Baudrillard/ Zizek - Courtney Sparling

I actually feel like I understood a lot of what the readings are trying to say. Specifically, when 9/11 was brought up in the readings, I felt like I could actually see a picture in my head that relates to the bigger picture because it is an event/image that I am very familiar with.

I was in 3rd grade when 9/11 occurred and I still remember being in gym class when my bus driver came in the school and took me and my younger sister home. I have lived in New York, about 50 miles north of New York City, my entire life, so I remember being very afraid after hearing the news. My father had just left his position as a police officer for the NYPD, so I still imagine to this day what could have happened to him if he had still worked in the city, as I know quite a few people who lost loved ones during this tragedy.

What really struck me in the Baudillard reading was this one question: "How do things stand with the real event, then, if reality is everywhere infiltrated by images, virtuality, and fiction?"

I distinctly remember my mom saying that this act of terrorism was like something out of a movie, something so horrible and unimaginable that it just couldn't be happening in real life! It was like "the white magic of cinema and the black magic of terrorism, the white light of the image and the black light of terrorism." 

I really liked how the Baudrillard reading connected with the Zizek reading. I can see how Zizek realted 9/11 to a "'real reality' itself as a 'virtual entity'." I can see how this was a real event that happened, but it was so unreal that it felt like it could not possibly have happened. 

I know for me, the media made it seem even more unreal. I remember seeing people jumping out of the building to their deaths and the smoke/debris engulfing the streets below. It was like a movie, played right on my television screen. I was glued to the television, along with my family. One of my friend's father was in NYC when it happened and he told us that it was like he was in a movie. He couldn't believe what was unfolding right before his eyes. It had to be on a set for a movie, not in the actual streets of the city where we have all walked down before, just living our daily lives. 

This CNN news clip shows the disaster unfolding, before any information was confirmed and people had no idea what had actually happened. It was a mystery turned horror story for me, relating it to the many movies I have seen before, where the unthinkable happens. The images on my television screen will always be in my head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfYQAPhjwzA 

As Zizek asks, "Where have we already seen the same thing over and over again?" Hollywood.