American Fears

Abstract

American Fears Keith Kopka (bio) Fear Icons: Essays Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel Mad Creek Books https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814254943.html 160 Pages; Print, $19.95 How do we live meaningful lives in the face of the fears that our current culture forces us to confront? From the seemingly ubiquitous possibility of being shot as we shop, eat, or learn, to the less tangible fears of damnation or disappointment that religion instills in us from a very young age, Americans are forced to confront this question on a daily basis. This kind of self-interrogation about America's "culture of fear" is ripe for the inherently alarmist nature of the soundbite. However, as we all know, the goal of the sound bite is not to challenge or to inform; instead, its purpose lies only in gaining higher ratings. The 24-hour news cycle learned long ago that instilling fear fosters more viewership than complicated examinations of the symbiotic relationship between fear and cultural iconography. Luckily, literature continues to confront these more difficult cultural questions, and Kisha Lewllyn's Schlegel's debut collection of essays is the latest example of this kind of necessary literary contribution. In Fear Icons, the inaugural prize winner of the 21st Century Essays series from Ohio State University Press, Schlegel not only asks readers to examine their lives in the context of popular culture's connection to fear, but she also challenges her readers to see their own fears in relationship to the fears of others. "Who are we to each other when we're afraid?" is the central question of these essays. It is asked at the conclusion of the prologue entitled "Jesus?" which frames the narrator's early engagement with fear in a universally identifiable way. Schlegel uses the interrogative voice of the Sunday school child awakening to the obvious contradictions in God's omnipotence in conjunction with a much more adult "I" to create a vulnerability, as well as a psychic distance that allows for objective observation. This use of point of view not only gives Schlegel the carte blanche to ask difficult questions, but it also allows her to effectively contextualize and clarify this line of inquiry through even more specific and difficult examinations. For example, the thematic power of Schlegel's central question of who we are in relation to each other when facing our fears springs from the more specific question found only two lines earlier, "Why does one person's suffering make another feel safe?" Unlike our society's focus on the false flag of finding "solutions" to our fears, Schlegel is content with naming and questioning. Through this narrative construction readers are challenged with in the intersectionality between fear and belief on a personal level. However, Schlegel does not shy away from the idea of fear on a larger cultural scale. Throughout the collection, Schlegel uses a mix of reportage and personal narrative to contextualize her personal experiences with fear in relationship to more cultural iconography. Some of these icons are more directly related to fear (Osama Bin Laden) than others (Dolly Parton). However, by engaging with specific icons such as Dick Cheney, Ozzy Osbourne, Darth Vader, and Mother Mary, along with the iconic identity of objects or settings such as oil, guns, and the San Andreas Fault, Schlegel is able to move beyond the celebrity status of these icons in order to explore themes of nostalgia, motherhood, violence, suffering, political identity, aging, etc. For example, in the chapter entitled "San Adreas Fault," this iconic landscape provides a backdrop for a young couple grappling with the fears associated with parenting when they discover they are having another child. Schlegel writes, Down below, the fault line crushed rock and clay into flour. In time, that pressure would erupt into an earthquake with enough force and magnitude to knock us out of this life like loose baby teeth. But in that moment, it just squeezed water to the surface, make the oasis of Mara. This landscape, teeming with tension, allows readers to move beyond the more cliched fear responses to the narrator's situation and connect with these very human fears on a more universal level. Although...