Brianne,
I really enjoyed reading your posting. Interesting how Cixous equates love and pain whereas before we were thinking about pain and discipline. What is that point where two strangers fall in love and begin to fear loss? This makes me think of the idea we mentioned a long time ago about loss bringing a community together. This seems somewhat tangential to Milgram's experiment since he was dealing more with societal rules that govern our behavior when we have no pre-existing realtionship to the other person.
I chose the photograph somewhat randomly. I liked the way the children are wearing masks, thereby distancing themselves from each other and us as observers. However, isn't it interesting that one girl is in the process of taking the mask off or putting it on? The games that children play prepare them for life ... the rules can be arbitrary and they can be cruel, but they must be followed or one must suffer the consequences.
Kimi - I really like your response. I wonder about what you say about loss and community being tangential to Milgram's experiments. What does love have to do with his experiments. I feel like there is something there. Have either of you read Susan Sontag's Book Regarding the Pain of Others? It has been a while for me, but she is dealing primarily with images of war, if I remember correctly, and the ways in which images are used to give rise to opposing responses, ask questions, show us the world that we may not understand, and also to either obliterate or reinforce identity. Anyway - this definitely has something to do with distance, pain, love, etc.
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