'24' and the War of Fiction.

Would I give it away to those who have not seen it yet if I told you that the basic plotline of season 4 of '24' is... Terrorists plot to destroy America, people die, Jack Bauer comes in, Jack saves the day!

Does that look familiar? Well, very much like a rerun of seasons 3, 2 & 1.

Yet if you start watching it, you may still get hooked just because you want to know how Jack is going to make it this time of course, or how the writers are going to make him get out of that one!

You may also want to sit back and adopt the 'scholar' position and pretend you're watching it to know better how America talks about its fears. Fiction is, after all, an important part of the human psyche and the best way we define our culture and civilization may stillt be through the stories we tell ourselves.

Two interesting new elements this season:

1. First its casual show of torture (albeit in a very mild non graphic way) to get information out of terrorists or 'terrorist spies'. Obviously, this is something that we all know exists in 'real life' (the famous 'allegations' of torture in Abu Ghraib or Guantamo have been great reminders) and indeed context makes the whole difference.

This is shown in a context in which Americans are at best a mbivalent in their condemnation of torture. This is also a context in which Gonzalez who played a leading role in providing legal grounds for the torture of foreign detainees was sworn in as U.S. Attorney General. (Feb. 14)

Interestingly though, the show also deals with the problem of defining torture, okaying 'non invasive' techniques when trying to get information out of the Secretary of Defense's son (with the eventual blessing of the father himself) and the torturing of innocent people for the good causes.

To be noted as well – so far in the show, torture has been useless and ineffective. Some have even suggested that the infectiveness of torture techniques was there "to convince America that torture is (a) revolting and (b) doesn't work anyway". I doubt the writers are betting on such a sophisticated multi-layer reading.

2. the second interesting point is the identity of the terrorists. You might have expected them to be Saudis, Iraqis, Iranians,… It seems there is enough to choose from… but they are actually Turkish (with a great performance of Iranian-born actress Shohreh Aghdashloo as the 'terrorist housewife').
Now hold on here – Turkey is a secular sate, a key ally to the US. Or is it? Of course, this has really infuriated the Turks.
Indeed,

two popular American TV series, 24 and West Wing, feature plotlines this season envisioning Turkish terrorists melting down US nuclear plants and women beheaded in Turkey for immodest behavior, respectively. Given that Turkey is overwhelmingly the most socially liberal and progressive of countries in the Muslim world, what is happening here? Are the show's writers just ignorant, or what?

Interestingly, the hottest selling book in Turkey these days is a thriller that portrays a fictional war between the United States and Turkey.

'Fictional war' or 'War of fictions'?