Chapter 10 Part Two Elegy Dedicated Especially to the Left Hand

On the screen, a man drives a car, which is the simplest home video.You see a man driving a mid-size Dodge. This is just a picture taken by a child.She was sitting in the family sedan, holding a video camera through the rear window, and filming a car behind her. You know home and home video cameras and how kids get hooked on video cameras.After using the camera, children know that every subject has potential, and with the camera, they can see many things that they never noticed before.They explore the meaning of still lifes, the meanings that non-talking pets hope to convey.They peek into the privacy of the home and learn to see things anew with different eyes.

What is protected here is the privacy of the children themselves.She is twelve years old, neither the object of the crime nor the perpetrator of the crime, however, her name has not been revealed for the time being. The footage shows a man in a sports T-shirt, sitting in the driver's seat, with nothing else on screen.The car approached for a brief moment, then gradually fell behind. You know, a child with a camera in hand can learn to operate the machine and bring those moments of family problems to light.They broke trust, spied on unprotected spaces, and filmed mom emerging from the bathroom in a cumbersome bathrobe, a towel tied around her head, pale face and disheveled hair.This is no joke.If they get the chance, they can take a picture of you sitting on top of the cauldron.

The footage, like many home videos, is bland in composition and often shaky.Of course, the man who appears on the tape is not a member of the family, but a stranger, a random character, a man driving in the slow lane. Footage shows a man wearing a light-coloured shirt with the collar unbuttoned.Due to reflections and sunlight, the picture appears blurred and shakes from time to time. This is not a common murder video, but a murder scene filmed by a girl.She thought at the time that what she was doing was simple, maybe a little clever, filming a man driving. He saw the girl and waved his hand, but he didn't leave the steering wheel.This is a deliberately downplayed response, designed to please the other party.

This is a long period of continuous footage, without a definite purpose, and the persistence shown exceeds the meaning of the subject itself.You can see the mentality of the person who took this home video at the time: innocent, aimless, dedicated, and very real. Hairless in the middle of his head, in his forties, with an easy-going face, his entire life seemed to be in front of a camcorder. However, there is also an element of suspense.You want to watch it, not because you know what's going to happen.Of course, you do know what is going to happen, and you are actually looking for the cause of it.But if you stumble across the footage for the first time without knowing the outcome, you'll probably keep watching.The reason you watch it is because what's on the tape grabs you, and you think it's random, amateurish, accidental, something that could happen at any time.This video will neither bore you nor amuse you.Its approach is green, straightforward, and unreserved.It's the wobbling part of the human mind, the picture that unfolds in your mind when you know you're thinking.

The world is hidden in the camera, which has been put into the screen, waiting for a boy or girl to appear, pick up the camera, learn how to operate it, and shoot the scene of the grandfather having breakfast.Everything else had been cut out, so all he saw was his flared nostrils and pale, baby-like palms clutching a spoon of cereal. In the picture, a man drives a Dodge alone, and this scene seems to continue forever. The tape has a certain quality: the image quality is rough, the black and white tones lack layers, and the expression is rigid.You feel that it is more real and more alive than anything around you.The things around us are representational, and they have been made up and rehearsed to show their layers.The tape is hyper-real — sub-real, perhaps, the word you wish to describe it.It's the thing that sits at the bottom of all the scratches you've added.There is an intense authenticity to the tape.

On the screen, he waved his hand, his palm stiffened, like a signal flag on a railway branch. You know, family members create games.It was just another game, and the girl was making the rules along the way.She liked the idea: filming men driving.Perhaps, having never done this before, she saw no reason to change the composition, no reason to end the shot early and switch to another car.This is her game, and she is learning and participating in it at the same time.She felt that she was a little smart and not lacking in creativity.She's also, perhaps, a little intrusive, with a little bit of ecstasy that adds to the fun of any game.

You read on.Your actions depend on the character of this tape, which forms a special passage through time, giving things form and purpose. Of course, if she had panned to another car at exactly that moment, she might have caught the shooter opening fire. That encounter was accidental.The victim, the killer, and the girl with the camera.Random energies arriving at the same point.Here, something speaks directly to you, speaks of that terrible thing, about forces beyond your control, those intersecting lines that pierce through every plausible layer of history, logic, and human expectations.

She got into it by accident.The girl lost her way and went into terror in a state of clarity.This is a story about children who are too far away from home and lost their way.Here, something acts as an instrument, satisfying the child's curiosity and reflecting the dispositions the child wishes to explore.It wasn't the family car, however, but the camera that cast her in the story. You know the holidays and family reunions: someone with a video camera, relatives and friends standing together, barely reacting because they're used to the process in such a numb way.Some people take pictures, record them on videotapes, put them in VCRs while drinking coffee, and play them one by one.

He was quickly hit.If you watch this tape many times, you will see the moment he is hit in the palm waving motion.This is naturally something you've been waiting for.You say to your wife, if you are at home, she is at home.Now, that's the moment he gets shot.You say, Janet, come on, this is the moment the shooting happens. This is the moment he was shot.You see, his body trembled, as if he had received an electric shock.Then, he lost control and fell towards the car door.Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that he leaned over or slid toward the car door.The image is scary and unobtrusive at the same time.The Dodge was in the slow lane, approached for a brief moment, and then gradually fell behind.

Usually, you don't ask your wife to come over to the TV.She has her favorite show, and you have yours.But there's a certain urgency here, and you want her to see the situation.The tape keeps playing, and when it finally comes that scene, you want her to see the moment he gets hit. At this time, that scene appeared.He was hit, hit on the head, the video camera responded, the girl responded.There was a jolt of shock, but she continued to film, with a sympathetic response, a nervous response, a racing heart, but still kept the camera on her subject, watching him slide towards the car door.Even the moment you see him die, you think it's the girl with the video recorder.On some level, the girls are definitely there, watching what you're watching, mentally unprepared.The girl reacted calmly when she saw the scene in front of her.You'd be surprised - she's been filming.

The tapes show some kind of horrific scene in isolation.The reason you ask your wife to come and see it is because this time it's real, not some imagined movie violence, real below the level of decorative perception.Come on, Janet, here you are.He died quickly, with no accompanying state of any kind, straight to the point.You wish to tell her that this is more real than the real thing, but then she asks, what does that mean? The video recorder reacted to the shooting, a startled reaction that brought pity and horror into the picture—the girl's own violent reaction, the girl's sympathy for the victim. You can't see the blood, it's probably running down the back of his ears and down his back.His head twitches, avoiding the door in such a way that you only see part of it in outline.That was the other side, not the side where he was hit. Maybe, you're being a little aggressive on the subject and actually forcing the wife to watch.why?What did you tell her?Are you making a small point?Like, am I going to ruin your mood today out of usual malice?Or, are you making a grand point?For example, this is the danger that human beings face in the course of their existence.Either the former or the latter, you're forcing her to watch the footage, and you have no idea why you're doing it. The video shows the car sliding into a curb barrier, followed by shaking images of two other lanes and parts of another car, followed by a momentary blur, where the video ends.Either because the girl stopped filming, or because some core authority—the police, the district attorney, or the TV station—decided that you couldn't see the rest. It was the tenth or eleventh homicide committed by the Texas Highway Killer.The reason this number is uncertain is because police believe that one of them may have been a copycat crime committed by someone else. Something about the tape and this particular kind of serial crime, isn't there?This type of crime is designed for recording and direct playback at any time.Record the scene of the activity with a video camera, and then play it directly, without neutral intervals, without the balance between time and space.You sit there and wonder: Is there a greater likelihood of this type of crime being committed when such means are readily available?The act of video recording and playback act to intensify and compress the event.It has the potential to create a need for copycats.You sit there with the thought that this series of murders has found its medium, or vice versa—an act of shading technology that has found an act of compressing time and repeating images, vivid, sparkling , but no obvious features. In the end, it didn't show anything.The reason it became a well-known murder is that it was recorded on video tape, the murderer repeated the crime, and the crime was recorded by a child.Thus, the child was involved.They had to call her that, so she was sometimes called the Video Child.The tape became widely known and she became famous.The modern strategy of not revealing the names of those involved has instead made her a household name.Modern people don't need to say their names or show their faces to be famous. Their spirit and body are in a state of mutual separation. Watching someone die, in an unexpected way, is reason enough to deserve a spot on the television screen.Watching a man get shot and killed while driving in broad daylight is very emotional.It illustrates a fundamental truth: There are two possible outcomes with each breath you take.Of course, this is another topic.There is a joke lurking here, a cruel farce.Even if it makes you feel a little guilty, you're willing to appreciate the slapstick.Perhaps, the victim is a fool, similar to the gullible fool in silent films, an unfortunate character in the classic sense.He allowed himself to be caught by the video camera lens, in a sense it was his own doing.Because once the tape starts rolling, it can only end one way.This is what the context requires. You don't want Janet to give you any crap explaining why this video keeps playing.They play it a thousand times a day.The reason they play it is, it exists and they have to play it.To entertain people is the raison d'être of their profession. The more I watched the tape, the more deadly it became, the colder and more ruthless it became.The tape sucks the air out of your chest, yet you watch it every time.