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DeLillo Confronts September 11

Submitted by Michael Anderson, May 4, 2007 09:36

With all due respect to Adam Kirsch, he needs to leave the library and inhale some fresh air. Spetember 11 demanded many things but least among them was "interpretation." What was so difficult about knowing what it emeant? What is "this instability of meaning"? Who needed a primer in "how to respond"? That the event has been used for malign political purposes, principally by the government of the United States, is a lesson in laignant consequences of "interpretation."


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I think the idea that writers like Delillo perform a public service by interpreting events like 9/11 is risable. The... [MORE]

stuart munro 

May 13, 2007 02:12

"Falling Man" extends the brilliant career of America's foremost novelist. He is the only American white male to have any... [MORE]

kl 

May 28, 2007 17:56

Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated) has also written a post 9/11 book that is very good. I will get... [MORE]

Leslie 

May 12, 2007 22:20

Why do none of the major paper critics ever mention Paul West 's brilliant "The Immensity of the Here and... [MORE]

Dennis 

May 4, 2007 21:02

Dennis's right-on comments about Paul West's The Immensity of the Here and Now, a novel of 9.11raise two points: 1)... [MORE]

Ronald Christ 

May 5, 2007 13:33

I moved my family from New Zealand to the US less that 3 weeks before September 11, 2001. I am... [MORE]

Bruce Sheridan 

May 4, 2007 13:51

Delillo has always seemed like someone staring very hard at something I can't see. [MORE]

Mick Sherman 

May 4, 2007 12:47

DeLillo's two best passages (ok, very subjectively, since I've only read four of his books) are 1. the baseball scene... [MORE]

Bill 

May 4, 2007 10:16

The South suffered badly in the Civil War, and its fiction reflects that. I think you will begin to see... [MORE]

BH 

May 4, 2007 12:42

With all due respect to Adam Kirsch, he needs to leave the library and inhale some fresh air. Spetember 11...

Michael Anderson 

May 4, 2007 09:36

I may be slow but I don't exactly get this piece. Kirsch is ordinarily a very fine writer. But the... [MORE]

Shalom Freedman 

May 4, 2007 08:47

In response to trey. I'm unaware why disagreement with the country you live in necessarily means that one must move... [MORE]

middle 

May 4, 2007 08:41

Carl Schurz put this more eloquently than I ever could over a century ago. The quote has been misused since... [MORE]

Ef 

May 4, 2007 11:22

Have we heard, read, and seen in film (The Pawnbroker) scenarios of survivor culture shock and survivor guilt? -- at... [MORE]

Frank Joseph Routman 

May 3, 2007 10:07

was attacked for once. the question that was never dealt with was "why do they hate us"... and the answer... [MORE]

michael roloff 

May 2, 2007 10:02

america is certainly not innocent, of this we can agree. but it is the still the best country to live... [MORE]

trey 

May 2, 2007 23:58

America is certainly the best country to live in? Only an American could say that without feeling any need to... [MORE]

sharon 

May 5, 2007 17:26

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