History is the Present in the Age of Broken Hearts

[tagonist]

I'm rewatching the X-Files. On VHS tapes, which means that instead of a complete season, have a set of selected episodes "chosen by fans" most of which have to do with the larger story arc- government collaboration with aliens to create a hybrid species (or, later, humans immune to the black oil) that can survive colonization. The house only has

Comments

[sophiism]

So nice to read your words again!

". . . this is the age of broken hearts:" When I suggested something like this a year ago, you said that, in fact, all of these murder/suicide rampages were indistinguishable from any other time in history. Do I have that right? Am I misreading what you had said? I bring it up because it gave me great pause.

[tagonist]

Huh.

Crap. Well I don't know. I feel busted here. Murder-suicide rampages are not new, not by a long stretch, nor is their sensational reception (penny-dreadfuls and murder ballads make that clear) but... there's a sort of weird, isolated paranoiac theme here? Maybe this is just the human narrative tendency, the need to see everything in terms of agents and actors, and any time personal misfortune overtakes an individual, or national misfortune overtakes a country, there's a certain proportion who seek violent revenge? Definitely the story is that this is a new surge in the phenomenon, but perhaps that's always the story?

Maybe my point in this article is that one consequence of self-exculpatory persecution fantasies is redemptive violence?

Do you have a link to the other conversation? I may have changed my mind. I'm just worried that I had some insight then that I've lost now.

[sophiism]

Before I find the link, I have to preface it by saying that "the age of broken hearts" is a much more elegant interpretation than mine. :-D

[tagonist]

Blame Ran. He's choosy about his archives, though, so I can't give you a link to his first usage. I may even be able to claim this one...

[greyhoundliz]

One consequence of self-exculpatory persecution fantasies (or, perhaps, narratives -- I think that for many of the actors in these situations, the persecution is reality, whether or not anyone else is plugged into that reality) is definitely redemptive violence. I think, though, that the consequences of that redemptive violence are more interesting than either the violence itself or the immediate reaction to it

[sophiism]

I can't find it! And the "advanced search function" doesn't work, and I was suppose to have my writing group essay done 2 days ago, and tonight we do the reading.

Maybe it was an exchange that came about through your journal and not mine?