VL-IV: Chap 9- Close-ups

[rich]

u don't even need "good guys"--plenty of incriminating evidence of
many mugs taken by friends or buddies as some vile form of
souvenir--lynching postcards, einsatzgruppen/wehrmacht group shots of
mass shootings, hangings, all the crystal clear digital video/pics
taken at abu ghraib

remember the pulitzer shot of the dying baby and the patient
vulture--an awesome but also very troubling picture--an image that's
heard to get out of one's head.

is the camera evil?  I can't answer that

rich

http://pulitzerphotos.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/baby-stalked-by-vulture-in-sudan/

On 2/12/09, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
> A number of people have observed that cameras=evil in Pynchon's world.  In
> this case, though, it's an instrument of truth.  The good guys
> use filmed close-ups of bad guys to reveal their true intent.  Close-ups
> reveal the soul, but they also turn the filmed person into an object,
> a mug shot, frozen in a lie.  It's this latter aspect, maybe, that causes
> TRP to be camera shy.  WHo wants their life and work to be defined
> by a frozen moment?
>
> Laura
>