December 11, 2006
If you're not stunned, you need to put down the dutchie
The more I look at this photograph, the more it sucks the wind out of me.
I want to make everything and everyone be quiet, so I can see it louder.
You can import all the meaning you want to the image, and people will, because that's what we do. But in the midst of this ingracious war, with our sons and brothers and friends still being lain to waste, this picture already has everything you need.
For anyone who doesn't know, this picture is by Eric Furst.
It's not the best thing he's ever done, but scarcely have I been more moved. It's like the grove of the dead, an orchard of the dead, a vineyard of the dead suggested here, something agricultural and deliberate, something bucolic and wholesome. Dead soldiers. As if it were meant to be this way, merely another crop we cultivate.