9-11
Noam Chomsky
Seven Stories Press, 2001
$8.95 ($13.50 Canadian)
Few commenters on American political life are more astute than Noam Chomsky, famously referred to by the New York Times as arguably the greatest living American intellectual. Since the
attack on the WTC, hes also become (arguably) the most reviled
American intellectual.
Chomsky-bashers would do well to read this instant book, rushed into
print in the wake of the attacks in September 2001. Cobbled together
from a string of interviews with the world press, 9-11 shows Chomsky at his best: a thoughtful, compassionate analyst of terrifying world events.
9-11 is flawed. The editors seem to think we have the
IQs of porch light moths. In chapters taken from overseas interviews,
references to events in those countries are followed by bracketed
reminders that the interview took place in that country. Elsewhere, the
editors place unnecessary notes saying theyve excised material
repeated elsewhere in the book, as if Chomskys words were holy writ to
be edited trepiditiously.
Still, 9-11 is invaluable. Chomsky abhors the loss of
life committed by 9-11s perpetrators, and asks us to similarly abhor
the murderous acts committed with our tax dollars in our names. Perhaps
the single most valuable part of the book is Chomskys analysis of Bin
Ladens ideology. While some have imputed anti-globalization motives to
Al Qaeda, Chomsky will hear none of it. Pointing out that bin Laden
has probably never even heard of globalization, Chomsky says that Al
Qaeda has as little concern for
cultural hegemony as they do for the
poor
of the Middle East who they have been severely harming for
years. To read progressive intent in the atrocities of last fall, says
Chomsky, is to wallow in self-indulgent fantasies. 9-11 is a salutary
antidote to some of the pronouncements of the American left in the last
year, and well worth reading despite the obstacles the books editors
place in our way.
Please visit Eco Books if youd like to purchase this or other books.
Small Wonder
Barbara Kingsolver
Harper Collins, 2002
$23.95
Ever since 9/11, many writers the world over have crossed swords
to vindicate or vilify the United States. Some of those writers, having
pointed out the attacks may have been considered, political retaliation
against the American Way, have been labeled unpatriotic, anti-American
and worse.
Among them is Barbara Kingsolver. Small Wonder,
Kingsolvers new collection of essays, is a compelling, provocative
series of meditations on how the world has changed since 9/11.
Kingsolvers voice, at its clearest, resembles that of a wise,
non-judgmental elder. Anger, she tells us, is human. Fear is human. But
it is also human to use adversity as an instrument of understanding.
This is not a battle between East and West, North and South. This war
is one between poverty and riches, the possessors and the dispossessed.
It is Kingsolvers gift to explain, in the plainest terms, the
mechanisms of the human heart. She brings to her topic not just a
facility with language, but the gift of understanding without making
judgments, and of empathizing without taking sides. We are all victims,
she says, but with effort we can affect a change.
Kingsolver brings a scientists eye to the intricacies of the
natural world: the wing-beats of a scarlet macaw, or the inherent
insight a child may bring to the human arena. These essays place their
author firmly in the upper echelon of American letters. Kingsolver is
anything but anti-American. She loves her country and says so, in a
voice of distinctly North American origin. That she has the courage to
do so, in the current storm of xenophobia and ire, does credit to
herself and the land that nurtured her.
Please visit Eco Books if youd like to purchase this or other books.
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