The ruins of the WTC used as a holy relic in America's military battles...
At the official webpage of the USS New York (http://www.ussny.org/) you can read about how this new amphibious assault ship was built to include seven tons of steel from the ruins of the World Trade Center.
While it has become common to build memorials to 9/11 using remains from the destroyed buildings - even at locations very distant from New York - the tradition is of course even older. This is the kind of remembrance that conjures up authenticity from having a real, physical connection to the event. This is done with places - whether it be real like a battlefield or Independence Hall or even fake likeThoreau's hut which is at the right place - as well as with pieces of military equipment. Soviet memorials often feature a T-34 Tank. U.S. memorials do this too, like this artillery piece in Minnesota or these two guns below a doughboy statue in Maryland. The USS San Francisco memorial uses damaged siding from the battles the ship fought. In some ruins, like the sunken hull of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, the damage and the ruins make up almost the entire memorial. That is also the case when ruined buildings are left standing as they are in several European battle locations.
The difference here is its resemblance to the older form of this kind of "magic" - the use of holy relics. Much as a splinter of the cross (a sign of defeat tranformed theologically into a symbol of victory) could be carried into battle to defeat the enemies of Christianity, the World Trade Center ruins can be transformed into a weapon to avenge the perpetrators of that act of terror. The ruins here do not just work their magic through remembrance. They do not mobilize sentiment simply through memory in moments of ceremony or in a specific memorial location, but actually take on a new physical form and turn into a weapon. This reinforces the politically desired connection between 9/11 and any war that the ship might be involved in. It also builds on the local patriotism often felt for these ships in their patron states by infusing the state's trauma into the physical structure of the vessel itself.
While it has become common to build memorials to 9/11 using remains from the destroyed buildings - even at locations very distant from New York - the tradition is of course even older. This is the kind of remembrance that conjures up authenticity from having a real, physical connection to the event. This is done with places - whether it be real like a battlefield or Independence Hall or even fake likeThoreau's hut which is at the right place - as well as with pieces of military equipment. Soviet memorials often feature a T-34 Tank. U.S. memorials do this too, like this artillery piece in Minnesota or these two guns below a doughboy statue in Maryland. The USS San Francisco memorial uses damaged siding from the battles the ship fought. In some ruins, like the sunken hull of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, the damage and the ruins make up almost the entire memorial. That is also the case when ruined buildings are left standing as they are in several European battle locations.
The difference here is its resemblance to the older form of this kind of "magic" - the use of holy relics. Much as a splinter of the cross (a sign of defeat tranformed theologically into a symbol of victory) could be carried into battle to defeat the enemies of Christianity, the World Trade Center ruins can be transformed into a weapon to avenge the perpetrators of that act of terror. The ruins here do not just work their magic through remembrance. They do not mobilize sentiment simply through memory in moments of ceremony or in a specific memorial location, but actually take on a new physical form and turn into a weapon. This reinforces the politically desired connection between 9/11 and any war that the ship might be involved in. It also builds on the local patriotism often felt for these ships in their patron states by infusing the state's trauma into the physical structure of the vessel itself.
mhatlie - Mon Apr 13, 20:13 Topic: U.S. memorial culture
