our ideal, how can we move on?
discuss?
discuss?