- “And photographs of the victims of war are themselves a species of rhetoric. They reiterate. They simplify. They agitate. They create the illusion of consensus.”
The part of this quote that really sticks out to me is how the photographs “create the illusion of consensus”. As far as I can find for a simpler wording of this phrase, it means that the photo makes the viewer think there is no argument. There is only the fact of the photo. While that may be true in some cases, the context outside of the picture is very important, which Sontag goes into in other parts of the chapter. Maybe it sticks out because of the easy believability of photos, of physical proof.
In this way, how is argument possible with the simple picture of what the photo shows?
2. “The understanding of war among people who have not experienced war is now chiefly a product of the impact of these images.”
Much of this book sounds like facts instead of opinions, however that may just be Sontag’s use of language. As I talked about with the last quote, physical evidence is hard to argue against. It’s hard not to believe in the truth of the photos and videos we are shown. Along with this, however, I don’t think this quote is entirely accurate, at least not anymore. Stories, both oral and written, tell us the terror of war from those who have experienced it. To be fair, if someone had not read or heard any war stories, they probably would be heavily and chiefly influenced by these photos. I guess it’s just hard to see things another way when my dad and his friends are still suffering from injuries they gained in the military.
Is this quote the truth, when I, and many others, have not seen them and yet are still influenced by the other parts of war that leak into our little world?
