Hey guys, glad to be back here and starting of our second term together! Over the break I read Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which is set in New York City right after the tragic of event of 9/11. The book uses this setting as a stepping stone to talk about the main character Oskar and his family’s experiences of post 9/11 trauma. However, the setting is significant in that a lot of the books post-modern artistic qualities (the pictures and drawings) act as fictional technologies of memory for Oskar’s life. I’d like to talk about the power that art has in discussing trauma, specifically the 9/11 memorial in New York, and Foer’s novel. As a work of art, Foer’s novel uses these technologies that connect Oskar’s narrative within this historic city to the world shattering event of 9/11, and push the reader forward into thinking about how people are connected by trauma. Similarly, the memorial also portrays trauma and I think can be discussed in tangent with Foer’s novel as a work of art.

When I was 15, my class went on a trip to New York, and this book brought back some memories of the atmosphere of the city and what it was like to live there. Near the end of the trip we went to see the 9/11 memorial located near the building site of the new tower. The memorial is really powerful and it relates to not only the novel but also our discussion in class of how art is used to portray trauma and spur healing, as well as also connecting to this classes theme of memory. In class we discussed Foer’s comments on art in relation to tragedy: “Why do people wonder what’s OK to make art about, as if tragedy weren’t an inherently good thing.” “Too many people are suspicious of art. Too many people hate art.”  At 15 I had a limited understanding of the context surrounding the memorial, and the memories I have of the memorial are cloudy. However, my memory of the feeling of how the memorial portrays 9/11 is still there and I would argue that feeling shows the relevance of how art influences our view of the narrative of trauma surrounding the event. While I think that Foer is a bit harsh as saying that people hate art, I feel he makes a relevant point about what is and isn’t ‘OK’ to make art about in relation to tragic events, in that people are suspicious of art related to trauma. Art is such an abstract and ever-changing open concept that it can be confining in its physical form. People may be suspicious of art that seeks to represent trauma as it does not fit their idea of how that particular trauma should be represented. At the same time, this openness can lead to connection between peoples experience of the art.

Foer’s book as a work of art deals with this specific trauma of 9/11 and also many other traumas which collide through intergenerational relationships. Oskar’s specific narrative of trauma shows it as being incomparable to anything else; he calls it: “the worst day”. “A lot of the time I’d get the feeling like I was in the middle of a huge black ocean, or in deep space, but not in the fascinating way.” 9/11 as an event affected the whole world so completely that (as mentioned in class) people distinguish events as pre or post 9/11. It is this inability to speak or describe the totality of the event that makes art relating to it so open, but yet so hard to create. It is like a giant hole that swallows the memory of it, but also collects it and represents it as a connection that we all have to this trauma. It is in this way that I think we see through Foer’s book and the 9/11 memorial, how by creating art we are able unite through experience, without having to discuss it. The memorial itself is somewhat like I have just described. Inside are two squares the circumference of the two towers cut out from the ground. Waterfalls pour down the sides into a large flat pool (kind of like Oskars idea of the pool of tears) a foot deep. At the centre of this pool there is another square cut out of black rock in a way that it’s depth does not allow the viewer to see the bottom. As I have said before, we all may find a different meaning from this installation, just as we may discuss different meanings to Oskar’s narrative in Foer’s novel. What I believe is significant about the memorial though, is this centre part that is cut out. It is as if all the tears that people have shed are collecting inside of this unseeable pool at the bottom of the memorial. While all these people’s tears may have different meanings for each person, and their trauma may not be communicable, through art we are able to bridge the gap between unspeakability and connection. While Foer’s novel is not comparable to the memorial in form, I think as art it uses its medium to discuss 9/11 and the connection of people from different generation’s experiences of trauma through a powerful narrative.

Here is an image of the memorial in NYC:

Thanks everyone, see you next week!