Do The 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks is approaching, and Studio 360 is curating a list of the best cultural works that responded to and helped us understand it.
Bruce Springsteen’s song “The Rising” (from the album of the same name) evokes images of the day itself, and struggles to find hope in a bleak landscape:
Sky of blackness and sorrow (dream of life) Sky of love, sky of tears (dream of life) Sky of glory and sadness (dream of life) Sky of mercy, sky of fear (dream of life) Sky of memory and shadow (dream of life)
Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close begins later, as a boy whose father was killed in the attacks tries to make sense of the loss. “Everything that’s born has to die,” he reasons, “which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they’re all on fire, and we’re all trapped.” Just as haunting is the flip-book at the end of the novel, which shows a person soaring upwards to perch atop one of the Twin Towers.
Tell us what other works need to be on that list. Songs, movies, poems, sculptures – anything created in the last decade that specifically responds to September 11th and its aftermath in America.
Write your suggestion in a comment below.
Decade 9/11
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