Nuclear Bombs: Representation and Use

The maker of an object may have many intentions about it. But the object in itself has no intention. It has either a use value or a representative value.

It is the representative value that problematizes the conception of a nuclear bomb. Journalists, academics, and national leaders mostly lose sleep over the multi-representative nature of a nuclear bomb, with Power Over/Subservience To the nuclear non-proliferation treaty being the most widely discussed. These representations are only interpretative and, if language is all about interpretations, they have their place in language.

There is another representation of bomb, which is aesthetic and which is a consequence of its use: the terrible beauty of explosion, fireworks in the sky, radioactive bodies, red and brown earth, the excitement of breaking news, screaming headlines, address by national leaders, and material for future history books and the next Steven Spielberg film (if he is alive to make it and we are all alive to see it).

As for use value, a bomb has only one: it kills. I'm sorry, I forgot the Spielberg film.