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Sep
11
BTT: Villainy
2008 at 9am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Today’s question: Today is the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I know that not all of you who read are in the U.S., but still, it’s vital that none of us who are decent people forget the scope of disaster that a few, evil people can cause–anywhere in the world. It’s not about religion, it’s not about politics, it’s about the acknowledgment that humans should try to work together, not tear each other apart, even when they disagree.
So, feeling my way to a question here … Terrorists aren’t just movie villains any more. Do real-world catastrophes such as 9/11 (and the bombs in Madrid, and the ones in London, and the war in Darfur, and … really, all the human-driven, mass loss-of-life events) affect what you choose to read? Personally, I used to enjoy reading Tom Clancy, but haven’t been able to stomach his fight-terrorist kinds of books since.
And, does the reality of that kind of heartless, vicious attack–which happen on smaller scales ALL the time–change the way you feel about villains in the books you read? Are they scarier? Or more two-dimensional and cookie-cutter in the face of the things you see on the news?
You know, as much as I was affected by the tragedy of 9/11, and as much as it shaped my experience of a very important time in my life (I was in my third week of college when it happened), I can’t say it’s affected what I choose to read. I’ve never really been into political thriller/terrorist fighting books in the first place, so there wasn’t much to change there, but it hasn’t made me shy away from reading difficult books that deal with the topic in general or evil characters in particular.
For me, reading has always been a way to explore things in a new way, and I’ve found that reading about the tough things—the atrocities we commit against each other on a daily basis, in ways both large and small—helps me grow and learn to cope with them. That’s probably my inner therapist speaking, but I’ve always thought it was better to face the things we’re afraid of and to choose to encounter them on our own terms than to hide from them or tuck them away just because they’re difficult or painful to think about. I want to be emotionally affected by the books I read; I want them to make me feel something, and I’m usually up for whatever the book may bring.
With books, we choose what to pick up and when; we can choose to read everything in one sitting, or to break it into smaller, more manageable pieces; and we have the unique opportunity to see into someone else’s world and imagination and be forced outside of ourselves. And don’t we all need that?
I haven’t really addressed the villainy issue for a few reasons. First, very few of the books I read have clearly defined villains. I like something more complex than a “good guy versus bad guy” story. Second, and more importantly, I try not to classify people in real life as villains. Yes, there are people in the world who have done horrible things to other people, who have taken lives and broken families and whose actions are evil….but they are still people. We are all human, and we are all vulnerable to persuasion and influence and to making very bad decisions.
Yes, we are all responsible for our actions, and I am not in any way exculpating the terrorists who carried out the attacks that changed our nation seven years ago today, but rather than marking out the good guys and the bad guys, wouldn’t it be more productive if we looked at our world as a whole and asked ourselves how we got here and what we can do to move forward, to grow, and to honor each other’s humanity?
This should be a day of remembering, but it does not have to be a day of villifying and fearmongering. The 9/11 terrorists should be punished for their actions, as should any person who commits such evil against another human being, but can we take a minute to think about ourselves not just as Americans or Afghans or Christians or Muslims but as a global community? Can we learn something from each other? Can we examine the dangers of extremism in all its forms and apply it to groups that are present in our own local communities?
I think so. I think we should. I think we should reach other’s books and listen to each other’s music and learn about each other’s beliefs so that that which is different is not automatically that which is frightening. We should not be afraid to face the difficult.
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Okay, that was a little heavier than I intended to get, but it’s impossible not to think about these things on a day like this.
Seven years ago, I reluctantly rolled out of bed at 7am (central time) to shower and get ready for an early morning English class. By the time I was out of the shower, one plane had hit the towers, and Tom Brokaw was trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. My roommate and I walked to class talking saying it must have been some crazy accident, it couldn’t be terrorists. How or why would anyone do that?
By the time we returned from class at 10am, it was clear that America was under attack. The girls from our floor gathered in our dorm room, huddled around a 17-inch TV, and sat in stunned silence for the rest of the day as we cried and wondered what this really meant. We could see the Hancock Tower in downtown Chicago from our dorm room windows. Were we next? We couldn’t get through to our friends and families to tell them we were okay.
That night, we gathered in the school’s chapel to reflect on the day’s events and to send our thoughts and prayers to the people of New York and those worldwide who lost friends and loved ones in the attacks. And that’s what I remember most—that our entire campus came together, that we put aside our differences of opinion, our different religious beliefs, and our political ideas, and we stood as a community to support each other through a difficult time. That coming together is what I will always hold in my heart, and it is what we should strive for today, as Americans and as citizens of the world.
So tell me, where were you? What will you remember?
No related posts.
I answered your question along with the prompt on my blog.
I’m older than you (much!) and I cannot read these things or I won’t sleep.
As you say: “I want to be emotionally affected by the books I read.” I agree with that completely. If there’s no emotional connection, I usually end up not finishing the book.
I completely agree that we should take all these things in as a global community and examine what’s going on instead of dividing ourselves up by our beliefs or our ethnicities or our nationalities. I also want to be emotionally affected by the books I read and once I’m reading I’m not going to stop just because something terrible happens; I don’t really seek out books about terrorism or anything, though.
It was so hard having a daughter six hours away at college when this happened. I’m in the middle of the country and just could not believe what was happening. I was watching as the second plane hit the other WTC tower. Such a helpless, anxious feeling to sit and watch and not be able to do anything. My two other kids came home from high school that afternoon with looks on their faces I’ll never forget. That’s how we, who lost no one, felt. I cannot even imagine how the people directly effected moved on through the next days, weeks, months, years.
I think we both went somewhat in the same direction with this one. I agree that we need to look at the world more holistically, instead of in us vs. them terms. I think books are a fantastic way to make that happen and increase empathy for all of humanity.
I was also in my first weeks of college, which I found really difficult—I had spent my whole life in the New York suburbs and now I was stuck in another country when who knows what was happening and my dad was a commuter. Everyone I immediately knew was okay that day, but slowly it would come out: X’s daughter, Y’s brother-in-law, Z’s ex-husband, who had actually been on one of the planes…
Somehow I hate marking this day. Just now when I was in New York on business I stayed in a hotel across the street from the WTC and it’s a disgrace that it’s still just a hole in the ground but we feel like we’re “doing something” by making insipid speeches about it once a year.
It is much larger issue than what US portrays. Always been there. Americans simply ignored it before 9/11. As long they were safe, who cared?
We have lived under the threat for 30 odd years.
Villainy is not the right word
Great answer. I read to explore as well, I think that’s even more important in this world.
Here are my thoughts.
And on a side note, I knew you and I got married at similar times, but I didn’t realize we were the same age! I was about to leave for college for the first time when the attacks happened (my school was on the quarter system, so we didn’t start until the end of Sept.) Funny realization on such a sad day.
I was a freshman in college and back in my dorm room from Chemistry class when I learned of them. I was horrified as the rest of the country.
tis my daughters birthday
she turned 13 today… her 6th birthday sucked pretty badly