The 9th Anniversary of 9/11 seemed like a good time to revisit Art Spiegelman’s, In The Shadow Of No Towers, and see if it is any less impenetrable than the first go through, when it was initially published – It’s not. With the benefit of some distance and time from the events it begins to become clear that perhaps it was never meant to be. Spiegelman’s account of the days and months that followed 9/11 remains disjointed and in search of a conclusory point – a point that has perhaps, thus far, eluded all of us.
Speigelman’s book, 42 oversized pages on heavy card stock, revisits the theme of his earlier work, “Maus” – the human mind’s incapacity to grasp and make sense of the tragedy of calculated mass murder. This time he is the survivor, dealing with his own post traumatic stress, from the twin catastrophes of the crime and the madness of our own, seemingly senseless, national response to it.
It is the second cause of Spiegelman’s life-altering angst that made publishers and audience alike shy away from embracing “ No Towers” as it had so freely embraced “Maus”. “No Towers” accuses our culture of an inadequate response to the attack – feckless patriotism, unquestioning fealty to authority, and denial of responsibility for the actions being taken in our name.
Those are harsh, unpleasant, accusations being levelled and the passage of time can’t dull their sting. They call into question our national character during a time when we have been blind-sided and horrifyingly attacked. They are charges that seem particularly painful and, at first blush, uncalled for in the light of our suffering and pain. It feels right to dismiss them as cruel and unnecessary.
Yet to dismiss Speigelman’s charges puts us at a kind of risk as well. Denial is not a particularly good way to treat wounds. It doesn’t disinfect our sores, and it forces us to compensate for our injuries in ways that often result in greater harm to the body. The effects of untreated wounds show up years after the initial trauma seems like a distant memory.
Nine years later we may be seeing some of those effects in Koran burning pastors and unending wars on the other side of the world. The shadows cast by no towers is a very long one over the American spirit, and Spielgeman’s book is a reminder of what can happen when holes in the downtown landscape of New York City, or in our hearts, are left to their own devices.
