Unwatchable

Title Page......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Introduction: Envisioning the Unwatchable......Page 12
Part I: Violence and Testimony......Page 42
1. Theorizing the Unwatchable......Page 44
Unwatchable......Page 46
The Gaze from Within......Page 50
The Unwatchable and the Unwatchable......Page 56
Melting into Visibility......Page 59
Pro Forma......Page 63
2. Spectacles of Destruction......Page 68
Terminal Radiance......Page 70
Unwatched/Unmanned: Drone Strikes and the Aesthetics of the Unseen......Page 74
Breakaway......Page 79
The Watchability of the Unwatchable: Television Disaster Coverage......Page 84
3. Bearing Witness......Page 91
The Incommensurable......Page 93
Not Seeing Is Believing: The Unwatchable in Advocacy......Page 97
Even If She Had Been a Criminal: A Past Unwatched......Page 103
Deframing Evidence: A Transmission from Los ingrávidos......Page 108
Alan Kurdi’s Body on the Shore......Page 113
4. Visual Regimes of Racial Violence......Page 119
Held Helpless in the Breach: On American History X......Page 121
The Flash of History: On the Unwatchable in Get Out......Page 126
Nothing Is Unwatchable for All......Page 132
Empathy. Complicity.......Page 137
5. Spectacularization and Resistance......Page 142
Entertainment Value......Page 143
Holocausts, Hallowe’en, and Headdresses......Page 147
Unwitnessable: Outrageous Ableist Impersonations and Unwitnessed Everyday Violence......Page 152
Part II: Histories and Genres......Page 158
6. The Tradition of Provocateurs......Page 160
The Two Unwatchables......Page 162
Real Horrorshow......Page 166
Asymmetries of Desire: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom......Page 171
Unstomachable: Irréversible and the Extreme Cinema Tradition......Page 176
7. Enduring the Avant-Garde......Page 181
Unwatchability by Choice: Isou’s Venom and Eternity......Page 183
The Refusal of Spectacle: Debord’s Howls for Sade......Page 189
Warhol’s Empire: Unwatched and Unwatchable......Page 195
Warhol’s Empire......Page 200
Watching Paint Dry......Page 205
8. Visceral Responses to Horror......Page 211
“Peekaboo”: Thoughts on (Maybe Not) Seeing Two Horror Films......Page 212
Why I Cannot Watch......Page 218
Apotropes......Page 224
9. Pornography and the Question of Pleasure......Page 229
I Am Curious (Butterball)......Page 231
At the Threshold to the Void......Page 236
10. Archives and the Disintegrating Image......Page 240
Restoring Blood Money......Page 242
Turning Garbo Watchable: From Swedish Bread Bun to Hollywood Goddess......Page 248
Twilight of the Dead......Page 255
Part III: Spectators and Objects......Page 260
11. Passionate Aversions......Page 262
“Sad!”: Why I Won’t Watch Antichrist......Page 264
Transforming Nihilism......Page 269
Oh, Inventiveness! Oh, Imaginativeness! Precious Cinema and Its Discontents: A Rant......Page 274
The Biopic Is an Affront to the Cinema......Page 280
12. Tedious Whiteness......Page 284
White Men Behaving Sadly......Page 285
“You Is Kind, You Is Smart, You Is Important”; or, Why I Can’t Watch The Help......Page 291
Two Tablesand a Ladder: WCGW?......Page 297
13. Reality Trumpism......Page 302
TV Trumps......Page 304
The Once and Future Hillary: Why I Won’t Watch a TV Miniseries about the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election......Page 310
14. Pedagogy and Campus Politics......Page 316
Why We Can’t Take a Joke......Page 318
The Bridge and Unteachable Films......Page 323
Squirming in the Classroom: Fat Girl and the Ethical Value of Extreme Discomfort......Page 328
15. The Triggered Spectator......Page 334
What Is an “Unwatchable” Film? (With Reference to Amour and Still Alice)......Page 336
Watch at Your Own Peril......Page 342
Sects, Fries, and Videotape......Page 345
Off Watch......Page 352
Acknowledgments......Page 358
Filmography......Page 360
Bibliography......Page 366
Notes on Contributors......Page 386
Index......Page 400