The class discussion about how media influences our viewing of and interpretation of trauma was very interesting.  It is very difficult in today's world to determine between fact and fiction because they have become so blurred, and this influences our reaction to traumatic events.  Thinking about and looking back at 9/11, I realize that I didn't really have much of a reaction to the images that I saw on tv because it seemed so unreal.  The image of a man in a suit jumping out of one of the burning buildings is still clear in my mind, and I wonder how these images have affected me as well as our entire nation.  Regarding this, Harries mentions, "On the one hand, Lot's wife becomes an emblem of individual psychic damage in retrospection; on the other, she gives a form to worries about the self's encounter with the larger wreckage of the past" (16).  I believe Harries is saying that retrospection can easily lead to masochism, because it is painful to witness.  Once a person has been through a traumatic event, this event inescapably becomes a part of that person.  In Lubin's text, the two women who share their traumatic experiences seem to have a positive effect by bringing people together as well as healing themselves through an acknowledgement of their pain.  This is how I understood it, anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ced8o50G9kg  (that's the link...haven't figured out how to do the whole video in the blog thing yet)

I've posted Bob Dylan's Blowin in the Wind because the lyrics can be applied to what happens when a person experiences a traumatic event.  Some lyrics:

How many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind,

The answer is blowin' in the wind.

This made me think about Caruth's talking about Tancred & Clorinda, and how when he injures her the second time he hears her cry out.  Possibly to hear another's cry is to bear witness to that person's trauma/pain, which spreads the feeling of trauma to another, to the listener.  The entire song seems to say that the trauma needs to be acknowledged, and until then it is invisible, or "blowin in the wind", similar to the "latency" discussed by Freud, or the haunting nature of the negative unknown effects that come out of trauma.

I also included a picture of the place where, according to legend, lot's wife turned into a salt pillar...  Hmm..who knows?  Maybe this legend was created by the media...??  :)

I was trying to think about how not fully acknowledging the effects of a traumatic event affects people today in the United States.  I think it's generally accepted that ignoring trauma and trying to suppress it leads to negative behaviors, and, in the U.S., I think that's why a lot of people suffer from addiction to drugs, alcohol, or other negative behaviors.  They're trying to find something to help them deal with a traumatic event that they are unable to deal with on their own because they are not even fully aware of it.  So, I found this kinda cool, kinda creepy addict guy.  If you look at the smoke, it kind of turns into a face at the top, which, obviously, is his lingering traumatized subconscious that haunts him, leading him down the terrible road of addiction.

So, that's it for now.  I tried to explore the ideas discussed in class and expand them to my life and the lives of those around me.  It's interesting to try to find different ways of interpreting and applying these concepts.  Hopefully this is kind of what we're supposed to do!