Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 10

The reality of culture’s fictions might well be that narratives are as much about anxiety as they are about the familiar. In a globalized world, otherness is bound to displace familiarity. We can see that multicultural interactions – facilitated in part by YouTube’s � billion users in �� countries and Facebook’s �.� billion users –breed cultural anxiety. Audiences ill-equipped to venture outside the confines of the familiar may find it difficult, if not self-defeating, to derive comfort from performance without the assistance of tranquilizers, metaphorically speaking. In times of great cultural anxiety, one person’s new resolution will be countered with another’s reactionary proposal. Take war monuments: the “gabbro” black marble-like Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC lists names of ��,��� dead service members. It provides a somber and reflective moment about a drawn-out war fought thousands of miles away in the name of liberal democracy. Nearby, the World War II Memorial, completed in ����, eulogizes heroism in war unequivocally with its � triumphal arches and �� granite pillars mounted with laurel wreaths. Vietnam Memorial, Washington DC Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_ Veterans_Memorial#/media/File:American_flag_at_ Vietnam_Veterans_Memorial_2010-05-04.jpg World War II Memorial, Washington DC Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/World_ War_II_Memorial#/media/File:NWW2M_Pacific_arch. JPG 9