![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In a dystopian America, prisoners have the opportunity to sign up for the “CAPE” program, a gladiatorial system that pits them against one another in epic, anime-like, televised duels to the death, rendered by Adjei-Brenyah in intoxicating detail. This idea is at the core of Chain-Gang All-Stars, a new novel by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. It’s the banality of evil for a new era, as the political philosopher Hannah Arendt-who famously coined the phrase after observing just how unexpectedly “normal” the Nazi Adolf Eichmann appeared at trial- might have observed. In this way, violence becomes quotidian and commodified. Instead, these clips are at best just more content in an endless stream and at worst, mere entertainment, with their creators standing to profit if they get enough views. In a world where the ability to capture such images and videos via smartphone technology is commonplace, it’s become disturbingly easy for that violence to stop registering with viewers as violence, per se. Look for the videos, and you’ll find them everywhere: a stranger getting pummeled in public, the victim of a bloody brawl having a seizure on the ground while people snicker, someone in psychological distress lashing out while the person filming chuckles. ![]()
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