Unwatchable

Description

We all have images that we find unwatchable, whether for ethical, political, or sensory and affective reasons. From news coverage of terror attacks to viral videos of police brutality, and from graphic horror films to transgressive artworks, many of the images in our media culture might strike us as unsuitable for viewing. Yet what does it mean to proclaim something "unwatchable": disturbing, revolting, poor, tedious, or literally inaccessible? With over 50 original essays by leading scholars, artists, critics, and curators, this is the first book to trace the "unwatchable" across our contemporary media environment, in which viewers encounter difficult content on various screens and platforms. Appealing to a broad academic and general readership, the volume offers multidisciplinary approaches to the vast array of troubling images that circulate in global visual culture. Title Page......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Introduction: Envisioning the Unwatchable......Page 12 Part I: Violence and Testimony......Page 42 1. Theorizing the Unwatchable......Page 44 Unwatchable......Page 46 The Gaze from Within......Page 50 The Unwatchable and the Unwatchable......Page 56 Melting into Visibility......Page 59 Pro Forma......Page 63 2. Spectacles of Destruction......Page 68 Terminal Radiance......Page 70 Unwatched/Unmanned: Drone Strikes and the Aesthetics of the Unseen......Page 74 Breakaway......Page 79 The Watchability of the Unwatchable: Television Disaster Coverage......Page 84 3. Bearing Witness......Page 91 The Incommensurable......Page 93 Not Seeing Is Believing: The Unwatchable in Advocacy......Page 97 Even If She Had Been a Criminal: A Past Unwatched......Page 103 Deframing Evidence: A Transmission from Los ingrávidos......Page 108 Alan Kurdi’s Body on the Shore......Page 113 4. Visual Regimes of Racial Violence......Page 119 Held Helpless in the Breach: On American History X......Page 121 The Flash of History: On the Unwatchable in Get Out......Page 126 Nothing Is Unwatchable for All......Page 132 Empathy. Complicity.......Page 137 5. Spectacularization and Resistance......Page 142 Entertainment Value......Page 143 Holocausts, Hallowe’en, and Headdresses......Page 147 Unwitnessable: Outrageous Ableist Impersonations and Unwitnessed Everyday Violence......Page 152 Part II: Histories and Genres......Page 158 6. The Tradition of Provocateurs......Page 160 The Two Unwatchables......Page 162 Real Horrorshow......Page 166 Asymmetries of Desire: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom......Page 171 Unstomachable: Irréversible and the Extreme Cinema Tradition......Page 176 7. Enduring the Avant-Garde......Page 181 Unwatchability by Choice: Isou’s Venom and Eternity......Page 183 The Refusal of Spectacle: Debord’s Howls for Sade......Page 189 Warhol’s Empire: Unwatched and Unwatchable......Page 195 Warhol’s Empire......Page 200 Watching Paint Dry......Page 205 8. Visceral Responses to Horror......Page 211 “Peekaboo”: Thoughts on (Maybe Not) Seeing Two Horror Films......Page 212 Why I Cannot Watch......Page 218 Apotropes......Page 224 9. Pornography and the Question of Pleasure......Page 229 I Am Curious (Butterball)......Page 231 At the Threshold to the Void......Page 236 10. Archives and the Disintegrating Image......Page 240 Restoring Blood Money......Page 242 Turning Garbo Watchable: From Swedish Bread Bun to Hollywood Goddess......Page 248 Twilight of the Dead......Page 255 Part III: Spectators and Objects......Page 260 11. Passionate Aversions......Page 262 “Sad!”: Why I Won’t Watch Antichrist......Page 264 Transforming Nihilism......Page 269 Oh, Inventiveness! Oh, Imaginativeness! Precious Cinema and Its Discontents: A Rant......Page 274 The Biopic Is an Affront to the Cinema......Page 280 12. Tedious Whiteness......Page 284 White Men Behaving Sadly......Page 285 “You Is Kind, You Is Smart, You Is Important”; or, Why I Can’t Watch The Help......Page 291 Two Tablesand a Ladder: WCGW?......Page 297 13. Reality Trumpism......Page 302 TV Trumps......Page 304 The Once and Future Hillary: Why I Won’t Watch a TV Miniseries about the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election......Page 310 14. Pedagogy and Campus Politics......Page 316 Why We Can’t Take a Joke......Page 318 The Bridge and Unteachable Films......Page 323 Squirming in the Classroom: Fat Girl and the Ethical Value of Extreme Discomfort......Page 328 15. The Triggered Spectator......Page 334 What Is an “Unwatchable” Film? (With Reference to Amour and Still Alice)......Page 336 Watch at Your Own Peril......Page 342 Sects, Fries, and Videotape......Page 345 Off Watch......Page 352 Acknowledgments......Page 358 Filmography......Page 360 Bibliography......Page 366 Notes on Contributors......Page 386 Index......Page 400