Rosen

In “The Naked Crowd”, Jeffrey Rosen begins with talking about 9/11 and all of the devastating pictures that have been posted across the nation. He makes a claim that these Portraits of Grief homogenize people into one genre. It brings a sort of emotional connection. He later explains, “people try to prove trustworthiness by revealing details of their personal lives to prove that they have nothing to hide before a crowd whose gaze is turned increasingly on all individuals that compose it”(415). This leads to how people believe they should be honest and open, but that would require letting down their guard and sometimes people need that guard for their private life. Rosen talks about sincerity and authenticity, which is virtually the same thing despite authenticity, is allowing you to be completely exposed emotionally to others. Sometimes this may lead to people appearing like they’re expressing everything even though they are not, which is sometimes necessary. He then brings up “personal branding” and explains that you are the one that does the branding of yourself, but you do not put on a false front. Towards the end Rosen brings all of this together while talking about “the comfort of strangers”. He states, “The personal branding movements is based on the same fantasy that underlay the Portraits of Grief, which is the fantasy that people can achieve emotional intimacy with strangers”(420). All of the country understood and expressed emotions after seeing these photos and realizing the extremity of what has happened, and they choose to share the families pains together in unity. 

Sobchack

            Vivian Sobchack explains what she argued for 25 years ago regarding violence in the beginning of her essay, “The Postmorbid Condition”. She made this argument after new movies were coming out that brought an entirely new meaning to the word violence. Since then, these types of movies have progressively gotten worse in regards to violence. Years ago death served more of an honorary purpose, and was more recognized. Sobchack uses Saving Private Ryan a great example. She states “graphic physical damage and the violent “squandering” of bodies and lives is “redeemed” to social purpose and meaning, its senselessness made sensible by its (re)insertion in a clearly defined. . .moral context”(432). This explains that death was at one point given meaning and justification. Sobchack uses technology as a source to understand how society now views death, especially in the media. In most movies today you will find countless numbers of brutally murdered bodies, but the issue is that no one is taken back by the shameful killing. People just die and we move on. Technology has brought the brutality in films to a whole new level. Sobchach mentions “grotesque realism” and how it is a careless treatment of violence used throughout films (431). People are not only utilizing technology because of all the intense graphics, but are unaware that they are the victims of it as well because of the overwhelming and unnecessary violence. This brings her to talk about “postmorbid condition” which she relates it to “postmodern condition”. When she talks about this she explains that life and death lose its meaning. People are no longer emotionally impacted by these tragic events due to technology in the media.

Cohen

Cohen argues that there are multiple monsters within our society. Towards the beginning of Cohen’s essay, he describes monsters and their physical features and how they are always going to appear no matter the circumstances, but as you read further into his essay he brings into detail that people in our society are the real monsters and may be unaware of it. He takes actual monsters from stories and characterizes people in our world today as these monsters and how they relate. He even uses biblical, mythological, and masculine/feminine references to enhance the severity of his essay. This reading also explains Cohen’s views on inequality because of the hierarchical system in our world. In the final thesis he states that our children are the monsters because of how adaptable they are to our society, yet they still obtain freedom because they are so young and have little to worry about in the world until they are older and can make a change. Each of Cohen's theses has a specific argument or claim, yet they are all intertwined with one another. Within the seventh theses, he connects each of them to bring it all together.

Cohen addresses his argument within each theses, but through different approaches. The first describes the abnormal features of a monster. The second states that monsters will never leave us, and they are each connected to a cultural moment. Third is that monsters cannot be categorized, and each monster is created by oneself. Fourth explains that monsters are far beyond the ordinary and can break boundaries, in which this is not condoned, yet people are envious of this. Fifth goes off of the fourth in which monsters have no boundaries. In the sixth, Cohen allows us to realize monsters are created by people and it is just a fear that people are afraid to take the risk to share the same freedom as monsters have. The seventh thesis it ties all of these together. It states that monsters can be children, which is a possibility, but they can be much more than that. There are monsters everywhere in society.  It is our fear that allows them in our lives, which is why there are so many. If people were not afraid to  fight for the freedom that monsters have then there would be no monsters. The monsters are what live within each of us.