remember when i posted about that movie katyn? well today i read about this tragedy and i was very sad for the strange coincidence of events. what gets me about this (and the article points this out) is that so many key figures were killed together. i can't fathom that sort of death, the sweeping kind that makes extinct a group or team or race or family or nation or gender. think post wwII america (or any involved countries). think holocaust. think katyn.
i've been at a writing conference all weekend and my brain is stuffed fuller than a mushroom that has been stuffed really full (they taught us about proper metaphor use, clearly.) some of the questions churning up there follow: how should literature (and art generally) deal with or portray incredibly difficult circumstances/themes? what do we do with violence? what is the socially and ethically appropriate response to atrocities?
i wonder this relative to katyn because it was an important movie for me to see, but a difficult movie. in one panel i attended this weekend, the authors suggested that we don't look away from violence, but we do challenge it. we don't leave viewers or readers in the victim position at the end of our art--we give them handholds to find their way out. isn't that a lovely thought?
1 comment:
sad. that is a lovely thought, I love the image of handholds that is in my mind. I can't wait to hear more about your weekend.
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