DECONSTRUCTING and RECONSTRUCTING the TOWERS: ALLEGORICAL FIGURES of 9/11 by Brian J. Phelps in the Wake of the 9/11 Terrorist
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DECONSTRUCTING AND RECONSTRUCTING THE TOWERS: ALLEGORICAL FIGURES OF 9/11 By Brian J. Phelps In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Americans grasped for ways to understand and represent the incomprehensible trauma, in part because, as many philosophers and cultural critics acknowledged, it was not just physical destruction or a political challenge, but also a semiotic rupture that challenged the efficacy of language itself. Consequently, common modes of working through the trauma, such as narrativization and temporal contextualization, have failed to provide closure. At the confluence of photographic theory, trauma theory, and deconstruction, the images of 9/11—particularly Richard Drew’s “Falling Man” and images of Philippe Petit’s 1974 WTC tightrope walk—have become allegories for the failures of these old methods and the need for new modes of working through the trauma. A close look at the Falling Man of Don DeLillo’s eponymously titled novel reveals the myth of shared (collective) trauma in the event of 9/11 and the inherent re-experiencing caused by its mediation. Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close places the blame for these on the failure of language. In response, the resurgence of popularity in the figure of Philippe Petit is in direct relation to his symbolic role. In Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin, his performance provides healing for characters who suffer from different traumas by championing the healing effects of shared witness (rather than shared experience) and artistic representation (rather than chronological narrativization). In the film Man on Wire, James Marsh uses the heist genre to, likewise, show the power of artistic representation—this time, in its ability to re-establish working binaries and provide meaning to the absence of the towers. DECONSTRUCTING AND RECONSTRUCTING TIlE TOWERS: ALLEGORICAL FIGURES OF 9/11 by Brian 1. Phelps A Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment ofthe Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts - English at The University ofWisconsin Oshkosh Oshkosh WI 54901-8621 June 2013 PROVOST C ~~PRO~ AND VICE CHANCELLOR -::.J~ Advisor cf:~j2~ ~~~----~~---------------- 7-Jr6 - I ) Date Approved Date Approved Member FORMAT APPROVAL ~----~-4--~-------------- Date Approved ----'-J'--"-'~-'-'""'--- Date Approved To my wife, Sarah, for being a constant inspiration and companion, for supporting our family through this thesis’s completion, and for being an emotional bulwark. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................. iv CHAPTER 1 – AN INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2- “THERE’S AN EMPTY SPACE WHERE AMERICA USED TO BE”: FAILURES OF COMMUNALITY AND TEMPORALITY IN DON DELILLO’S FALLING MAN ................................................................................. 13 A Failure of Collectivizing Traumatic Experience .................................................. 16 A Failure of Temporal Reconstruction .................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 3 – “THEY BELIEVED IN THE DOG”: EMPTY SIGNIFIERS AND SHIFTING SIGNIFIEDS IN JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER’S EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE ............................................................... 39 The Towers and Signification .................................................................................. 41 A Failure of Communication ................................................................................... 45 A Failure of Signification ........................................................................................ 48 Open Signifieds and Shifting Signifiers .................................................................. 56 CHAPTER 4 – “SOMETIMES YOU’VE GOT TO GO UP TO A VERY HIGH FLOOR”: SHARED WITNESS AND WORKING THROUGH IN LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN .......................................................................................... 65 Philippe Petit ............................................................................................................ 71 Shared Witness versus Collective Trauma .............................................................. 74 Memory: Movement versus Still Life ...................................................................... 80 CHAPTER 5 – “EXACTLY WHERE THE VOID, NOW DEFEATED, USED TO VENT ITS MIGHT”: ARTISTIC EXPRESSION AND THE CLOSURE OF THE SIGN IN MAN ON WIRE ........................................................... 92 A Response to the Falling Man ................................................................................ 94 Semiological Redefinition, 1974 ............................................................................. 98 Semiological Redefinition, 2008 ............................................................................. 103 Heist Movies and Binaries ....................................................................................... 108 CHAPTER 6 – A CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 119 NOTES……………………………….. ............................................................................. 121 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 142 iii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1. Drew, Richard. “Untitled”. 2001/2006. AP Photos. The north tower of New York's World Trade Center collapses after being struck by hijacked American Airlines Flt. 11, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, left. At right, the skyline of lower Manhattan Thursday, June 29, 2006, with a void where the towers of the World Trade Center stood (Yahoo News). ............................ 2 Figure 1.2. Drew, Richard. “The Falling Man.” 2001. AP Photos.………………….. 10 Figure 1.3 Blondeau, Jean-Pierre. “Face to Face.” 1974. Petit, Philippe. Man on Wire. Skyhorse Publishing, 2008. Print. ........................................ 11 Figure 2.1. Franklin, Thomas. “Ground Zero Spirit.” 2001. The Record..………….. .. 18 Figure 2.2. Drew, Richard. Stills take from Singer, Henry. Falling Man. Darlow Smith Productions, 2006. Top Documentary Films. Web. 4 June 2013.. ...................................................................................... 33 Figure 3.1. Guzli, Peter. “Tourist Guy.” 1997/ 2001. Museum of Hoaxes. Web. 5 June 2013.. ...................................................................................... 53 Figure 3.2. Oskar’s Grandpa’s Attempt to Fill a Page Over and Over Again Ultimately Results in No Meaning, Whatsoever...………….. ......... 63 Figure 4.1. Dousseau, Jean-Pierre. “Untitled.” In Marsh, James, dir. Man on Wire. Magnolia Pictures, 2006. DVD.. .......................................... 72 Figure 4.2. McCann’s graphic on the section subdivisions resembles the cross pattern of Petit’s wire/balancing pole.. ........................................ 73 Figure 4.3. Miro, Joan. Plate 6 from the Black and Red Series. 1938. Metropolitan Museum of Art ...................................................................... 88 Figure 5.1. Philippe Petit and Jean-Pierre Hide from the Guard Beneath Tarps on the 104th Floor. ............................................................................. 105 Figure 5.2. Delucia, Vic. “Untitled.” 1974. In Petit, Philippe. Man on Wire. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2008. Print. ............................................ 106 Figure 5.3. Petit and Jean-Pierre hide beneath a trap while the guard is nearby.. ......... 110 iv LIST OF FIGURES, CONT. Figure 5.4 Jean-Louis and Albert “hide” behind a transparent tarp as a guard walks past.. ......................................................................... 110 Figure 5.5 Some of the original footage scenes are framed in a black circle characteristic of dream sequences... ..................................... 115 Figure 5.6 Original footage of the towers is presented in binocular vision, implying the personal viewpoint of Petit, even if he was not the source of the footage. ...................................................... 115 v 1 Chapter 1 An Introduction When graphic novelist Art Spiegelman, who already mined the depths of his second- generation Holocaust trauma in Maus, sat down to capture his direct traumatic experience of the terrorists’ attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he knew that its effects would transcend his own experience. Unlike the incredibly personal and relatively coherent narrative structure of Maus, Spiegelman’s 9/11 graphic novel became an eclectic, disjointed mix of personal experience, political criticism, and chronological juxtaposition. Ultimately, its structure mirrors the loss of meaning and structure felt by Americans in the wake of the attacks and Americans’ frantic attempts at finding a way to restore them. The doubled feeling of loss— the physical absence of the towers and the psychological trauma embodied in their absence—is perfectly captured in his final title: In the Shadow of No Towers. The original cover of the graphic novel, featuring the shadowy specter of the towers, black on black, reveals Spiegelman’s foresight that this absence would be the dominant image to emerge in regard to the discussion of 9/11 trauma. A diptych of Richard Drew’s AP photographs of 9/11 and its aftermath composed for Yahoo News (Fig. 1.1) is the perfect microcosm for the transformation of space at the core of the discussion.