[Vwoolf] staging female author suicides

[Elisa Sparks]

Am I the only one who was additionally annoyed by innaccuracy of Woolf dressed in Victorian white, high collar, as if she was just another avatar of emily Dickinson?

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 25, 2013, at 8:19 AM, "Jean Mills" <millsj7 at gmail.com<mailto:millsj7 at gmail.com>> wrote:

I am grateful for this on-going discussion, and am especially in agreement with the comments made by Kimberly Coates, Kristin Czarnecki, Jean Mallinson, Brenda Helt,Tonya Krouse, and Jeanette Smyth, early on. The spread made me feel manipulated, violated, and disgusted as a woman, a Woolf scholar, a feminist, a survivor, a human being, and, if I may be so bold, a fashionista (although one might find that point to be esp in contention, as it is true I am far away from my undergraduate years, and yet continue to wear sweatpants to the library!), and the input here on the listserv really helped me to navigate the initial jolt from Vice.

I often feel the same way when I view much of photojournalism (not that I'm characterizing the spread as such, I'm not), especially images of violence and war. I was particularly interested in Jeanette's comments on genocide art and snuff porn, and began to think of the ways in which this conversation might intersect with, say, Lee Miller's Vogue spread, with a narrative laid upon it, of dead SS, and the pictures of her in Hitler's bathtub, etc. which I guess in certain photos might be characterized as the Nazi body in pain being aestheticized, feminized, and eroticized, the snuffers being snuffed.

It also led me back, thankfully, and not uncommonly, to Woolf's Three Guineas, where she, with her usual profound eloquence, refuses (notice the present tense, here) to show the pictures of the dead children from the Spanish Civil War, but displays instead the photographs of the patriarchs in charge of policy---military, religious, legal, and cultural---policy, whose decisions affect us, our hearts and minds (with a little shout out to the obscene Vietnam war), in very real terms.

An artist (and an entrepreneur, for that matter) would do well to study that text, for I feel that he or she would discover a much more provocative and profitable way not only to make art, but to sell some incredibly sexy clothes, as well.

I see the spread as a disappointment (I, too, loathe the proliferation of "artist statements" online that claim or attempt to direct my perception and apprehension of the piece) and as a colossal, yet run-of-the-mill failure of the human imagination.

Jean


On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 1:59 PM, Melanie White <melanie.white at comcast.net<mailto:melanie.white at comcast.net>> wrote:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/18/193014174/book-news-vice-draws-ire-by-staging-female-author-suicides?utm_source&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130617

Someone said this has been taken down now.

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--
Jean Mills, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
English Department
John Jay College
524 West 59th Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10019

212.237.8706
JEMILLS at JJAY.CUNY.EDU<mailto:JEMILLS at JJAY.CUNY.EDU>

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