[-empyre-] concerning violence, and more Antigone's bones

[Scott Rettberg]

Thanks for a fascinating and moving discussion. I just wanted to say that I have been following this more closely than any other empyre discussion for years. All of these mirrors on our world are overpowering. The atavistic barbarity of ISIS, the immolation of student protesters in Mexico, kids nightly shooting each other in Chicago, for nothing. It goes on and never stops, this infliction of power on oppressed bodies. While we can theoretically abstract the medial manipulation of acts of terror like mass disappearances, beheadings, crucifixions, and to be honest drone bombings as well, they overpower emotionally by design. They counfound logic and deny personhood. They strip hope from the bones. I am left only admiring the courage and hope and solidarity that Ana and others have described in the midst of such unspeakable horror.