People live, unarguably, in a violent world: in hard times, of dark days and nights. In this essay, the author asks the questions, what does it mean to live in an age of perpetual war? How do people make sense of everyday violence? How is it symbolically enacted? How is it sublimated and transcended? This essay also looks broadly at the meaning of style, focusing on a recurring symbol that will emerge and evolve: "the veil". The author explores how the veil informs and distorts people's ability to make meaning, and what it means to put it on, or take it off. The author interacts loosely with this symbol, teasing out new meanings in a kind of inter/play of contexts and concepts. (Contains 14 notes.)