The Critical Mass of Language: Post-Trinity Representation

To its viewers, the first atomic bomb test (codenamed "Trinity") appeared as not merely a dazzling, unprecedented leap forward in the history of science, not merely the swift, fiery eradication of all of their long-held fears and anxieties concerning the success of the project, but also a...

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Autor principal:	Daniel F. Spoth
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	University of Edinburgh 2007
Materias:	Fine Arts N Language and Literature P
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/075cf5c453134f7981c554f604a97eeb
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:075cf5c453134f7981c554f604a97eeb2021-11-23T09:46:01ZThe Critical Mass of Language: Post-Trinity Representation1749-9771https://doaj.org/article/075cf5c453134f7981c554f604a97eeb2007-12-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.forumjournal.org/article/view/589https://doaj.org/toc/1749-9771To its viewers, the first atomic bomb test (codenamed "Trinity") appeared as not merely a dazzling, unprecedented leap forward in the history of science, not merely the swift, fiery eradication of all of their long-held fears and anxieties concerning the success of the project, but also a monumental event in the history of language (Thomas Farrell saw in it "that beauty the great poets dream about but describe most poorly and inadequately"). This article seeks to interrogate not only the poeticizing of the Trinity test by its architects and the subsequent revulsion toward the event felt by artists worldwide, but also the representational dilemma that the possibility of a "poetic" bomb creates: how can artistic representation of the invisible, the sublime, and the incomprehensible adapt itself to the new technological sublimity of the merciless, neutral variety that the bomb incarnates? The article addresses this question through a study of both nonliterary texts (eyewitness accounts) and literary representation (a reading of Richard Powers's The Time of Our Singing and William Faulkner's Nobel Prize speech). Its conclusion is that the bomb, pace the accounts of the Trinity eyewitnesses, in fact less suggests a variety of representation that renders all others insignificant (thus exempting it from moral, social, or spiritual concerns) than it insists upon the reimagining of older poetic tropes. Trinity, by suggesting an apocalyptic conflict between older modes of signification and the new "atomic poetics," in fact symbiotically relies upon the traditions from which it splits.Daniel F. SpothUniversity of EdinburgharticleFine ArtsNLanguage and LiteraturePENForum, Iss 05, Pp 1-17 (2007)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Fine Arts N Language and Literature P
spellingShingle	Fine Arts N Language and Literature P Daniel F. Spoth The Critical Mass of Language: Post-Trinity Representation
description	To its viewers, the first atomic bomb test (codenamed "Trinity") appeared as not merely a dazzling, unprecedented leap forward in the history of science, not merely the swift, fiery eradication of all of their long-held fears and anxieties concerning the success of the project, but also a monumental event in the history of language (Thomas Farrell saw in it "that beauty the great poets dream about but describe most poorly and inadequately"). This article seeks to interrogate not only the poeticizing of the Trinity test by its architects and the subsequent revulsion toward the event felt by artists worldwide, but also the representational dilemma that the possibility of a "poetic" bomb creates: how can artistic representation of the invisible, the sublime, and the incomprehensible adapt itself to the new technological sublimity of the merciless, neutral variety that the bomb incarnates? The article addresses this question through a study of both nonliterary texts (eyewitness accounts) and literary representation (a reading of Richard Powers's The Time of Our Singing and William Faulkner's Nobel Prize speech). Its conclusion is that the bomb, pace the accounts of the Trinity eyewitnesses, in fact less suggests a variety of representation that renders all others insignificant (thus exempting it from moral, social, or spiritual concerns) than it insists upon the reimagining of older poetic tropes. Trinity, by suggesting an apocalyptic conflict between older modes of signification and the new "atomic poetics," in fact symbiotically relies upon the traditions from which it splits.
format	article
author	Daniel F. Spoth
author_facet	Daniel F. Spoth
author_sort	Daniel F. Spoth
title	The Critical Mass of Language: Post-Trinity Representation
title_short	The Critical Mass of Language: Post-Trinity Representation
title_full	The Critical Mass of Language: Post-Trinity Representation
title_fullStr	The Critical Mass of Language: Post-Trinity Representation
title_full_unstemmed	The Critical Mass of Language: Post-Trinity Representation
title_sort	critical mass of language: post-trinity representation
publisher	University of Edinburgh
publishDate	2007
url	https://doaj.org/article/075cf5c453134f7981c554f604a97eeb
work_keys_str_mv	AT danielfspoth thecriticalmassoflanguageposttrinityrepresentation AT danielfspoth criticalmassoflanguageposttrinityrepresentation
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The Critical Mass of Language: Post-Trinity Representation

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