Another Thought On The Bomb

[Susan Danewitz]

(hello, world!)


I, for one, am quite ready to admit that I find weapons of mass destruction 
sexy.  Power in general is a turn-on.  Also, the slow, complex blooming of 
a mushroom cloud is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen 
through the filter of a TV screen.  :>  I've heard that those who saw
the fireglow of the atomic bomb have never forgotten it.  Seductiveness
comes not from the final consumation, but from the siren-call and slick
"sexy" presentation. 

I think one of the most potent things about modern literature is that it i
has found the courage to admit that destruction has its own devious 
beauty, its own tension-driven allure.  

Also, don't forget that the discussion started as a discussion of _WHY_
the atomic bomb is considered so superlatively wrong/destructive/amazing/
fascinating/etc.  The question is, how does this one act stand out above 
all others that occurred in the war?  I know what I think of Hiroshima is 
not the destruction-- though the thought of being vaporized and not having the 
millisecond chance to repent, forgive, or even to cry out terrifies me--
but the fact that, in that miraculous moment, we humans made a light that
was brighter than the sun.   

This discussion admits that though we can be humane enough to realize
the pain & terror that the bomb created, there are other levels to our
understanding of Hiroshima.  Using the analytic knife is not some sick
way of ignoring our moral responsibility--it is a way of understanding
humanity.  Finally, please dont call using that knife an act in the male 
domain-- I've been fighting against that terrible stereotype all my life.


	Susan

ps.  though if anyone is still thinking that a cylinder ("phallus") is what 
it takes to turn a gurl on, ug!  i'm with Bonnie on that one...