What Is There To Say About A Massacre?

The 'thing' I have made is a collage featuring a photograph of the real Dresden bombing aftermath. The photo in the top left corner is of a poor mining town in Peru, which I felt very much resembled some of the aftermath of the bombing. The piece is meant to have a very rough feel, which is why I decided to leave some space around certain cut pieces as well as leaving an edge around the sides of the piece itself. It is made to make the piece feel as if it was also bombed in the Dresden bombing. 

The hands in the photo are meant to display survivors reaching out for help, and each hand's location can refer to what help they are reaching for. The hands on the bottom are reaching for help out of the rubble, the hands in the middle of the piece (behind the Dresden city line) are reaching for help from the government, and the pair of hands at the top of the piece are reaching towards the heavens for help from God/a God-like figure. The figures looking down at the folks in the boat can be interpreted many ways: soldiers searching for survivors to save, soldiers searching for enemies to shoot, etc. The blood red sky is actually a picture of blood red water flipped upside down, to help convey a feeling as if the world has ended.

Although it is not noticeable in the photo, but some of the cut-outs are bent or folded in some way. The purposeful bending is meant to convey damage to survivors, whether it be bodily injury or damage to the mental health of a person. The text cluster that reads 'WHERE ARE BODIES THE' is meant to convey a sense of extreme panic that might be felt by a survivor. The text rectangles that read ' "What made this happen?" You ask every time' and 'because it must' can be interpreted as a conversation about war between either a mother and child, fellow soldier to soldier, etc. The upside down text to the top right corner can be interpreted as what commanders may have told their soldiers, what the government may have told their people, etc. etc. Overall, the nonsensicalness of all of the text used ties into the quote from Slaughterhouse Five, "It is so short and jumbled and jangled... because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre." You can see part of this quote written in red ink around the piece.

The process itself was jumbled and jangled. I spent quite a bit of time sourcing images to use, then going back and changing bits here and there before deciding on the final look of the piece. I'm glad the process was as jumbled as the piece though, because it better ties in with the message of the piece - that there truly is nothing intelligent to say about war. While there isn't anything really substantially good to say, it's definitely always better to stay away from glamorization of war. The article 'Memorial Day and How War Films Have Changed' discusses how during and after WWII, films have had an overall fanciful tone that demonstrated the romanticization and glamorization of war, until the Vietnam War happened. Author Mark Hughes discusses how "Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, though, there was a steady supply of adventurism and glamorization of war and those who go into battle. Where Eagles Dare, The Great Escape, Bridge on the River Kwai, The Dirty Dozen, The Guns of Navarone, The Longest Day, and many more famous films depicted an image of warfare and soldiering that retained honor and adventure even during the most difficult moments. ... But a sea change was waiting down the road, and it came in the form of Vietnam. ... Watching the war unfold in vivid imagery every evening on the news forever changed the perception of warfare in American society. As opposition to the war grew, reporting and imagery of the protests spread on the news as well, merging into a wave of protest across the country that steadily rose year after year. ... While the politics of the films differed, the changes in cinematic depictions of war and of soldiers is obvious whether or not we agree with the political sentiments being expressed. And whether conservative or liberal, left or right, the films still almost always tended to fit into the emerging template that viewed warfare from the perspective of the individual soldiers as imperfect human beings forced into situations containing moral uncertainties and traumas, all of which affected not only the soldiers but civilians and society as well."

I agree with this sentiment, though I would argue that a large amount of war films still romanticize soldiers, not directly through a portrayal of noble honorable soldiers, but rather indirectly through a dehumanization of the enemy. One such example of this is the movie American Sniper. Chris Kyle is displayed as a soldier who is clearly struggling with his role as a soldier, whether through his relationships outside the army or the condition of his psyche. However, his targets, the Iraqis, were not given the same depth and complexity as Kyle, and are often dehumanized as savages. This lack of depth denies them the right to even be considered victims, and erases their stories to fit Kyle's better.

The Horror of the Past Continues: 'Beloved' and 'Strange Fruit'

                                  

The source I have chosen to compare to Beloved is the famous anti-lynching song Strange Fruit, written by Abel Meeropol and first performed by Billie Holiday. Both deal with an extension of slavery in a time where technically slavery didn’t exist by law so much as it did by social order. 

Beloved is set after the end of the Civil War, when black slaves become freedmen and women. However, their civil rights were limited, such as voting, working, etc. During the entire book, every black character had to work to remain unseen by slave catchers and racist whites who could attack them and/or sell them back into slavery. Each character was deeply afraid of any of those possibilities coming true. This is reflective of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 - any escaped slave must be returned to their masters. Although this was made null by the 1862 Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves, this was not totally enforced, and did not take full effect until June 20th, 1864. Even then, the legality of freedmen and women did not change how white people felt about them at all. In fact, it made lynchings more prevalent, as it became one of the few but very effective ways to reinforce white supremacy.

Strange Fruit has no setting, but generally refers to the 1930’s and the 20th century, when lynchings were extremely common. Here, black men and women had gained a few more rights than previous generations, but were still looked down upon by racist white people. Just like in Beloved, every black person in America was deeply afraid of being lynched and so had to work carefully so that they might survive. Although lynchings were legal, they weren’t legal in cases where due process of law was abandoned. Of course, this was conveniently overlooked in nearly all cases. When Billie Holiday first began performing the song, she had many issues with it, from clubs and bars banning the song entirely to record companies refusing to record the song and radios completely banning it from airplay.

Both Beloved and Strange Fruit touch upon a fixture of institutionalized racism - a systematic reinforcement of white supremacy through social order. Peter Daniels of World Socialist Web Site also comments on this - more specifically, on Strange Fruit, the film. In his article, “Strange Fruit”: the story of the song, he talks about the general history of the song, and how it became the subject of a film of the same name. More specifically, he takes some issue with a comment in the film that racism is “a white problem, not a black problem.” and that “Until the last racist is dead, ‘Strange Fruit’ is still relevant.” He does not go into detail how he takes issue with the first comment, but he explains that racists are not born as racists and that ‘there can be no such thing as the death of “the last racist” without attacking the economic, social and political conditions that continue to breed various forms of racism and ethnic hatred all over the world.’ While I agree with how he addresses the second comment, I have to disagree with his lack of comment on how racism is a white problem and not a black problem. It absolutely is a white problem - it’s also absolutely a black problem. However, it’s ultimately white people’s responsibility to dismantle racism, or at least play a bigger role in doing so. There’s no way that a group of people who set up the current system of racism should have no responsibility in dismantling it, especially since all white people, anti-racist or otherwise, still benefit from racism as it stands now.

While neither Beloved nor Strange Fruit directly comment upon systematic racism, they most certainly infer that the system is flawed and needs to be dismantled. Both works serve as a sort of call to this dismantling, and remain highly relevant in this day and age.