But into this "we," after the pages devoted to the feminist point, she then subsides. do have the same responses, "however different the education, the traditions behind us," she says to the lawyer. Thus the chief of propaganda for Franco's Nationalist rebellion maintained that it was the Basques who had destroyed their own ancient town and former capital, Guernica, on April 26, 1937, by placing dynamite in the sewers (in a later version, by dropping bombs manufactured in Basque territory) in order to inspire indignation abroad and reinforce the Republican resistance. The destructiveness of war -- short of total destruction, which is not war but suicide -- is not in itself an argument against waging war unless one thinks other patriotic organizations -- in some cities the police raided bookstores, and lawsuits were brought against the public display of the photographs -- Friedrich's declaration of war against war was acclaimed Excerpted from REGARDING THE PAIN OF OTHERS by Susan Sontag Copyright © 2003 by Susan Sontag. that the killing machine has a gender, and it is male. Woolf's Three Guineas , appearing toward the close of nearly two decades of plangent denunciations of war, offered the originality (which made this the least well received of all her books) of focusing on what was regarded as too obvious or inapposite to be mentioned, much less brooded over: that war is a man's game-that the killing machine has a gender, and it is male. And photographs of the victims of war are themselves a species of rhetoric. The Regarding the Pain of Others Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and … Invoking this hypothetical shared experience ("we are seeing with you the same dead bodies, the same ruined houses"), Woolf professes to believe that the shock of such pictures cannot fail to unite people of good will. But those certainly are dead children, and that undoubtedly is the section of a house. And photographs of the victims of war are themselves a species of rhetoric. Incendiary as that footage was to the many who watch Al Jazeera throughout the world, it did not tell them anything about the Israeli army they were not already primed to believe. Although they are separated by the age-old affinities of feeling and practice of their respective sexes, as Woolf has reminded him, the lawyer is hardly a standard-issue bellicose male. In Susan Sontag’s “Regarding the Pain of Others,” she talks about how the public’s views and reactions towards photographs that demonstrate the negatives in the world such deaths in wars or global tragedies. In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag examines the manner in which war is perceived, taking into account such factors as sex, culture and status. of Serbs living in Serbia or abroad maintained right to the end of the Serb siege of Sarajevo, and even after, that the Bosnians themselves perpetrated the horrific "breadline massacre" in May 1992 and And thus a majority Sontag's statements about photographs of suffering might also help us think about the function of writing and reading about others' suffering. And, she is saying, we are not monsters, we members of the educated . how war evacuates, shatters, breaks apart, levels the built world. We hope only (so far in vain) to stop genocide and to bring to justice those who commit gross violations of the laws of war (for there are laws of war, to which combatants should And all photographs wait to be explained or falsified by their captions. We as U.S. citizens never really realize… And, she is saying, we are not monsters, we members of the educated class. Surely they could also foster greater militancy on behalf of the Republic. Not to be pained by these pictures, not to recoil from them, not to strive to abolish what causes this havoc, this carnage -- these, for Woolf, would be the reactions of a moral monster. According to her, people are desensitized to images in the media that do not directly hit home. This is what war does. Sontag – Regarding the Pain of Others. They show the mangled bodies of adults and children. The author gives heavy emphasis on how images of tragedies can affect someone’s emotion. War ruins . Sontag initially addresses a question posed to writer and anti-war activist Virginia Woolf: “How in your opinion are we to prevent war?” but then, deducing that war is perennial, Sontag uses the remainder of her book to examine the relation between photography and feelings and ideas about war. hidden population of hideously disfigured ex-combatants -- les gueules cassées ("the broken mugs") they were nicknamed in French -- at the climax of his new F'accuse. However, someone who accepts that in the world as currently divided war can become inevitable, and even just, might reply that the photographs supply no evidence, none at all, for renouncing war-except to those for whom the notions of valor and sacrifice have been emptied of meaning and credibility. She continues: This morning's collection contains the photograph of what might be a man's body, or a woman's; it is so mutilated that it might, on the other hand, be the body of a pig. "A bomb has torn open the side," Woolf writes of the house in one of the pictures. Ironically the dramatic increase in scope and excellence of photographic writing, for which Sontag deserves credit for stimulating, has reduced the effect of what she has to say in Regarding the Pain of Others, (Susan Sontag, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $23.00, ISBN 0-374-24858-3) because much of the material has already been stated. For Woolf, as for many antiwar polemicists, war is generic, and the images she describes are of anonymous, generic victims. ), cries the deranged veteran who is the protagonist of the film, and he repeats his summons in German and in English: "Your sacrifices were in vain!" judgment these dead would surely bring against Europe's politicians and generals could they know that, twenty years later, another war was imminent. . and the unnamed addressee of this book-length letter are not any two people. Third panel: at the moment of death, supine with arms outstretched and knees bent, naked and bloodied In June 1938 Virginia Woolf published Three Guineas , her brave, unwelcomed reflections on the roots of war. its summations, rich in repeated phrases. Condemning war as such did not seem so futile or irrelevant in the wake of the paper fantasies of the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, in which fifteen leading nations, including the United States, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Japan, solemnly renounced war as an instrument of national policy; even Freud and Einstein were drawn into the debate with a public exchange of letters in 1932 titled "Why War?" well respond in the same words. Incendiary as Excerpted from Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag Copyright © 2003 by Susan Sontag Excerpted by permission. Men make war. contribute to the defense of the Spanish Republic against the forces of militarist and clerical fascism?, the photographs might instead have reinforced their belief in the justness of that struggle. into a martyr or a hero. ________________________________________________________. shown. To be sure, a cityscape is not made of flesh. Let's see, Woolf writes, "whether when we look at the same photographs we feel the same things." (Or perhaps Woolf is simply assuming that a photograph should speak for itself.) War is an abomination; a barbarity; war must be stopped. including the United States, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Japan, solemnly renounced war as an instrument of national policy; even Freud and Einstein were drawn into the debate with a public exchange To be sure, Woolf and the unnamed addressee of this book-length letter are not any two people. Still, sheared-off buildings are almost as eloquent as bodies in the street. They show No "we" should be taken for granted when the subject is looking at other people's pain. Nevertheless, the temerity of Woolf's version of "Why War?" The pictures Woolf has conjured up do not in fact show what war, war as such, does. They show how war evacuates, shatters, breaks apart, levels the built world. class. But the case against war does not rely on information about who and when and where; the arbitrariness of the relentless slaughter is evidence enough. This book is about the experience of walking with that pain and eventually reaching the other side where the pain no longer dominates. Between the toys and the graves, the reader has an excruciating photo-tour of four years of ruin, slaughter, and degradation: pages of wrecked and plundered churches and castles, War dismembers. It is to dismiss politics. No one, not even pacifists. Woolf begins by observing tartly that a truthful dialogue between them may not be possible. See more ideas about civil war photography, magnum photos, civil war history. Excerpted by permission. . war. In the book “Regarding the Pain of Others” by Susan Sontag, she explains how people throughout the world are suffering. of letters in 1932 titled "Why War?" It was, How in your opinion are we to prevent war? It is this "we" that Woolf challenges at the start of her book: she refuses to allow her interlocutor to take a "we" for granted. “No 'we' should be taken for granted when the subject is looking at other people's pain.” (Chapter 1, Page 7)This claim is the driving force of Sontag’s book. After the excerpt from Regarding the pain of others, I, too, will use remember, as a core principle in my life, and psychology career (2004). Regarding the Pain of Others is a book-length essay that wanders all around the crucial thesis, exploring various aspects of both the subject and the medium before declaring a verdict on its efficacy. by Susan Sontag. Hamish Hamilton £12.99, pp128. 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