Paper snow. Last weekend when everyone seemed to be talking about their memories of 9/11, the thing that came to mind for me was paper snow, the most vivid of blue skies, and just an odd collection of snippets as opposed to any linear memory. For me, the day started off with a trip to the old Princeton hospital with my mom, who wanted company when she went for an ultrasound. On the way back, we were startled by a low-flying plane that appeared to be banking sharply and both of us commented it looked like it was about to crash. We later realized that was United 175, which turned over northwest Mercer County before hitting the second WTC building. Later on, I was in my driveway when I saw the paper snow. A piece of paper hit me and, thinking it was a bug, I swatted at it and then noticed small pieces of paper and ash slowly flying by overhead. The piece that hit me was on the ground, it was a small three-inch piece of charred claim form for Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, which had offices on the 27th floor of the building hit by United 175. Thankfully, I lost no one in the attacks, yet each year at this time I am reminded of the paper snow and United 175.
This year’s 20th Anniversary saw a slew of new documentaries show up on streaming services and TV (
Decider has a review of almost all of the new ones from this year). But the event has a legacy in media that stretches back two decades. While those of us who were living on the east coast at the time probably remember the overloaded cell phone circuits and news pages crashing all over the internet, the fact that we were into the internet age at the time made for a lot of footage and first-person reporting. In addition to the raw footage from that day, 9/11 has shown up in 20 years of music, books, and movies that either relate directly to the event or reference it in some way. The following is a sampling of titles from the past two decades.
In music, it should come as no surprise that New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band released an album of songs almost entirely about 9/11 with
The Rising. Many of the songs featured cover the loss of a loved one from the point of view of a surviving family member, be it the wife of a firefighter or the child of an office worker. The album was released in June 2002 and was the first studio recording from the whole band in 18 years. Other popular artists that had 9/11-inspired songs of the time include Coldplay’s “
Politik,” Sarah McLachlan’s “
World on Fire,” and Toby Keith’s “
My List.” The tenth anniversary saw another set of songs released, including Imagine Dragon’s “
America” and John Hiatt’s “
When New York Had Her Heart Broke.” If you are interested in crafting a playlist,
Wikipedia has a list of songs related to the 9/11 attacks and resulting 20-year war on terror.
When it comes to movies, Spike Lee’s
25th Hour has been tabbed by
Rolling Stone and The New York Times as the essential movie, but not for how it portrays the event. Instead, the movie was able to use New York during the fall of 2001 as the backdrop to the story of a drug dealer’s last day of freedom before heading off to prison. Based on a book by David Benioff, the movie had started production just weeks before 9/11 and Lee did not shy away from using the city as it was, with scenes shot in front of posters of missing loved ones, Bin Laden wanted posters, and even a hotel scene overlooking Ground Zero. Another film that deals directly with the events of the day is
World Trade Center, which is based on the true story of Port Authority police officers that were trapped and rescued from the rubble. Moving beyond New York is the film
United 93, which features the story of the passengers of the last plane hijacked, the United flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after those passengers stormed the cockpit to take back the plane. The IMDB has
a full list of movies and TV shows tagged as relating to 9/11 if you wish to review more titles to watch.
Books offer a much more diverse look at 9/11, with plenty of non-fiction books that have filled shelves on the subject, covering everything from the official government report to biographies of the key figures. Perhaps the most comprehensive book on the subject so far is from Boston Globe reporter Mitchell Zuckoff, who covered the story for the paper from day one and continued over the next few years to profile victims and detail the evolving investigation into the attacks.
Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 is the culmination of his work.
Amani Al-Khatahtbeh tells her story of growing up Muslim in post-9/11 America. The founder of
muslimgirl.com, Al-Khatahtbeh explores not only her personal experience with Islamophobia, but how the overall political climate in the United States has been shaped by the reaction to 9/11. In fiction, Jonathan Safran Foer’s
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was both a best seller and made into a movie starring Tom Hanks. The story follows nine-year-old Oskar as he unravels a mystery left by the father he lost on 9/11. Ian McEwan’s
Saturday also takes place post-9/11, taking the reader to London where we follow a day in the life of Henry Perowne, a neurosurgeon who encounters a low-flying plane that triggers a series of experiences that echo life in the first few years following the attacks and war on terror. Lastly, if you are looking for children’s books on the subject,
NPR recently published a list of titles to help teach kids about 9/11.
If you are interested in learning more about the 9/11 events in general, three sites worth spending time on are the
9/11 Memorial and Museum,
the National Museum of American History, and the 9/11 education page maintained by the
Council on Foreign Relations. All three pages feature detailed information about the 9/11 attacks and have a rich collection of photographs and stories from the time. The CFR site also includes scholarly articles and reviews or various types of media that go beyond what I have been able to include in this post.
- by Laura Nawrocik, Information Technology
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