The schematic figurations of the photographs were devoid of any recognizable details which might have proven useful to the enemy. What this amounted to was a representation of a representation. This war of televised images is also a war of numbers and symbols. The end product of this procedural transformation is unapproachable by the kind of narrational frame which was provided in my previous example of the photograph of the aerial attack on Baghdad. In the Iraqi capital, no agitation, but a kind of quasi-palpable anguish.
Conflict is opposed to communication.
Representations which create illusions are thus appropriately linked to theater. Such images can also be diagrams and maps, or, if linguistically rendered, nicknames, synonyms, pseudonyms which serve to further dramatize the event. The bear, and its fairytale representations, which range from the bumptious to the ferocious, carries with it all the implicit connotative traditions whether they be burlesque or heroic. Such a nickname heightens his mystique and that of the war. Continue to Part II Back to Contents page.