Today I finally got ahold of a copy of Monica Haller's "Riley and his story" (published by onestar press).
Riley Sharbonno was a ER nurse at Abu Ghraib prison. Monica, his friend; a Minneapolis based interdiscipliarian artist
The many pictures inside (some graphic, some mundane) document Riley's tour of duty.
The text on the cover says a lot.
The words inside, while relatively few, say even more as they attempt to explain the discrepancy between Riley's recall and the contents of the photos that he took.
Amnesia? Repressed memories?? The aftereffects of trauma???
A war story, definitely, but on a fundamental level it also touches upon the impermanence of memory over the the passing of time. Something that in the past hasn't bothered me much; but now I'm not so sure.
Best to let this one soak in for awhile.
to order..
onestar press
Download a PDF of excerpts from Riley and his story.
http://www.rileyandhisstory.com/PDF/riley_excerpts.pdf
2 comments:
Just curious, have you given this anymore thought? :)
Riley
Hi Riley,
One of the things that I like about the book is that the layout allows the interior text to be read independently of the images (many of which are overwhelming; as they rightfully should be).
What I was "not so sure" about in my original post was 1st triggered when you wrote
"Photos provide the chain of events that lead your mind into a state where it is okay kill somebody. If you dont remember the sequence of events that took you there, you can believe you were a monster"
And later..
"Empty memories - no shells of memories - fill me with dread because I feel that moments in my life have been lived by someone else"
I've sometimes envied people who are unencumbered by a need (or ability?) to grasp or process "reality" but reading your story left me a little shaken. Amnesia induced by trauma, blackouts, alzheimers, memory decay in general, might not be that critical when the going is steady. But at some point, and probably when it most counts--- does a person need a retraceable narrative in order to maintain a certain degree of sanity? I'm a little less insouciant about this than i used to be.
Also, in general... there's a lot in yr book about coping. And the therapeutic value of photography.
So yeah, as Monica's cover text reads... "the artwork and artist are adaptable; the tactical reader can use this object for their own device..." LOL.
But it also contains some heavy sh*t and compelling pictures that put my personal, non-combat related generalities in a proper perspective.
thanks..
jeffrey
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