This Town Will Never Let Us Go -- commentary on 9/11?
Oct 10, 2023 0:37:44 GMT
doctornolonger likes this
Post by walkstheages on Oct 10, 2023 0:37:44 GMT
Okay, maybe this is completely out of left field, and maybe it is only because I grew up in America after September 11th 2001 (I vaguely recall seeing it on the news in school when it happened) and have, as an adult, seen a lot of commentary on the USA's reaction to the bombing, including from shows airing at the time that pointed out how what kind of horrible things were happening, justified to "prevent another incident", such as Farscape, but I am just curious if anyone else noticed these possible analogies?
I'll probably post again whenever I actually get around to rereading it, and I'm probably not explaining it well but I feel like the Time ship exploding = an analogy for the 9/11 attacks, how in the aftermath, so many things changed on a dime, and how almost every news channel turned to conservative talking points overnight, how so many propoganda campaigns were launched to support the invasion of Iraq (including renaming french fries "freedom fries" in many parts of the country to "spite" France, who opposed the invasion) etc?
also you know what I grabbed my copy to leaf through and find the relevant quote lol.
EDIT: woops I apparrently didn't include the quote in the original post and it glitched. here it is. If someone knows how to spoiler mark it let me know because I forgot how and don't know where I found the info for it before
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5.50 Collateral
All this complexity, all this human meaning. Call it a Ship, or call it the culture, or call it something that intersects with humanity as it chooses. You can even call it the future, since it seems—seemed—so inevitable that it’d wake up sooner or later, in whatever town or city or nation. Call it what you like, it hasn’t moved since the explosion.
A Ship does, as Valentine half-expected, suffer terrible contractions when it’s damaged from the inside. But these contractions are slow and subtle. The ground doesn’t crack open and pour post-nuclear venom out into the world, and though history may buckle it’s hardly a question of human casualties.
The Executive takes off its collective mask. The anchorpersons find words difficult to come by. Across the world, in locations still unconnected by simple geography, the aftershock manifests itself in memos and restrictions. Even as the politicians re-draft their speeches, the broadcasters, the scene-shifters, the writers, the would-be artists, the executives and the Executives begin to pull away from the edge, to curb what might be called their “worst excesses,” to hold back out of pure terror. Their ability to take new risks and think new thoughts is diminished, for fear that they’ll make it happen again, or perhaps bring on something even worse. Words vanish from the English language. Certain ideas become unspeakable. The world becomes less complex, and as it becomes less complex the probability of anything this remarkable taking place again is reduced. And so on and so on, until all things are equally flat and secure and no thought can be tolerated at all.
All this complexity, all this human meaning. Call it a Ship, or call it the culture, or call it something that intersects with humanity as it chooses. You can even call it the future, since it seems—seemed—so inevitable that it’d wake up sooner or later, in whatever town or city or nation. Call it what you like, it hasn’t moved since the explosion.
A Ship does, as Valentine half-expected, suffer terrible contractions when it’s damaged from the inside. But these contractions are slow and subtle. The ground doesn’t crack open and pour post-nuclear venom out into the world, and though history may buckle it’s hardly a question of human casualties.
The Executive takes off its collective mask. The anchorpersons find words difficult to come by. Across the world, in locations still unconnected by simple geography, the aftershock manifests itself in memos and restrictions. Even as the politicians re-draft their speeches, the broadcasters, the scene-shifters, the writers, the would-be artists, the executives and the Executives begin to pull away from the edge, to curb what might be called their “worst excesses,” to hold back out of pure terror. Their ability to take new risks and think new thoughts is diminished, for fear that they’ll make it happen again, or perhaps bring on something even worse. Words vanish from the English language. Certain ideas become unspeakable. The world becomes less complex, and as it becomes less complex the probability of anything this remarkable taking place again is reduced. And so on and so on, until all things are equally flat and secure and no thought can be tolerated at all.
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We didn't learn about the Iraq war in school at all as part of the official curriculum, but I will never forget my history teacher in high school, an older woman who was not afraid to talk frankly about the horrors of WWII (despite the official curriculum trying to water it down), and she was very blunt when it came to modern day history in the making: the US government could claim all it wanted about its heroic reasons for "liberating" Iraq, the truth was it was all down to greed and a lust for oil. None of us really understood what she meant when she said that, but knowing what I do now, I know she was 100% correct.
IDK, I just got the feeling that This Town is partially a commentary/critique about the USA + UK using 9/11 as justification for invading Iraq and cracking down on anything they saw as "anti-american/british behavior"
"This Town" was released in March 2003, the same month as the invasion began, and having the 2-ish years of build-up as politicians did all they could to convince everyone it was a good idea and "for a good cause".
IDK, I just got the feeling that This Town is partially a commentary/critique about the USA + UK using 9/11 as justification for invading Iraq and cracking down on anything they saw as "anti-american/british behavior"
"This Town" was released in March 2003, the same month as the invasion began, and having the 2-ish years of build-up as politicians did all they could to convince everyone it was a good idea and "for a good cause". Does anyone else see this or am I just reading too much into it??
