ABSTRACT
Historically, studies focusing on what we today call "global politics" generally ignored the obvious point that bodies are the targets of war and war-related violence. Elaine Scarry, in her path-breaking book The Body in Pain, made a simple and extremely powerful observation: that the purpose of war is to injure. The simplicity of Scarry's observation feels almost tautological. It seems obvious that the logic of war is bodily injury and death. But images of dead, torn, and bleeding bodies do not just circulate in unregulated or apolitical contexts. There is no necessary politics associated with the images and, in fact, the images themselves flatten the physical pain and sensationalise the terror associated with the torture such that it becomes almost impossible for a viewer to respond. Because the experience of the body-in-pain cannot be easily accessed, its imagery is also an obscenity.
