{"id":1684,"date":"2023-11-14T13:06:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T13:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/americanists\/?p=1684"},"modified":"2023-11-14T13:07:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T13:07:35","slug":"nick-drnasos-sabrina-fed-up-violence-and-why-we-just-cant-look-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/americanists\/2023\/11\/14\/nick-drnasos-sabrina-fed-up-violence-and-why-we-just-cant-look-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina, F***ed-Up Violence, and Why We Just Can’t Look Away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

But between these posts, something catches your eye: a video of grotesque violence that rocks you to your very core. <\/p>

Yet, you can\u2019t look away.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n

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Nick Drnaso, Sabrina. <\/em>Cover art sourced from Amazon. Click for link. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Let me set a scene<\/strong>: it\u2019s late and you\u2019re doom-scrolling through social media posts the algorithm has generated for you, ranging from tailor-made advertisements for the \u201csustainable\u201d clothing that was made in an Asian sweatshop, to posts by that girl you sort of know who is now on her fourth holiday this year, yet the retail pay-check doesn\u2019t quite explain how she\u2019s currently sunbathing in Monaco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But between these posts, something catches your eye: a video of grotesque violence that rocks you to your very core.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, you can\u2019t look away.<\/strong> And before you know it, three minutes and thirty-six seconds have passed, the video has ended, and an advertisement for face cream plays next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of the internet, it was grainy CCTV footage of workplace accidents in which blood is but a smattering of red pixels; perhaps it was terrorist-related violence, the beheading of an individual in their final moments; or perhaps it\u2019s brutal car crashes being turned into internet memes, sick laughter emerging from suffering. Irrespective of whatever format it took, I am certain you have experienced or will experience, such a thing in your modern life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why didn\u2019t you look away?<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nick Drnaso\u2019s Sabrina, <\/em>a chilling graphic novel, perfectly encapsulates this stranglehold violence has on us, aiming to convey the issue our society has with \u201cconsuming\u201d violence, and the emotional numbness this creates, with a The New Yorker article interviewing Drnaso stating that he \u201chas spent many hours in the darker corners of the internet\u201d, alongside a quote from himself that there is \u201ca morbid curiosity in [him]\u201d (Max).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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