Podcast
Behind the Bastards
It was mentioned as a book called Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? by Judith Butler and it explores the question of when is life grievable and how does it tie into the concept of war?
One way of posing the question of who we are in these times of war is by asking whose lives are considered valuable, whose lives are mourned, and whose lives are considered ungrievable.
— Episode: It Could Happen Here Weekly 111
Episode: It Could Happen Here Weekly 111
It was mentioned as a book called Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? by Judith Butler and it explores the question of when is life grievable and how does it tie into the concept of war?
One way of posing the question of who we are in these times of war is by asking whose lives are considered valuable, whose lives are mourned, and whose lives are considered ungrievable.
In 2016, Butler wrote a book called Frames of War, When Is Life Grievable?
We might think of war as dividing populations into those who are grievable and those who are not. An ungrievable life is one that cannot be mourned because it has never lived. That is, it has never counted as a life at all.
We can see the division of the globe into grievable and ungrievable lives from the perspective of those who wage war in order to defend the lives of certain communities and to defend them against the lives of others, even if it means taking those latter lives.