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revdorothyl at 07:38pm on 21/03/2006
revdorothyl at 07:38pm on 21/03/2006I just got back from seeing the film “Why We Fight” at my local multiplex (if you haven’t seen it, I recommend that you do so at your earliest opportunity), with my zeal for my dissertation project suddenly renewed.
Without going into all the details of the film -- which starts with President Eisenhower’s farewell address in 1961, warning against the establishment of a permanent military-industrial complex and the misplacing of national priorities onto the business of death rather than life, and then weaves a compelling narrative of interviews about the U.S. response to 9/11/01 and how it became tied up with the ongoing war in Iraq -- let me say that I found it chilling and convincing. ( spoilerish thoughts on the conclusion of the film )
On to the relevance (possible relevance, anyway?) for my too-long-delayed work on "Horror, Hope, and Heroes: Practical Religion in BtVS".
Even beyond the very immediate and real personal and public issues raised by the film, I found myself thinking that -- at least in a roundabout way -- it was also reminding me why “we” Buffy scholars write (or why fanfic writers write or fan commentators and bloggers write). We write because the horrors of this world are very, very real, and they invade our homes in the form of terrorist actions and televised disasters and campaigns of misinformation on a very regular basis.
Against those things that go “bump” (or “boom!”) in the night, against the “monsters” that rob us of sleep and the illusions of security, we need somewhere to turn for hope, somewhere to turn for heroes, for someone to show us that third option ( Read more... )
And if I’m wrong about all this, please wait a few days to tell me, so maybe I can crank out a few dozen pages while this present zeal is still upon me!
Without going into all the details of the film -- which starts with President Eisenhower’s farewell address in 1961, warning against the establishment of a permanent military-industrial complex and the misplacing of national priorities onto the business of death rather than life, and then weaves a compelling narrative of interviews about the U.S. response to 9/11/01 and how it became tied up with the ongoing war in Iraq -- let me say that I found it chilling and convincing. ( spoilerish thoughts on the conclusion of the film )
On to the relevance (possible relevance, anyway?) for my too-long-delayed work on "Horror, Hope, and Heroes: Practical Religion in BtVS".
Even beyond the very immediate and real personal and public issues raised by the film, I found myself thinking that -- at least in a roundabout way -- it was also reminding me why “we” Buffy scholars write (or why fanfic writers write or fan commentators and bloggers write). We write because the horrors of this world are very, very real, and they invade our homes in the form of terrorist actions and televised disasters and campaigns of misinformation on a very regular basis.
Against those things that go “bump” (or “boom!”) in the night, against the “monsters” that rob us of sleep and the illusions of security, we need somewhere to turn for hope, somewhere to turn for heroes, for someone to show us that third option ( Read more... )
And if I’m wrong about all this, please wait a few days to tell me, so maybe I can crank out a few dozen pages while this present zeal is still upon me!
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