Spahr/Schell

After all the talk and readings about 9/11, the thoughts sort of just become a blur, maybe a bubble, or maybe just a cloud of smoke, just like the one’s from the attack, but none-the-less, they’re dark and gloomy. Upon reading Juliana Spahr’s This Connection of Everyone with Lungs and more specifically, her entry from February 15th, 2003, her attitude of the event completely shifts from passion (derived from frustration and hope) to nonchalant, carelessness. Her entries change from “Beloveds, we do not know how to live our lives with any agency outside of our bed” (26) and “When I speak of feet I speak of attacks conceived in Afghanistan, planned in Germany, funded through Budai, executed in America, using Saudis” (27) to “Of course other things happened… but mainly people gathered” (55). It’s as if she just completely gave up and brought on a entirely new behavior.

Spahr writes “Here is today. Three million in Rome. Two million in Spain. One and a half million in London… The list goes on. Millions. And if not millions, then hundreds of thousands” (53) and then she continues to list at least 90 other cities and countries. She sort of took on an Oskar Schell type vibe with the extensive listings, numbers, and overall; information.

Spahr’s writing style relates to Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close with the endless repetition, listing, precision to facts and information seen on page 73, 49, or/and 51. Foer writes “… I found 472 people… there were 216 different addresses… I calculated that if I went to two every Sunday, which seemed possible, plus holidays, minus Hamlet rehearsals and other stuff… it would take me about three years to go through them all (51).” The confident yet uncaring tone of voice carried by both Spahr and Schell/Foer show the trauma and effects from the attacks on 9/11.

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