The NYTimes has posted links to the myspace pages and facebook entries of VT victims.  A friend asks me if I think looking is voyeuristic...

my initial response:

Well, voyeuristic for sure.  But I'm not judging you

I don't know.  I have no interest in it.  I know they were all real people and that it's horrible they were killed, but I did not know them in life, getting to know them in death seems artificial.

Do we get to know them so we can better grieve them?  Do we not have enough real grief in our lives without seeking enhancements from tragedies like these?  Is it a way of cutting through the fluff of our lives or adding another
layer?

As Adam Smith points out, I can hear about the deaths of a hundred thousand in China, be deeply moved and then sleep more soundly than if I had slammed my pinkie in the car door.

Does it make it more real to "know them"?  Does it need to be more real?

This is all just off the top of my head.  I know the NYT did a similar thing with victims of the 9/11 attacks.  Done in the name of remembrance. I was ambivalent to that too.

Don't know that I'm right or wrong on this one, just how I feel...

Posted by: l4n3 at 02:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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