Young men's violence and spaces of addiction: opening up the locker room

Abstract

With this essay, I take to task the relations between young men, addiction and spaces of violence with a particular focus on combat zones. Geographic theories of affect help elaborate the complex relations between young men's emotions, their addictive propensities and how that benefits the governance unities that create war machines. Deleuze's notion of the fold complicates those benefits by suggesting why some young men no longer fit the so-called normalcy of life back home and why they desire, rather, a continuous return to spaces of violence. My arguments are focused by Sebastian Junger's War (2010) and Restrepo (2010), Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker (2009), which present, in different ways, the potency of combat. The work focuses on difference and identity and, by so doing, suggests ways that affect can have political valence.

Dans cet article, j'aborde les rapportes entre les jeunes hommes, la dépendance, et les espaces de violence en me concentrant en particulière sur les zones de combat. Les théories géographiques de l'affect aident à élaborer les rapports complexes entre les émotions des jeunes hommes, leurs tendances à la toxicomanie, et comment ces rapports profitent à de certains assemblages de gouvernance que créent les soldats. L'idée de Deleuze du bercail sert à compliquer ces bénéfices en suggérant pourquoi quelques ex-soldats ne réussissent par leurs réinsertions dans la soi-disant normale de la vie chez eux et pourquoi ils désirent plutôt un retour aux espaces de violence. Ma discussion est mis au point par les œuvres suivantsZ: War et Restrepo de Sebastian Junger (2010), et The Hurt Locker de Kathryn Bigelow (2009). Ces derniers représentent surtout la force du combat. Le travail présent se concentre sur la différence et l'identité et suggère ainsi des façons dans lesquelles l'affect puisse avoir une importance politique.

Con este ensayo, analizo las relaciones entre hombres jóvenes, adicción y espacios de violencia con un enfoque en zonas de combate en particular. Teorías geográficas del afecto ayudan elaborar las relaciones complejas entre las emociones de hombres jóvenes y sus propensiones adictivas y como se benefician las unidades de gobierno que se crean maquinas de guerra. La noción del doblez de Deleuze se complica estos beneficios por sugerir porque algunos hombres jóvenes ya no se corresponden al dicho normalidad de vida en sus hogares y porque, más bien, se desean un retorno continuo a los espacios de violencia. Mis argumentos están enfocados por Guerra (2010) y Restrepo (2010) de Sebastian Junger, The Hurt Locker (2009) de Kathryn Bigelow, del cuales presentan, en formas distintas, la potencia del combate. El trabajo se enfoque en diferencia y identidad y, así, sugiere formas en que afecto puede tener valencia política.

Keywords:

• masculinities
• affect
• war
• violence
• addiction

Keywords:

• masculinités
• affect
• guerre
• violence
• dépendance

Keywords:

• masculinidad
• afecto
• guerra
• violencia
• adicción

Notes

Junger partitions his book War into these three sections: fear, killing and love. The film Restrepo attempts to unshackle itself from commentary and interrogation: ‘This is war, full stop. The conclusions are up to you’ (from the DVD's dust jacket).

To the extent that non-representational theories have had difficulty demonstrating the importance of affect for the political sphere and do not engage well discussions of gender (see critique by Pile 2010 and commentary by Curti et al. 2011), folding provides a theoretical forum through which to embrace the differential complexities of political identity.

In an interview shortly after the release of The Hurt Locker , Bigelow points out that it is important to ‘… understand that the ground soldiers kind of halt the war for one individual to walk forward to defuse a bomb. So it's important to show the geography of that. I think consistently I have always been concerned with geography in any of my action sequences” (Bigelow 2009).

To the extent that the Boal's screenplay is not fictional, Sergeant Jeffrey Sarver brought suit against Bigelow, Boal and the film's producers arguing that he is the basis of Staff Sergeant William James. Sarver was part of the platoon with which Boal was embedded. The suit was initiated just before the 2009 Oscar ceremony and is ongoing (McCartney 2011).

In the early literature from media geography, Aitken and Zonn (1991) and Natter and Jones (1993) offer notes of caution in working with both documentary and narrative film.

The idea of a continuous return, as used here, relates to Nietzsche's (1961) and Deleuze's (1994) notion of the eternal return to the extent that both expressions share concern about difference and repetition. Young (2008) provides a valuable elaboration of the ways Deleuze is indebted to Nietzsche and Blanchot (1997) in terms of loss, identity, the habitual, the immemorial and the eternal return. While Deleuze and Nietzsche are concerned with the ways that the past is infinite and we are doomed to repetition through ‘return’ and, by definition, never finding a final state where everything ‘becomes’, I am concerned in this essay with the affects of bodies on bodies (dopamine, families, guns) as they move forward and the propensity of young men (and old men and women) to addictive spirals, which enervate the possibility of ‘becoming other’. Paradoxically, Deleuze's and Blanchot's eternal return is ultimately an affirmation, even if it is based on loss.

Ingestion of a variety of addictive substances, as well as food and water, results in an increase in dopamine levels. Cocaine and amphetamines act directly on dopaminergic neurons while alcohol and heroin alter dopaminergic systems indirectly (Steller and Steller 1985).