A subject is what acts in an active verb and what transforms an infinitive of possibility into a fact of positive discourse. An object is what is acted upon. Transpose it into the subject position and the sentence becomes passive. In our minds and culture, we have embedded a grammar of passivity in which we identify as objects acted upon and determined in the past. Passivity has become a source of authority. The pervasive power of this grammar of passivity came to light in a New Yorker article on the pervasiveness in film and literature of the “trauma plot,” the narrative device which uses the flashback to explain a character in terms of a backstory of some traumatic experience which has determined the character of the protagonist. The author Parul Sehgal asks, “In a world infatuated with victimhood, has trauma emerged as a passport to status—our red badge of courage?” Judging by the ubiquity of the trauma-laden backstory, it has. The author notes that even reimaginings of such classic villains as Macbeth resort to the trauma plot. Not even evil is granted agency. The paradigmatic realizations of the human condition present the actor as an object having been acted upon, not as an acting subject. What a bore! Trauma is multifaceted and pervasive: “some 636,120 possible symptom combinations can be attributed [by DSM-III] to P.T.S.D., meaning that 636,120 people could conceivably have a unique set of symptoms and the same diagnosis.” “Trauma trumps all other identities.” In a culture that elevates identity over conversion, trauma goes to the very root of identity, essence over existence: the condition of having been determined in one’s being by past traumatic suffering. No wonder we cling to the past trauma as a painful but precious heritage: it tells us who we are and confers status and authority. No wonder the evidence that this may be a false narrative is either ignored or denounced as insensitive to suffering: “never mind pesky findings that the vast majority of people recover well from traumatic events and that post-traumatic growth is far more common than post-traumatic stress.” Where does this notion of the authority and status of victimhood come from? How about the guy who was hung on the cross and coming down from it took on an authority that overshadowed everything else in history? Needless to say, there are other ways to conceptualize the role of human beings in history.
Signed,
Andrew (Weeks)
Normal Thoughts 