September 11 and the Arts in America
In the six years since those planes crashed, it has become a commonplace to say that September 11, 2001 changed everything. That statement is America-centric, of course. September 11 threw the United States into a state of rage, as Naomi Klein argues in her sometimes persuasive new book, “The Shock Doctrine,” but, to millions and millions of others throughout the world, the fact that life is chancy and that political and religious differences can leave you vulnerable to attack was painfully obvious long before the tragic day those towers came down. I wish I could say that 9/11 has given us first-rate works of art. The catastrophe has given us one skillfully directed movie (“United 93“), lots of manipulative bombast (“World Trade Center”), informative documentaries, and lots of undigested paintings and songs and plays.
Now that artists have turned their attention from 9/11 to its ongoing aftermath, the Iraq War, the odds have lessened, for now, that something enduring will be wrought from that painful New York moment. And it may be that we are still too ill-prepared to recognize such a work even if it appeared. And, today, what do we get instead: new CDs by 50 Cent and Kanye West, promoted by the media as a heavyweight fight — a cynically canned duel if ever there was one.
