[spectre] Arundhati Roy: The Algebra Of Infinite Justice

Jeremy Welsh jeremy.welsh@khib.no
Sun, 14 Oct 2001 22:05:53 +0200


Lorenzo Taiuti wrote:

> Dear Inke & spectres.
> the writing of Arhundati Roy it's a a wonderful piece of thought.....

yes it is, and thought is something that is desperately needed at the moment.
For the last few years we've been hearing that we now live in a visual culture,
that images have a greater power than words. But as a producer of images I must
admit to a profound sense of shame at the moment.  No image I can think of has
the potency of the tv images we watched on 11th. september or can work as a
counterweight to the spectacular imagery of terror. No image I  can think of
says more succinctly or poignantly what Arhundati Roy says in The Algebra Of
Infinite Justice.  There's an old insult that historians used about visual
artists: "dumb as a painter".  I might not paint, but in the face of what's
going on today I feel pretty dumb, and I'm glad that there are those who manage
to voice, cogently and urgently, what so many of us are feeling.

jeremy