Today is the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I know that not all of you who read are in the U.S., but still, it’s vital that none of us who are decent people forget the scope of disaster that a few, evil people can cause–anywhere in the world. It’s not about religion, it’s not about politics, it’s about the acknowledgment that humans should try to work together, not tear each other apart, even when they disagree.
So, feeling my way to a question here … Terrorists aren’t just movie villains any more. Do real-world catastrophes such as 9/11 (and the bombs in Madrid, and the ones in London, and the war in Darfur, and … really, all the human-driven, mass loss-of-life events) affect what you choose to read? Personally, I used to enjoy reading Tom Clancy, but haven’t been able to stomach his fight-terrorist kinds of books since.
And, does the reality of that kind of heartless, vicious attack–which happen on smaller scales ALL the time–change the way you feel about villains in the books you read? Are they scarier? Or more two-dimensional and cookie-cutter in the face of the things you see on the news?
I would have to say that no, the 9-11 catastrophe and other ones like it don't really affect what I choose to read. Most of the books I read are not in this genre where terrorists and/or other such real-life scary villians reside. But if I did read something along this line, I do think it would make it scarier to me, just because I would know that it really could happen and people that can do stuff like that really do exist.
All these awful world events do make books like The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns much more powerful though. They hit home all the harder.
Yes, they hit home. They ought to.
ReplyDeleteVillainy is not the right word