Illness As Metaphor

I listened to an online lecture titled ”The Contemporary Face of Suffering“presented by the Institute for Philosophy and Religion. Although my work does not directly relate to suffering, there were some points that I felt resonated with the type of ideas I want to express

• “Illness and health are like two identities that we all possess as human citizens.”
• Metaphor distorts reality, but we cannot write without it.
• Inauthenticity can overwhelm viewers emotionally.
• “Evoke our common humanity in narratives with which we can identify.”
• What are the ethics of looking from a distance? - disconnect.
• Any photograph “documents and transforms an event.”
• “Narratives make us understand.”
• Narrative requires us to sustain attention.
• “Sympathy diminished by distance” - this referred to sympathy for people in war, however I feel that it might also be a useful thought for  my project.

To read next;

“The Volcano Lover” - Susan Sontag 

Jurecic, A 2013, The Contemporary Face of Suffering, viewed 29 March 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPeEFZN7pmg>