The Novel and September 11:
June 4th, 2002
Speaking of not being able to find the words, Martin Amis writes about the novel in the post-September 11 world:
An unusual number of novelists chose to write some journalism about September 11 – as many journalists more or less tolerantly noted. I can tell you what those novelists were doing: they were playing for time. The so-called work in progress had been reduced, overnight, to a blue streak of pitiable babble.
Link via Marginalia. Bill must be on a literary bender, because he’s also got a link to an interview with programmer-turned-journalist-and-novelist, Ellen Ullman.