Breaking the Codes Early this morning, with Bon…
Breaking the Codes
Early this morning, with Bonnie Prince Billy�s Ease Down the Road playing in the background, I happened to read this description of the aftermath of one atrocity from the Rwandan pogrom. The contrast was explicit, and upsetting. But just as much as Bonnie Billy�s dark, valedictory songs give a certain kind of pleasure, so does reading about another�s terrible experience. Perhaps it was this realisation that really upset me. And yet, in general, we assume it is because we feel sorry for the victims. Time to reconsider.
So, it is timely to read a brilliant article on the morals of photographing (and then publishing) scenes of horror, such as in Rwanda. The author unpacks the assumptions behind the industry that assumes it is keeping us informed. Perhaps, instead, it is keeping us sedated through horror. The author says such photography �fails to offer coherent, explicated knowledge because they are photographs, which is to say, they are isolated fragments of a larger truth.� And that truth is always displaced by our greed for more sedating horror. Go to RW Johnson�s article, linked to in the first paragraph, for the larger truth about Rwanda.
Coincidentally, I found out today that Bryan Rich, known to me as the co-writer of many of Bonnie Prince Billy�s best songs, is also a film-maker. He has completed a film called Breaking the Codes about �the confessions of four men on the front lines of the insidious war between Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups in the small African nation of Burundi, Rwanda’s southern neighbor.� And Bonnie Billy helped with the music.
Get set with your popcorn.
Other SpikeMagazine.com posts of interest:
- Bonnie Prince Billy Will Oldham, aka Bonnie Princ…
- Greatest Hits
- Oldham Apathetic
- Bonnie Bonanza
- Kevin Coyne
Buy Books Online
 |
 |
|
