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Breaking the Frame: Amy Waldman's The Submission and 9/11 Memorials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2018

KRISTINE MILLER
KRISTINE MILLER*
Affiliation:
English Department and Honors Program, Utah State University. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This essay analyzes how various memorials create physical, temporal, and literary space for reflection about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As a New York Times reporter, Amy Waldman contributed in 2001 to the “Portraits of Grief” before publishing in 2011 The Submission, her novel about the memorial-building process. Juxtaposing Waldman's fiction and journalism with the Reflecting Absence memorial in New York and Columbia University's 9/11 Oral History Project, the essay explores how memorialization of the attacks can build space for democratic debate rather than just a public monument to the idea of national grief.

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Articles
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 212 - 240
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and British Association for American Studies 2018

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References

1 Running daily in 2001 and weekly through 2002, “Portraits of Grief” won the 2002 “Public Service” Pulitzer. Felicity Barringer, “Pulitzers Focus on Sept. 11, and the Times Wins 7,” New York Times, 9 April 2002, at www.nytimes.com/2002/04/09/nyregion/pulitzers-focus-on-sept-11-and-the-times-wins-7.html, accessed 20 Oct. 2016.

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10 Lawless.

11 Although the 9/11 memorial jury reviewed more than five thousand designs and thus operated on a much larger scale than the Columbia archive, which recorded and transcribed 440 interviews in 2001, and followed up with 202 of those participants in 2002 and 2003, the two entities shared a similar approach to memorialization.

12 Doss, 356.

13 Ibid.

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37 Grossman, “Q & A with Amy Waldman.”

38 Redfield, 17–18. In Chile, 11 Sept. 1973 was “the date of Salvador Allende's overthrow in a U.S.-backed coup that ushered in one of the worst reigns of terror in the twentieth century.” See also Simpson, David, 9/11: The Culture of Commemoration (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2006), 14Google Scholar.

39 Lawless, “Literature as Anti-Memorial.”

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41 Diane Cardwell, Glenn Collins, Winnie Hu, Andrew Jacobs, Lynda Richardson, Janny Scott, and Joyce Wadler, “Snapshots of Their Lives with Family and at Work,” New York Times, 15 Sept. 2001, at http://movies2.nytimes.com/2001/09/15/nyregion/15MISS.html, accessed 16 Oct. 2018.

42 “A Nation Challenged: Portraits of Grief: The Victims,” New York Times, 26 Sept. 2001, at www.nytimes.com/2001/09/26/nyregion/nation-challenged-portraits-grief-victims-providers-friends-shoulders-lean-they.html, 3 Oct. 2001, at www.nytimes.com/2001/10/03/nyregion/nation-challenged-portraits-grief-victims-recalling-laughter-pets-sacrifice.html, 17 Oct. 2001, at www.nytimes.com/2001/10/17/nyregion/nation-challenged-portraits-grief-victims-lighthouse-s-biggest-fan-small-town.html, and 23 Oct. 2001, at www.nytimes.com/2001/10/23/nyregion/nation-challenged-portraits-grief-victims-dream-fulfilled-devoted-father-mother.html, all accessed 12 Jan. 2016.

43 Nancy K. Miller, “‘Portraits of Grief’: Telling Details of the Testimony of Trauma,” differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 14, 3 (2003), 112–35, 114.

44 Doss, Memorial Mania, 99.

45 “A Nation Challenged,” New York Times, 16 Sept. 2001, 17 Oct. 2001, 3 Oct. 2001, accessed 12 Jan. 2017.

46 Doss, 71.

47 Scott, Janny, Introduction, Portraits: 9/11/01: The Collected “Portraits of Grief” from the New York Times (New York: Times, 2002), ix–x, ixGoogle Scholar.

48 Michael Brick, “Portraitists of Grief: 2,400 lives, each in 200 words or less,” New York Magazine, 27 Aug. 2011, at http://nymag.com/news/9-11/10th-anniversary/portraits-of-grief, accessed 21 Jan. 2016. Brick notes that over 140 reporters, researchers, staff, and editors were assigned to work on the “Portraits of Grief.”

49 Doss, 99.

50 Ibid.

51 Miller, 121, 117–18, 120.

52 Mark Singer, “Talk of the Town: Grief Desk,” New Yorker, 14 Jan. 2002, 30.

53 Simpson, 9/11, 43, 39, 36, 39.

54 Lorentzen, Christian, “Shave for Them,” review of Waldman's, Amy The Submission, London Review of Books, 33, 18 (Sept. 2011), 28–29Google Scholar.

55 Jess Row, “What Just Happened? Amy Waldman Takes a Trip into the Uncanny Valley of Ground Zero,” New York Magazine, 31 July 2011, at http://nymag.com/arts/books/reviews/the-submission-2011-8, accessed 29 May 2015.

56 Derbyshire, “The Books Interview: Amy Waldman.”

57 New York Times, 14 June 2003, at www.nytimes.com/2003/06/14/world/after-the-war-currency-hussein-s-image-is-banned-in-public-except-on-money.html, accessed 1 Oct. 2016.

58 New York Times, 30 June 2003, at www.nytimes.com/2003/06/30/world/after-the-war-reconstruction-bremer-says-more-attacks-won-t-deter-the-allies.html, accessed 1 Oct. 2016.

59 New York Times, 22 July 2003, at www.nytimes.com/2003/07/22/world/after-the-war-hostilities-the-murders-of-baathists.html, accessed 1 Oct. 2016.

60 Jeffrey Richelson, ed., “Update on Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction,” George Washington University National Security Archive, 11 Feb. 2004, at http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB80/press, accessed 17 Oct. 2018. See also Richelson, ed., “Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 80, George Washington University National Security Archive, 11 Feb. 2004, at http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB80/press, accessed 17 Oct. 2018. Documents 15, 34, 35, 37, and 41 are particularly useful.

61 “From the Editors: The Times and Iraq,” New York Times, 26 May 2004, at www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/world/from-the-editors-the-times-and-iraq.html?_r=0, accessed 15 Sept. 2016.

62 National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, The 9/11 Report (New York: St. Martins, 2011; first published 2004), xcvi, cxxvGoogle Scholar.

63 Leggatt, “Deflecting Absence,” 219.

64 Young et al., “Virtual Roundtable.”

65 Young, “Memory and Monument after 9/11,” 78.

66 Ibid., 81.

67 Young, “The Memorial's Arc,” 326.

68 Debbie Siegelbaum, “Q & A with Michael Arad, Designer of the 9/11 Memorial in NYC,” The Hill, 10 Sept. 2012, at http://thehill.com/capital-living/cover-stories/248613-qaa-with-michael-arad-designer-of-the-911-memorial-in-nyc, accessed 8 Feb. 2018.

69 Ibid.

70 Ted Loos, “Architect and 9/11 Memorial Both Evolved over the Years,” New York Times, 1 Sept. 2011, at https://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/arts/design/how-the-911-memorial-changed-its-architect-michael-arad.html, accessed 17 May 2017.

71 Hilker, Anne, “The Comfort of Melancholy: Understanding the Experience of Absence at American Memorials,” Journal of American Culture, 37, 1 (2014), 29–36, 30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72 Ibid., 33.

73 “About the Museum,” National September 11 Memorial and Museum, 2015, at www.911memorial.org/about-museum, accessed 29 Oct. 2015.

74 Patricia Cohen, “At Museum on 9/11, Talking through an Identity Crisis,” New York Times, 2 June 2012, at www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/arts/design/sept-11-memorial-museums-fraught-task-to-tell-the-truth.html, accessed 23 May 2018.

75 Leigh, Catesby, “A Memorial to Forget,” First Things, 247 (Nov. 2014), 49–55, 54Google Scholar. See also Nobel, Philip, “Memory Holes,” Metropolis: Architectural Design, 31, 2 (Sept. 2011), 62–107Google Scholar; and Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip, “The Disappeared: Power over the Dead in the Aftermath of 9/11,” Anthropology Today, 27, 3 (June 2011), 5–11Google Scholar.

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78 Cohen.

79 Panero, James, “Grounded Zero,” The New Criterion, 33, 1 (Sept. 2014), 51–53, 53Google Scholar. See also Hess, Aaron and Herbig, Art, “Recalling the Ghosts of 9/11: Convergent Memorializing at the Opening of the National 9/11 Memorial,” International Journal of Communication, 7 (2013), 2207–30Google Scholar; and Forest, Benjamin and Johnson, Juliet, “Security and Atonement: Controlling Access to the World Trade Center Memorial,” Cultural Geographies, 20, 3 (2012), 405–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80 Waldman, Amy, The Submission (New York: Picador, 2011), 7Google Scholar; future references are made parenthetically in the text.

81 Young et al., “Virtual Roundtable.”

82 Ibid. This debate between families and artists also divided the actual 9/11 memorial jury. See Doss, Erika, “Remembering 9/11: Memorials and Cultural Memory,” Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, 25, 3 (2011), 27–30, 28Google Scholar.

83 Siegelbaum, “Q & A with Michael Arad.”

84 Paula Grant Berry et al., “WTC Memorial Jury Statement for Winning Design,” Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, 13 Jan. 2004, at http://wtcsitememorial.org/about_jury_txt.html, accessed 1 June 2018.

85 Oliver Wainwright, “9/11 Memorial Museum: An Emotional Underworld beneath Ground Zero,” The Guardian, 14 May 2014, at www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/14/9-11-memorial-museum-new-york, accessed 23 May 2018.

86 Alexandra Lange, “Up from Zero, the Novel,” Design Observer, 24 Aug. 2011, at http://designobserver.com/feature/up-from-zero-the-novel/29678, accessed 17 May 2017. Lange's question turns attention back to both the 1980 selection of Chinese American juror Maya Lin to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which the Void explicitly “mimicked” (5), and the 2004 publication of Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith by Iranian-born Armenian American 9/11 memorial jury chair Vartan Gregorian, soon after the jury's choice of Arad and Walker's design. Neither Lin's nor Gregorian's background altered the 9/11 memorial process, but Waldman imagines how easily and harmfully either one might have done so, given the polemical nature of post-9/11 public discourse.

87 Rachel Nolan, “Bookforum Interviews Amy Waldman,” Bookforum, 8 Sept. 2011, at www.bookforum.com/interview/8218, accessed 29 May 2015.

88 Ibid.

89 Ibid.

90 “Welcome,” Take Back the Memorial, 1 July 2005, at www.takebackthememorial.net/about.htm, accessed 13 June 2017.

91 This act was repeated both by copycats in the novel and by angry anti-Muslim protesters in the US and the UK after the attacks.

92 Lawless, “Literature as Anti-memorial.”

93 “September 11, 2001 Oral History Projects,” Oral History Archives, Columbia University Libraries, n.d., at http://library.columbia.edu/locations/ccoh/digital/9-11.html, accessed 15 Sept. 2015. I would like to thank the Columbia Center for Oral History for granting me permission to quote briefly from their collection in this essay.

94 Clark, “Herodotus Reconsidered,” 80.

95 “September 11, 2001 Oral History Projects.”

96 The Reminiscences of Dena Kleiman (18 Dec. 2001 and 18 Sept. 2003), “September 11, 2001 Oral History Project” [“9/11 OHP”], Columbia Center for Oral History Archives [CCOHA], Rare Book & Manuscript Library [RBML], Columbia University in the City of New York [Columbia U]; Rem. of Neil Tyson (12 Dec. 2001 and 12 March 2003), “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U; Rem. of Scott P. Strauss (27 Nov. 2001), “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U; Rem. of Scott Greenleaf (19 Oct. 2001), “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U; Rem. of Bernard A. Weinstein (10 Nov. 2001 and 23 June 2003), “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U; Rem. of Claire Cavanah (19 Oct. 2001 and 23 Nov. 2003), “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U; Rem. of Art Speigelman (17 May 2005), “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U; Rem. of Antonio “Chico” Garcia (20 Oct. 2001), “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U.

97 Rem. of Seth Tobocman (5 April 2002), 1, “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U; Rem. of Howard Rumberg (11 Dec. 2001 and 11 July 2003), 2, “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U.

98 Rem. of Justine Cooper (17 Jan. 2002 and 12 Feb. 2003), 53, “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U.

99 Rem. of Strauss, 32, “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U.

100 Rem. of Marc Whalen (23 Oct. 2001 and 12 Jan. 2003), 37–38, “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U.

101 Ibid., 23 Oct. 2001, 11.

102 Rem. of Kathleen Spicer (12 Feb. 2002 and 7 May 2003), 17, 41–42, “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U.

103 Rem. of Kleiman (18 Dec. 2001 and 18 Sept. 2003), 25, 9, 43, “9/11 OHP,” CCOHA, RBML, Columbia U.

104 Lawless, “Literature as Anti-memorial.”

105 Siegelbaum, “Q & A with Michael Arad.”

106 Peter Bearman and Mary Marshall Clark, “The September 11, 2001, Oral History Narrative and Memory Project,” proposal, Sept. 2001, quoted in Clark, “Herodotus Reconsidered,” 81.

107 Ibid.

108 National Commission, The 9/11 Report, xciv.

109 Ibid., 608.

110 Farhad Manjoo, “How the Internet Is Loosening Our Grip on the Truth,” New York Times, 2 Nov. 2016, at www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/technology/how-the-internet-is-loosening-our-grip-on-the-truth.html?_r=0, accessed 2 Nov. 2016.

111 Jim Rutenberg, “In Watergate, One Set of Facts. In Trump Era, Take Your Pick,” New York Times, 11 June 2017, at www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/business/media/comey-trump-watergate.html?_r=0, accessed 13 June 2017.