Feasts of Indifference: Racialization, Affect, and Necropolitics in 1X War Games
Graphically and narratively simple war games such as the critically acclaimed, counter-narrative September 12th (2003) and the heavily criticized and deleted Muslim Massacre (2008)—titles that I refer to as 1X war games—trade in the overall logic of necropolitics. I refer to these games as 1X becaus...
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European Association for American Studies
2021-09-01
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| Series: | European Journal of American Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/17374 |
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| author | Mahshid Mayar |
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| author_sort | Mahshid Mayar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Graphically and narratively simple war games such as the critically acclaimed, counter-narrative September 12th (2003) and the heavily criticized and deleted Muslim Massacre (2008)—titles that I refer to as 1X war games—trade in the overall logic of necropolitics. I refer to these games as 1X because, in encountering America’s enemies, they promote only the last of the 4X game-verbs, that is, “eXterminate.” In other words, instead of planning how to best train for, track down, encounter, and ultimately fight against this enemy, the choice that these controversial, post-9/11games offer is to simply eliminate the already out-at-large, under-armed, erratic Muslim enemy in a drone-like, distanced, and lackluster manner. As I suggest in this essay, 1X games promote unappealing and non-immersive, yet overtly political projects of death. Adopting Achille Mbembe’s notion of necroplitics in the ludic, mechropolitical sense proposed by Amanda Phillips, I focus on these games’ opposing, yet usefully comparable, approaches to enmification through racialization through entertainment—a two-step project of death that, nodding to Sharon Patricia Holland, I understand as affective, yet heedless feasts of indifference. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-26c8ba824df74d58b38bc287f8cf7cc8 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1991-9336 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | European Association for American Studies |
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| series | European Journal of American Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-26c8ba824df74d58b38bc287f8cf7cc82025-01-06T09:08:41ZengEuropean Association for American StudiesEuropean Journal of American Studies1991-93362021-09-0116310.4000/ejas.17374Feasts of Indifference: Racialization, Affect, and Necropolitics in 1X War GamesMahshid MayarGraphically and narratively simple war games such as the critically acclaimed, counter-narrative September 12th (2003) and the heavily criticized and deleted Muslim Massacre (2008)—titles that I refer to as 1X war games—trade in the overall logic of necropolitics. I refer to these games as 1X because, in encountering America’s enemies, they promote only the last of the 4X game-verbs, that is, “eXterminate.” In other words, instead of planning how to best train for, track down, encounter, and ultimately fight against this enemy, the choice that these controversial, post-9/11games offer is to simply eliminate the already out-at-large, under-armed, erratic Muslim enemy in a drone-like, distanced, and lackluster manner. As I suggest in this essay, 1X games promote unappealing and non-immersive, yet overtly political projects of death. Adopting Achille Mbembe’s notion of necroplitics in the ludic, mechropolitical sense proposed by Amanda Phillips, I focus on these games’ opposing, yet usefully comparable, approaches to enmification through racialization through entertainment—a two-step project of death that, nodding to Sharon Patricia Holland, I understand as affective, yet heedless feasts of indifference.https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/17374NecropoliticsUS Popular CultureMechropoliticsRacializationRacial Affect1X Games |
| spellingShingle | Mahshid Mayar Feasts of Indifference: Racialization, Affect, and Necropolitics in 1X War Games European Journal of American Studies Necropolitics US Popular Culture Mechropolitics Racialization Racial Affect 1X Games |
| title | Feasts of Indifference: Racialization, Affect, and Necropolitics in 1X War Games |
| title_full | Feasts of Indifference: Racialization, Affect, and Necropolitics in 1X War Games |
| title_fullStr | Feasts of Indifference: Racialization, Affect, and Necropolitics in 1X War Games |
| title_full_unstemmed | Feasts of Indifference: Racialization, Affect, and Necropolitics in 1X War Games |
| title_short | Feasts of Indifference: Racialization, Affect, and Necropolitics in 1X War Games |
| title_sort | feasts of indifference racialization affect and necropolitics in 1x war games |
| topic | Necropolitics US Popular Culture Mechropolitics Racialization Racial Affect 1X Games |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/17374 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mahshidmayar feastsofindifferenceracializationaffectandnecropoliticsin1xwargames |