On Franzen

There’s been a lot of press lately about Jonathan Franzen’s latest book. Oprah, NPR, Time. All that and more.

There’s liberals, and then there’s real liberals. Franzen (admittedly) falls in the later category.

I caught a snippet of a broadcast yesterday on my way home from the grocery store. I hate it when I have to turn off the radio but sometimes I get so offended or so irritated my only recourse is to click it off. I think it was both yesterday. There was a moment (40,33) when Franzen mentioned 9/11 and referred to it as a “terrible, terrible disaster . . . attack.”

Really? 9/11 was a disaster? No, it was nothing of the sort. It was a terrorist attack. Franzen’s slip of the tongue belies the incredible power of words and how they shape our view of the world. For a person to view 9/11 fundamentally as a disaster, first, and as an attack as an afterthought shows how far we have come and how far we have to go in the battle for ideology.

Don’t listen to the interview. It’ll just make you mad. Take my word for it.