“I speak with the Voice of Things to Come”: Reading “The Vietnam Project” Today
TL;DR: The authors argue that a rereading of "The Vietnam Project" allows us to explore the varied functions of what has been dubbed "war-porn" in relation to global image consumption then and now (with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan) and argue that it makes for compelling reading owing to issues such as wounding, trauma, war, its mediatisation, and associated discourses that continue to haunt the American popular and political imagination.
Abstract: In this article I argue that a rereading of “The Vietnam Project” allows us to explore the varied functions of what has been dubbed “war-porn” in relation to global image consumption then (with respect to Vietnam) and now (with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan). From renewed interest in depictions of torture in Waiting for the Barbarians to acknowledging swipes at the Bush and Blair administrations in Diary of a Bad Year, recent Coetzee scholarship has been enlivened by debates clustered around the most recent wounding of the American body politic: 9/11. By analysing an earlier piece, which is preoccupied with a conflict for which the wound emerged as the defining trope, I consider the prophetic power of “The Vietnam Project”. I argue that it makes for compelling reading owing to issues such as wounding, trauma, war, its mediatisation, and the associated discourses that continue to haunt the American popular and political imagination.
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TL;DR: The continuous casting process comprises continuously pouring a molten metal into a space surrounded with the hollow mold and the core of the above equipment, thereby solidifying the molten metal to form an ingot having a hollow.
Abstract: Continuous casting process for the production of hollow ingot using an improved direct chill casting equipment having a molding system comprising a hollow mold and a movable platform, wherein at least one core and a pipe for introducing outer air are provided, said core being made from a refractory material unwettable with a molten metal and having a convergent taper at the side and an air runner for introducing outer air, which is packed with an air-permeable material, at the bottom, and said pipe for introducing outer air extending upwards from the air runner and passing through the core. The continuous casting process comprises continuously pouring a molten metal into a space surrounded with the hollow mold and the core of the above equipment; cooling the molten metal only at the side wall of the hollow mold without cooling at the side of the core; thereby solidifying the molten metal to form an ingot having a hollow, wherein the interface of the frozen metal and the liquid metal is present at the position around the core; and continuously lowering the ingot thus formed while introducing spontaneously outer air into the hollow part via the pipe for introducing outer air and the air runner of the core.
822 citations
TL;DR: A Achilles in Vietnam compares and contrasts two wars separated by 27 centuries to put before the public an understanding of the specific nature of catastrophic war experiences that not only cause lifelong disabling psychiatric experiences but also contribute to posttraumatic stress disorder.
Abstract: Here is a book that I would never have read outside this assignment. Yet, reading it has been a delightful and informative experience. Homer's Iliad tells the tragedy of the ancient Greek soldier Achilles in the Trojan War. In this book, Vietnam veterans have narrated their own tragedies. Twenty-two years after the last US ground combat battalion was withdrawn, more than 250 000 Vietnam combat veterans currently meet the full DSM-IV criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Achilles in Vietnam compares and contrasts two wars separated by 27 centuries. Dr Shay is a Boston-area psychiatrist who works with Vietnam combat veterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic. He is also on the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine. His purpose in writing this book is "to put before the public an understanding of the specific nature of catastrophic war experiences that not only cause lifelong disabling psychiatric
254 citations
38 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a young man who had a very normal childhood was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which was not properly diagnosed because of the pervasive assumption inherited from Freud that traumas occur early.
Abstract: This valuable book begins with a dedication to Eric M., a young man who had a very normal childhood. However, after returning from Vietnam, Eric's life began to deteriorate. Between 1972 and 1976, he was seen by 15 different psychiatrists, social workers, and psychologists for evaluation and treatment. Finally in 1976, Eric M. committed suicide. The authors believe that this young man suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which was not properly diagnosed because of the pervasive assumption inherited from Freud that traumas occur early in life:
17 citations
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Book•
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: In this paper, Butler explores the media's portrayal of state violence, a process integral to the way in which the West wages modern war This portrayal has saturated our understanding of human life, and has led to the exploitation and abandonment of whole peoples, who are cast as existential threats rather than as living populations in need of protection These people are framed as already lost, to imprisonment, unemployment and starvation, and can easily be dismissed.
Abstract: This is a profound exploration of the current wars, looking at violence, gender and different forms of resistance In "Frames of War", Judith Butler explores the media's portrayal of state violence, a process integral to the way in which the West wages modern war This portrayal has saturated our understanding of human life, and has led to the exploitation and abandonment of whole peoples, who are cast as existential threats rather than as living populations in need of protection These people are framed as already lost, to imprisonment, unemployment and starvation, and can easily be dismissed In the twisted logic that rationalizes their deaths, the loss of such populations is deemed necessary to protect the lives of 'the living' This disparity, Butler argues, has profound implications for why and when we feel horror, guilt, loss and indifference, both in the context of war and, increasingly, everyday life In this urgent response to increasingly dominant methods of coercion, violence and racism, Butler calls for a reconceptualization of the Left, one united in opposition and resistance to the illegitimate and arbitrary effects of state violence
2,109 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: Regarding the Pain of Others as mentioned in this paper is a searing analysis of our numbed response to images of horror, from Goya's Disasters of War to news footage and photographs of the conflicts in Vietnam, Rwanda and Bosnia, pictures have been charged with inspiring dissent, fostering violence or instilling apathy in us, the viewer.
Abstract: Regarding the Pain of Others is Susan Sontag's searing analysis of our numbed response to images of horror. From Goya's Disasters of War to news footage and photographs of the conflicts in Vietnam, Rwanda and Bosnia, pictures have been charged with inspiring dissent, fostering violence or instilling apathy in us, the viewer. Regarding the Pain of Others will alter our thinking not only about the uses and meanings of images, but about the nature of war, the limits of sympathy, and the obligations of conscience. "Powerful, fascinating. Sontag is our outstanding contemporary writer in the moralist tradition". (Sunday Times). "A coruscating sermon on how we picture suffering". (The New York Times). "A far-reaching set of ruminations on human suffering, the nature of goodness, the lures, deceptions and truth of images ...in short, a summary of what it means to be alive and alert in the twentieth century". (Independent). "Sontag is on top form: firing devastating questions". (Los Angeles Times). "Simple, elegant, fiercely persuasive". (Metro). One of America's best-known and most admired writers, Susan Sontag was also a leading commentator on contemporary culture until her death in December 2004. Her books include four novels and numerous works of non-fiction, among them Regarding the Pain of Others, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, At the Same Time, Against Interpretation and Other Essays and Reborn: Early Diaries 1947-1963, all of which are published by Penguin. A further eight books, including the collections of essays Under the Sign of Saturn and Where the Stress Falls, and the novels The Volcano Lover and The Benefactor, are available from Penguin Modern Classics.
2,058 citations
TL;DR: The continuous casting process comprises continuously pouring a molten metal into a space surrounded with the hollow mold and the core of the above equipment, thereby solidifying the molten metal to form an ingot having a hollow.
Abstract: Continuous casting process for the production of hollow ingot using an improved direct chill casting equipment having a molding system comprising a hollow mold and a movable platform, wherein at least one core and a pipe for introducing outer air are provided, said core being made from a refractory material unwettable with a molten metal and having a convergent taper at the side and an air runner for introducing outer air, which is packed with an air-permeable material, at the bottom, and said pipe for introducing outer air extending upwards from the air runner and passing through the core. The continuous casting process comprises continuously pouring a molten metal into a space surrounded with the hollow mold and the core of the above equipment; cooling the molten metal only at the side wall of the hollow mold without cooling at the side of the core; thereby solidifying the molten metal to form an ingot having a hollow, wherein the interface of the frozen metal and the liquid metal is present at the position around the core; and continuously lowering the ingot thus formed while introducing spontaneously outer air into the hollow part via the pipe for introducing outer air and the air runner of the core.
822 citations
Book•
[...]
29 Jul 2008
TL;DR: The Trauma Question outlines the origins of the concept of trauma across psychiatric, legal and cultural-political sources from the 1860s to the coining of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in 1980.
Abstract: In this book, Roger Luckhurst both introduces and advances the fields of cultural memory and trauma studies, tracing the ways in which ideas of trauma have become a major element in contemporary Western conceptions of the self.
The Trauma Question outlines the origins of the concept of trauma across psychiatric, legal and cultural-political sources from the 1860s to the coining of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in 1980. It further explores the nature and extent of ‘trauma culture’ from 1980 to the present, drawing upon a range of cultural practices from literature, memoirs and confessional journalism through to photography and film. The study covers a diverse range of cultural works, including writers such as Toni Morrison, Stephen King and W. G. Sebald, artists Tracey Emin, Christian Boltanski and Tracey Moffatt, and film-makers David Lynch and Atom Egoyan.
The Trauma Question offers a significant and fascinating step forward for those seeking a greater understanding of the controversial and ever-expanding field of trauma research.
393 citations
TL;DR: A Achilles in Vietnam compares and contrasts two wars separated by 27 centuries to put before the public an understanding of the specific nature of catastrophic war experiences that not only cause lifelong disabling psychiatric experiences but also contribute to posttraumatic stress disorder.
Abstract: Here is a book that I would never have read outside this assignment. Yet, reading it has been a delightful and informative experience. Homer's Iliad tells the tragedy of the ancient Greek soldier Achilles in the Trojan War. In this book, Vietnam veterans have narrated their own tragedies. Twenty-two years after the last US ground combat battalion was withdrawn, more than 250 000 Vietnam combat veterans currently meet the full DSM-IV criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Achilles in Vietnam compares and contrasts two wars separated by 27 centuries. Dr Shay is a Boston-area psychiatrist who works with Vietnam combat veterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic. He is also on the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine. His purpose in writing this book is "to put before the public an understanding of the specific nature of catastrophic war experiences that not only cause lifelong disabling psychiatric
254 citations
Additional excerpts
...Whilst the participants in Shay’s study were combat veterans, I suggest that these insights allow us to think about the mediation of trauma with which “The Vietnam Project” is so centrally concerned. Transpose this into the post-Abu Ghraib context explored in Standard Operating Procedure (2008), amongst other studies, and we might supplement “hear and believe” with “see”....
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