Reading America

When I travveld to America, I read a very good book about 9/11 it might actually become more and more important in the recepiton of 9/11 and its aftermath and the current American thought climate: „The Submission“ by Amy Waldman. What happens when a muslim American gets choosen to built the 9/11 memorial? There is a good review in the Atlantic. As horrible as the attack was,“ Waldman writes in The Submission, „everyone wanted a little of its ash on their hands.“ Also see the guardian article down for it.

The other book that dwells on the aftermath of what happend in America is well written, action packed book that tries to describe some of the worst aspects of the war in Afganisthan. War“ by Sebastian Jungner. A book about the life of American soldiers in some dead forsaken valley.

Another wellwritten book is: the 9/11 Wars by Jason Burke. The book tries to give an insight into the policies and failures of the Western and largely American campaigns after 9/11. As to quote from the Guardian: „For those wanting to know why it often went so grimly wrong – and why it may yet do so again – Burke has now penned a solid reference tome, charting the fallout of 9/11 beyond the Manhattan dust cloud and across the Islamic world. It covers the struggles in all their many bloody theatres: the toppling of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein regimes, the horrific insurgency and civil war in Iraq, the al-Qaeda bombings in London and Madrid, and returning, with depressing circularity, to the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan five years later“ Nothing I can add to that, except that I was really adicted to reading it.

There is an intresting aricle in the british daily the guardian about writers response towards 9/11: „After 9/11: our own low, dishonest decade – The world changed on 9/11, or so the cliche goes. How have writers responded to the challenge of representing this new reality?“

Interview with Sunaina Maira on teaching 9/11

Sunaina Maira is a professor at the University of California in Davis for Asian American studies.

Sunaina Maira - Professor of Asian American Studies
Sunaina Maira - Professor of Asian American StudiesAmerican studies.

She gave a lecture at this years NYRIS 11 Conference in Turku, which I attended. After the lecture I had the opportunity to ask her about teaching 9/11. Since she is one of the foremost critical thinkers on that aera and her work deals a lot with the impact of 9/11 on American minority youth it was very interesting to listen to her views.