longer matters because meaningless images begin to take on a life of their own (Root
240).
Several researchers such as Tom Stempel, Andrew Doyle, and Jonathon
Dawson have noted that the disconnect between Schumman’s image and his
scandalous real life is an extreme example of how postmodern historiography has also
been tainted by insignificant, manufactured simulacra. Motss’s script will forever remain
the uncontested version of the non-events of the Albanian War given that the cult of
“Old Shoe” has been enshrined in the collective memory of American citizens. From a
hegemonic perspective, the hyper-real fiction of this simulated war hero is useful to the
political elite, because Schumman’s saga is emblematic of patriotic virtue which
corresponds to a larger nationalistic myth that must be reinforced. In this vein, Andrew
Doyle probes the similarities between what we now know about the Gulf War
concerning the “rescue and deification of Private Jessica Lynch” which served to “divert
at [