--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Bludis Jack
<buildsnburns@y...> wrote:
> I think one of the things that may have
hurt
> Scudder is Block's obsession with 9-11. It was
a
> trauma for all of us, but a bigger trauma
for
> native New Yorkers. With some it is an
obsession.
>
> I have a close relative who lives in an
apartment
> with porch on 72nd Street who claims she
could
> smell the debris after the towers went
down.
>
> That kind of thing takes a toll, and if I'm
not
> mistaken, Lawerence Block lived a lot closer
to
> the towers than she does.
Here's the issue, and I saw a little bit of this all over
Manhattan since Sunday. New Yorkers feel like they have a big
target painted on their backs now. And they do. That's coming
out in the writing. I even saw the cover for a popular novel
that involves 9/11 quite a bit. The original cover was
subtle. The mass market cover will be anything but, unless
you consider not showing the buildings burning or collapsing
subtle.
Block does live closer. He's in the Village if I'm not
mistaken (as are a couple of other writers familiar to this
group.) And a friend of mine from Jersey, along with another
who lives in the West 90's, both said they could smell the
site for a month.
I got to see Ground Zero for the first time Sunday morning.
We've all seen it on CNN as a hole in the ground. ("Yeah,
yeah, tragic. Don't let it happen again. Now what about Scott
Peterson again?") Seeing it surrounded by highway signs and
construction barriers and in the middle of Manhattan traffic
made me numb for a moment. For the first time, it was in the
middle of a living, breathing city where I'd just had
breakfast, listened to my host gripe about his commute and
his business (which was, in fact, my business, though with
different people), and most compelling of all, I'm moments
later walking down a dark alley under construction tarp,
trying to find the observation deck. That brought that whole
sickening month back to me. Also, it forced me to start
referring to the Trade Center as part of the city instead of
this touchstone the rest of us see it as, just as it was when
the Towers stood, because that's what it is and how it was
talked about day to day. But imagine having to live with that
reminder day after day after day. Even if you don't go
downtown all that often, you go buy sooner or later.
Everyday, you look up and there's a piece of the skyline
that's just gone. And that smell. All I smelled was car
exhaust, but imagine the smell of burning rubble and dust in
the air for at least a month afterward.
Now imagine you're Block or SJ Rozan or Jim Fusilli. There is
no way that can't permeate what you write, even if you try to
move on with your life. It's there. It's not going
away.
Hopefully, I kept that on topic. It struck a nerve, though,
and it's hard for me not to say anything.
Jim Winter
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