[-empyre-] introducing week 3

[Murat Nemet-Nejat]

Ana,

Let me put my question differently. Most of us respond to the extreme
violence we experience around us, on TV or reading newspapers, etc., by
writing a play or poem or creating a document. I am not clear how these
activities help the victims of the violence. That is why I am asking if our
acts are acts of self-preservation, attempts not to feel helpless,
powerless. That is why the question of "powerlessness" interested me so
much? Is there a process by which the powerlessness may become potent, a
significant act?

On Sat, Nov 22, 2014 at 12:54 PM, Aneta Stojnic <aneta.s7 at gmail.com> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>
> Murat Nemet-Nejat <muratnn at gmail.com> wrote: ----------empyre-
> soft-skinned space----------------------
>
> Welcome, Aneta.
>
> All through our discussions during the last weeks, I find most of my
> reactions to different incarnations of "unspeakable" violence to occur on a
> moral level, on the level of an increase one's consciousness. Then I ask
> myself: is a moral reaction an act, or a response of *self-preservation*
> not to go insane? Are we doing something to help the sufferer? One should
> realize, at its root, art also is a moral response. I would appreciate
> others' opinion on this.
>
>
> Thanx, Murat.
>
> I am not sure if I understand correctly the dilemma, but I agree that art
> is a moral response, moreover I am convinced that if we want to be anyhow
> relevant when we do art, we need to be able to take the political position.
> Perhaps the more delicate question is not weather to act but how? There are
> also various ways of self-preservation and sometimes acting could be a form
> of self-preservation, and not acting a from of self-distraction, don't you
> think so?
>
> It makes me think about the poem Ana quoted earlier in the discussion:
>
> Ana Valdés <agora158 at gmail.com> wrote:----------empyre- soft-skinned
> space----------------------
>
> I remember quite well the words of the German pastor Martin Niemöller,
>
> "When the Nazis came for the communists,
> I did not speak out;
> As I was not a communist.
> When they locked up the social democrats,
> I did not speak out;
> I was not a social democrat.
>
> When they came for the trade unionists,
> I did not speak out;
> As I was not a trade unionist.
>
> When they came for the Jews,
> I did not speak out;
> As I was not a Jew.
>
> When they came for me,
> there was no one left to speak out."
>
>
>
>
> All the best,
>
> Aneta
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/attachments/20141122/4625f037/attachment.htm>