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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

EXPLODING NARRATIVES: THE LITERATURE OF
TERRORISM IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA

By

STACEY A. SUVER

A Thesis submitted to the
Department oI English
in partial IulIillment oI the
requirements Ior the degree oI
Master oI Arts



Degree Awarded:
Summer Semester, 2008













ii
The members oI the Committee approve the thesis oI Stacey A. Suver deIended on
March 21, 2008.


Barry Faulk
ProIessor Directing Thesis




Andrew Epstein
Committee Member




Amit Rai
Committee Member








Approved:



Ralph Berry, Chair, Department oI English




Joseph Travis, Dean, College oI Arts and Sciences




The OIIice oI Graduate Studies has veriIied and approved the above named committee
members.


iii
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my major proIessor, Dr. Barry Faulk, Ior all oI his time, patience
and invaluable assistance in bring this project to Iruition. Additionally, I would like to
thank Dr. Andrew Epstein and Dr. Amit Rai Ior serving on my thesis committee and Ior
their much appreciated insight into the extent oI terrorism`s role in literature. I would
also like to thank David Gilmore, Charlie Parker, and Ronnie James Dio Ior the late night
company during the writing process.
























iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS


ABSTRACT...............................v


INTRODUCTION:
Literary Terrorism: Terror, Narrative, and the Written Word.............1


CHAPTER ONE:
Changing Perspectives: Reading Mao II AIter September 11............10


CHAPTER TWO:
'The Fruit Loops and Batshit Bomb: Playing with Power in
Robbins` Still Life with Woodpecker....................21


CHAPTER THREE:
'The Sky is Thin as Paper Here: Literature, Experimentation, and
Terrorism in Burroughs` Cities of the Red Night.................28


CHAPTER FOUR:
Postscript: (Re)Actions to September 11 and Written Terrorism in
Recent Works by DeLillo, Updike, and Baraka................41


CONCLUSION:
Expressing the IneIIable: Terror, Violence, and AItermath.............55


REFERENCES..............................59


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH........................62








v
ABSTRACT

This thesis addresses the relationship between American literature and terrorism
in works written during the last two decades oI the Twentieth Century. Don DeLillo and
Tom Robbins have each written novels that explore the relationship between writers and
terrorists and address the consequences oI an exchange oI power between novelists and
terrorists. William S. Burroughs adopts terrorism`s methods in order to attack and
redeIine the conventions oI the novel. Following the September 11 terror attacks, several
writers responded with texts that strive in one way or another to contextualize the attacks
in a way that is culturally relevant. Essentially, this thesis demonstrates that literature`s
relationship to terrorism is more complicated than generally acknowledged. There is Iar
more involved than novelists telling simple stories about terrorist organizations and
describing their neIarious actions.

1
INTRODUCTION

LITERARY TERRORISM: TERROR, NARRATIVE, AND THE
WRITTEN WORD

These are the instruments with which thev rotate and control units
of thought.
William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine

Terror is mv constant emotion. I deal in terror. I buv it, sell it, and
make a profit.
Bob Dylan


In the years since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it has become
impossible to discuss terrorism and terrorist discourse without placing them in the context
oI a post-9/11 world. The events oI 11 September 2001 irrevocably changed the Iocus
and Ilow oI the dialogue about terrorism. No longer is terrorism a vague, ominous threat
aIIecting other parts oI the world and only endangering Americans traveling on Ioreign
soil. The conversation now consists oI airplanes Ilown at low altitudes into Manhattan
skyscrapers, American citizens covered in white dust, walking across the Brooklyn
Bridge, and a smoking hole in one side oI the Pentagon. While terrorism discourse has
new and horriIic images to replay and metaphors to deconstruct and analyze, what it
lacks is a Iace, an identiIiable Iigure to point to and say, 'This is the enemy. Saddam
Hussein is no longer a threat and Osama bin Laden has been largely Iorgotten. What
remains are maddeningly Iaceless individuals waving machine guns on television. As a
result, the United States has declared war, not on terrorists, but on terrorism and terror
itselI.
Strategically the target oI a terrorist attack is chosen Ior very diIIerent reasons
than the target oI a military strike; they serve diIIerent purposes. Targeting a chemical
weapons manuIacturing plant, an airIield, or a railroad overpass make sense militarily
because the success oI these actions can potentially have a direct and immediate impact
on the course oI the entire war. Terrorism is meant to have much more oI an indirect
eIIect. Exploding a bomb in a crowded market on a Sunday aIternoon is not likely to

2
inIluence the outcome oI a war in any quantiIiable or measurable way. The purpose oI an
action such as this is to demoralize the enemy.
At its core, terrorism is discourse. It is a method oI shaping the thoughts and
emotions oI its audience. It is communication between the perpetrator oI the act and the
audience oI the act. The act itselI conveys the message. Just like any eIIective Iorm oI
communication the message must have an originator capable oI constructing the message,
a medium capable oI conveying the message, and a receiver capable oI interpreting the
message. The terrorist with his careIully craIted plan becomes the message`s originator,
and the explosives, his body, the low Ilying plane, etc. become his tools oI composition.
The message`s medium is violence, Iear, and the threat oI a reoccurrence oI the violence.
The receiver oI the message is the spectator, not the victim or participant. In Iact, the
dead and wounded are a part oI the message itselI. The audience Ior a majority oI
terrorist attacksindeed, maybe all terrorist attacksis not limited to those who
personally witness the act, but is designed to include the media as well. Terrorism`s
theatricality lends itselI to this.
The relationship between terrorism and the media has been well documented and
Irequently discussed. Since terrorism requires that its actions receive attention to be
eIIective, and since the larger the audience the more eIIective the terrorism, television,
the evening news, and internet news sites are ideal vehicles Ior providing a terrorist event
with maximum exposure. This relationship isn`t entirely one-sided. Because oI the 'iI it
bleeds, it leads school oI news reporting, the media is guaranteed strong ratings with
each new terrorist attack. Ted Koppel, who made his name during the Iran Hostage aIIair
oI the 1980`s, said, 'Without television, terrorism becomes rather like the philosopher`s
hypothetical tree Ialling in the Iorest: no one hears it Iall and thereIore it has no reason
Ior being. And television, without terrorism, while not deprived oI all interesting things
in the world, is nonetheless deprived oI one oI the most interesting (Zulaika and
Douglass 7).
Frank Lentricchia and Jody McAuliIIe, in their book Crimes of Art and Terror,
reIer to the events oI September 11 as 'Terrorism Ior the camera and write that 'Thanks
to the presence oI the camera, which guaranteed a vast audience, this act oI perIormance
means something (6, 14). Their implication is that without the presence oI the media the

3
message oI the attacks would not have been successIully communicated to the American
people and the hijackers` actions would be considered nothing more than meaningless
violence. This sentiment is supported by Margaret Scanlan when she writes in Plotting
Terror that 'Terrorists succeed when they seize headlines (5). It may be possible to
inIluence several hundred or even a couple thousand people in any given area through an
act oI localized terrorism, but in order to reach and aIIect an entire nation, the presence oI
the media is absolutely necessary. Scanlan points out that it only took three years
between 'the world`s Iirst live global television broadcast, the moon landing oI 1969, to
the Iirst global terrorist broadcast, the 1972 Olympic hostage situation (12).
In Terror and Taboo, Joseba Zulaika and William Douglass argue that simply by
reporting the occurrence oI terrorist events the media perIorms a large portion oI the
terrorists` job Ior them. They state, 'The media`s decisions regarding what constitutes
news determine to a great extent the public`s perception oI the Iacts and the threat they
pose (7). Part oI terrorism`s purpose is to unnerve and unsettle its audience through the
randomness oI the event: it could happen again, at any time. Even though the chances oI
Iinding oneselI directly involved in a terrorist attack are relatively slim, even in a post
9/11 world, terrorism continuously dominates the headlines. Zulaika and Douglass point
out that 'Between 1974 and 1994two decades in which terrorism loomed large as a
threatmore people died in the United States oI bee stings (6). Approximately 3,000
people died as a direct result oI the September 11 attacks; in comparison, there were over
17,000 alcohol-related traIIic Iatalities in the United States that same year. Only a small
handIul oI Americans have been killed through terrorist attacks since 9/11. The public`s
condition oI constant terror and Iear is perpetrated not by the terrorists or by terrorist
activity but by the media`s representation oI that activity.
1

Scanlan quotes N.C. Livingstone`s arguments comparing terrorism to a well-
conceived television program. It is 'relatively concise, dramatic, and not so complex as
to be unintelligible to those who tune in only brieIly . . . terrorism is so ideally suited to

1
Zulaika and Douglass make the case that this is only possible in societies with a certain amount oI
Ireedom oI the press: 'in its modern guise |terrorism| is a discourse unique to the western democracies and
the dictatorships within their spheres oI interest |.| Prior to the collapse oI the Soviet Union, systematic
censorship oI the news in the Eastern Bloc countries made it impossible to create the synergism between
perpetrator, victim, and audience that produces the phenomenon we are calling terrorism discourse (21).

4
television that the medium would have invented the phenomenon iI it had not already
existed` (13).
For the audience to be able to interpret the terrorists` communication, the message
must be composed oI symbols the receiver is likely to understand. The terrorist statement
is communicated entirely in the symbolic realm; its method may be violence and its
medium may be death, but its message is conveyed through symbols. The terrorist`s
target itselI is unimportant; it`s what the target represents that matters. The victim oI the
terrorist act is not the terrorist`s intended audience anymore than the Ians at a Iootball
stadium are the intended audience oI a live television broadcast oI the game. Zulaika and
Douglass write: 'Assassination can . . . be seen as murder that achieves its ends through
the act itselI, whereas terrorist murders have an ulterior purpose (147). Take Ior
example the cliche oI an old gangster movie: iI a mobster kidnaps the sister oI his rival, it
means something; iI that same mobster targets his rival`s dentist, the act is meaningless.
By Ilying the planes into the World Trade Center, the message was clear to the world that
the hijackers were attacking the economic heart oI America.
2
Everything about the
attacks was symbolically potent: the targets, the date, even the names oI the airlines
whose planes were hijacked.
3
II those same planes had been Ilown into the New York
Public Library, a Taco Bell, and the Bronx Zoo, that message would have been lost and
the violence would appear meaningless and random. For terrorism to make sense there
has to be a context; remove the context and the act is simply irrational violence. The
targets need not have military signiIicance. The only requirement Ior a target to be viable
as the Iocus oI an attack is that it resonate symbolically with the survivors/audience.
Terrorism has less to do with the victim and more to do with the spectators.
Osama bin Laden is quoted as saying in an interview in The Observer during the months
Iollowing the attacks that, 'The 11 September attacks were not targeted at women and
children. The real targets were America`s icons oI military and economic power.
Despite bin Laden`s claims as to the actual nature oI the World Trade Center attacks, the

2
Al-Qaeda`s Iormer operations chieI and one oI the men responsible Ior planning the September 11
attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, conIirmed this to his interrogators: 'We were looking Ior symbols oI
economic might . . . We talked about hitting CaliIornia as it was America`s richest state and Bin Laden had
talked about economic targets (Lamb 1).
3
9/11 is oI course the number to dial Ior emergency help, and the names oI the planes were United Airlines
and American Airlines.

5
Bush Administration had its own interpretation oI the event`s message: 'Ior US Secretary
oI State Colin Powell, It wasn`t an assault on America. It was an assault on civilization,
it was an assault on democracy`, and on the twenty Iirst century` itselI (Houen 4).
President Bush, speaking on the day oI the attacks, stated that 'Freedom itselI was
attacked this morning by a Iaceless coward, and Ireedom will be deIended (Ackman).
The tendency to slip into hyperbole was not limited to the administration. 'Let us recall
that Ior most oI us, write Lentricchia and McAuliIIe, 'the very greatest majority oI us
the thousands slaughtered are abstract. We have no personal connections with them. We
never really did, or ever really will, grieve Ior them, though we may think we do so in the
world made by Oprah, where human beings assume God`s role oI Ieeling everybody`s
pain (5). The events oI 9/11 were too big to be accepted in any concrete way; they
could only be understood as metaphor.
Comparing the narrative properties oI terrorism to the conventions oI literature is
a process that is very likely as old as the word 'terrorism itselI. JeIIory Clymer, in his
analysis oI the relationship between terrorism and the written word in the United States
during the late nineteenth century, Americas Culture of Terrorism, relates an anecdote
concerning William Dean Howells` The Rise of Silas Lapham. According to Clymer,
Howells was pressured by his editor to substitute the phrase 'oIIering personal violence
in place oI a passage where one oI his characters admits to the secret desire oI 'applying
dynamite to a row oI upper class houses. Apparently Howells` editor was worried that
the simple act oI mentioning the word 'dynamite in a piece oI Iiction would indelibly
connect Howells to those who would use the explosive as a weapon oI terror (1). The
editor was concerned that the authorities and possibly the public would not be able to
separate the work oI a writer Irom the work oI a terrorist; aIter all, the two modes oI
communication operate according to the same principles. According to Clymer, 'The
very Iorm and logic oI terrorist actions proceed according to a linguistic model. Terrorist
violence is generally metonymic (16). Zulaika and Douglass agree with this assessment,
arguing:
Terrorism is an event, a news story, a social drama, a narrative. It is a
genre oI emplotted` action in which narrative sequence is a moral and
discursive construct, and in which the event is not what happens. The

6
event is that which can be narrated.` The initial problem that the writer |or
terrorist| must conIront, as is the case with any storyteller or historian, is
selection oI the narrative Iorm in which to plot the events and the
arguments. (65)
According to this argument, terrorism Iunctions in a manner similar to literature, only
their mediums are disparate: one works in violence and death, the other in ink and paper.
Lentricchia and McAuliIIe also insist on the literariness oI terrorism. Discussing 9/11
they write:
There were authors (bin Laden, Atta, etc.); there was plota structure oI
events with deep narrative inevitability; there were thousands oI
charactersbut with no choice in turning down the role, with no
knowledge that they`d been cast to die. And there was an audience with
no choice but to experience terrorist narrative once that narrative Iound its
true medium oI communication, the media without which terrorist art is
ineIIective and which complicitously completes its totalitarian trajectory:
to saturate consciousness in the United States with the thought oI terror,
with no sanctuary leIt Ior the blessed banalities oI ordinary liIe. (14)
Anthony Kubiak, in his article 'Spelling It Out: Narrative Typologies oI Terror,
identiIies three distinct types oI written terrorist discourse. The Iirst oI these types
consists oI the written and videotaped statements Irom the terrorist groups themselves,
'which set out to explicate the ideological ground oI terrorist acts (295). In this Iirst
group, Kubiak includes the writings oI 'Al Qaeda, the Baader-MeinhoI group, |and|
terrorist-anarchists like Sergey Nechaev (295). Curiously, he ignores the most well-
known terrorist maniIesto in recent memory, Industrial Societv and Its Future, the
writings oI the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, which was printed in both the New York
Times and Washington Post.
4
In regards to this Iirst type oI discourse, Kubiak writes,
'We might easily reject this type oI narrative as the most simplistic sort, were it not Ior
the supplementary narrative that this type oI writing in turn engendersthe terrorist act

4
Jesse Kavadlo illustrates this type oI literary terrorism by arguing that the Unibomber was apprehended
through 'literary criticism. Apparently Kaczynski`s brother recognized the writing published by the
Times and Post. Kavadlo writes, 'The terrorist, acting as writer, was uncovered not through bombs but
through words (76).

7
itselI (296). These written statements provide context Ior the act that they accompany.
Kubiak considers the second type oI terrorist discourse to be writings about terrorism.
This is the type most Irequently addressed by critics. Kubiak argues that this includes
'any Iorm oI literary discourse that sets out to explore the motives and ideas behind the
sociopolitical and psychic act oI terrorism (296). This type oI discourse covers a lot oI
material; it encompasses both Iictional accounts oI terrorism, which includes Joseph
Conrad`s The Secret Agent and bestselling techno-thrillers by Tom Clancy and Robert
Ludlum, as well as criticism about those narratives. Also covered are works oI nonIiction,
such as Zulaika and Douglass` Terror and Taboo, which analyze the very real causes oI
and reactions to acts oI terrorism. The Iinal example oI terrorist discourse consists oI
'terrorist novels |that| Ilirt with the edges oI narrative stability (297). Kubiak labels this
type 'narrative terrorism, under which he includes 'attempts to destabilize narrativity
itselIdisrupting linearity, temporality, plot, character or whatever conventions may be
regarded as essential to the productions oI stories, memories, dramas, or histories (297).
According to Kubiak`s deIinition, the entire movement oI postmodernism could
potentially be labeled narrative terrorism. He includes as examples oI writers oI this type
Robert Coover, Donald Barthelme, William Burroughs, and Hunter S. Thompson.
While the Iirst oI Kubiak`s 'terrorist narrative types is quite simply terrorist
literature, a rather salient Iorm oI propaganda, the second and third types are Iorms oI
literary terrorism. As explained by Lentricchia and McAuliIIe, literary terrorism is a type
oI literature that attempts to shake up the 'social design oI the culture through violent
attacks on, what DeLillo calls, the 'inner liIe oI the culture (18). This is diIIerent than
merely commenting on or reporting the status oI that culture`s inner liIe. Literary
terrorism attempts to aIIect a change in it.
For the purposes oI this thesis, I work with a modiIied version oI Kubiak`s three
classiIications oI written terrorism. Skipping over Kubiak`s Iirst category Ior the
moment, I begin with his second, which is writing about terrorism. Don DeLillo and
Tom Robbins have both written works that explore the relationship between writers and
terrorists. I look at the manner in which these two authors address the consequences oI a
power exchange between novelists and terrorists. DeLillo, in Mao II, depicts this
exchange directly and his protagonist, Bill Gray, seeks to reclaim the cultural currency,

8
which he believes was usurped by the 'midair explosions and crumbled buildings oI
terrorist attacks (DeLillo 157). Robbins` Still Life with Woodpecker takes more oI a
postmodern approach to the issue. What he gives us is a meta-narrator glimpsed in the
process oI craIting a narrative involving the cultural machinations oI a terrorist. Both oI
these novels consider the responsibility oI the media in Iacilitating the spread oI terrorism
and address the conIlict between individual identity and the will oI group consciousness.
In the mid-seventies, William S. Burroughs pioneered the use oI the experimental
cut-up technique to create a new type oI writing that collapses linear narrativity in Iavor
oI associative narrativity. The beginning oI the eighties saw, what many believed to be
Burroughs` return to traditional Iorms oI composition. However, this return to the old
style is in reality a Iorm oI hybrid writing in which he combined the traditional narrative
with a careIul selection oI his cut-up experiments. This blending oI styles allows
Burroughs to continue his aggressive attacks on language and the conventions oI
literature by sidestepping the limitations inherent in the two Iorms oI writing seperately.
I explore Burroughs` reasons Ior this in my third chapter, and I also analyze the process
he employs to achieve the desired results. This chapter also corresponds to Kubiak`s
third type oI written terrorism.
In the concluding chapter oI this thesis I look at the eIIect the September 11
attacks have had on literature. SpeciIically, I address the literary responses oI DeLillo,
Amiri Baraka, and John Updike to the Iall oI the World Trade towers. The themes
discussed in Mao II seem to have come to Iruition in DeLillo`s latest work. Falling Man
appears insuIIicient in the Iace oI 9/11`s overwhelming narrative oI 'midair explosions
and crumbled buildings. Both DeLillo and Updike`s novels are unsuccessIul in their
attempt to contextualize the attacks in a way that is culturally relevant. DeLillo devotes
his entire novel to the aItermath oI the towers` collapse and the psychological eIIects on a
survivor and his Iamily. However, even this approach seems ineIIectual when it comes to
responding to the attacks creatively. Updike`s Terrorist investigates the motivation oI an
American born terrorist and the urge toward violence on a grand scale. Baraka`s poem,
'Somebody Blew up America, is a more successIul response than either DeLillo`s or
Updike`s novel. The poem became notorious Ior appearing to blame Israel and George
W. Bush Ior the attacks, and this controversy and the governmental censure that Iollowed

9
are part oI the reason the poem works so well. The classiIication oI terrorist writing I
explore in this chapter is markedly diIIerent than the one established by Kubiak in his
Iirst category. I disregard this category and replace it with one oI my own that closely
corresponds with the other two categories and Iits within Lentricchia and McAuliIIe`s
deIinition oI literary terrorism. I demonstrate that the intention behind the composition oI
some works oI literature is Ior them to Iunction as a violent attack on the Ioundations oI
culture in a manner identical to that oI a terrorist act. Baraka`s poem threatens and
assaults the reader, Iorcing them into the same realms oI terror and intimidation
experienced by the audience oI a terrorist event. In this chapter I argue that despite the
diIIerence between the methods oI narrativity delivered by this type oI literature and by
acts oI terrorism, the eIIects on those who witness the explosions or read the words are
the same. The two types oI phenomena are understood on a symbolic level and
experienced identically.
Essentially, this thesis will demonstrate that literature`s relationship to terrorism is
more complicated than generally acknowledged. There is Iar more involved than
novelists telling simple stories about terrorist organizations and describing their neIarious
actions. These novelists describe the eIIect oI terrorism on themselves as writers and on
their status as agents oI change in society. And whether their objective is shake up
literature and break Iree oI its limitations, as with Burroughs, or whether the target oI
their attack is culture itselI, some writers have become the terrorists.












10
CHAPTER 1

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES: READING MAO II AFTER SEPTEMBER 11

I learned to speak a new language and soon
mastered the special elements of that tongue.
Don DeLillo, Americana

In his 2006 critical survey oI Don DeLillo`s published works, Don DeLillo. The
Possibilitv of Fiction, Peter Boxall writes that,
It is diIIicult to remember or imagine how one read Mao II beIore the
terrorist attacks that occurred in New York, Washington and Pittsburgh on
September 11, 2001 . . . The novel has been altered by the Iuture that it
seems somehow to intuit. It has become bent, as iI we can see it reIracted
only through the curiously distorting emptiness that haunts the new
Manhattan Skyline. (157)
It is impossible to read Mao II with pre-9/11 eyes. DeLillo includes speciIic details that
seem to be inspired by an act oI terrorism which occurs almost ten years aIter the book`s
publication. In addition to including a line about smuggling a kniIe past the 'security at
three airports and the chilling comment comparing the work oI Samuel Beckett to
'midair explosions and crumbled buildings, DeLillo`s mention oI the two towers oI the
World Trade Center takes on a greater signiIicance (123;157). He seems to anticipate
what Baudrillard asserts in his collection oI essays published on the Iirst anniversary oI
September 11. In The Spirit of Terrorism, Baudrillard argues that the Twin Towers have
a symbolic importance that outweighs their physical importance. For DeLillo`s
characters, as well as, Baudrillard argues, the September 11 hijackers, the towers aren`t
simply structures made oI steel and glass; in addition to their status as a 'physical,
architectural object, the towers also Iunction as a symbol oI 'Iinancial power and global
economic liberalism (43-4). Buadrillard posits that the towers were designed to be
destroyed. They collapsed under the weight oI their own symbolism. The towers, in both
Mao II and the September 11 attacks, don`t represent America, as George W. Bush
claims. Instead they symbolize a supplanting oI the human element by mindless,

11
economic wealth. Their existence represented a global shiIt Irom traditional political
power to economic power, a transIerence only completed by the manner oI their death.
As Baudrillard points out, iI the towers hadn`t Iallen, or iI only one had crumbled, 'the
eIIect would not have been the same at all (43). The symbolism embodied by the towers
was legitimized and given permanency because oI their destruction. Baudrillard writes,
'The architectural object was destroyed, but it was the symbolic object which was
targeted and which it was intended to demolish (44).
It becomes apparent, when one reads Mao II aIter September 11, 2001, that
DeLillo is aware oI the nature oI the buildings, and consequently, he seems to be warning
us oI the inevitability oI the towers` collapse. While in Tokyo Brita Nilsson sees the
World Trade Center reproduced on canvas. The painting, called Skvscraper III, depicts
the towers Irom the same angle she sees Irom her window. The towers represent
something dark and ominous Ior Brita, 'These were her towers, standing windowless,
two black latex slabs that consumed the available space (165). She dismisses any
thought oI their beauty ('You mean they interact. There is a play oI light) and scoIIs
when Bill Gray mentions this during their Iirst conversation together (40). She tells him
that her complaint about the towers is 'only partly size. The size is deadly. But having
two oI them is like a comment, it`s like a dialogue, only I don`t know what they`re
saying (40). Scott Martineau experiences a similar sensation when he looks out oI
Brita`s apartment window and sees the towers: 'the Trade towers stood cut against the
night, intensely massed and near. This is the word loomed` in all its prolonged and
impending Iorce (87). Brita and Scott see the towers as an invasive presence, one which
is removing the intimacy and humanity Irom lower Manhattan.
Just as the Twin Towers oI the World Trade Center were re-contextualized as a
result oI the September 11 attacks, so too was DeLillo`s novel. As Boxall argues, Mao
II`s narrative, the very 'meaning oI the work, has been reshaped and rewritten: 'the
novel reads now as iI it is preparing, in advance, a way oI reading and articulating
September 11; 'it has become a very diIIerent work Irom the one that was published
(157). When it was read in 1991, the novel was seen as commentary on the rising
importance oI terrorists in our culture and as a warning that terrorism`s narratives would
soon replace writer`s narratives. II one applies Baudrillard`s argument that the towers

12
were built to be destroyed to Mao II, one arrives at a similar conclusion: the book was
written to be replaced. DeLillo`s work Ialls subject to the same issue that it Iormerly
warned against, the terrorist`s supplanting oI the writer`s symbolic place in society. In
what is easily the most quoted passage in Mao II, Bill Gray worries that terrorists have
replaced writers as shapers oI cultural consciousness: 'Years ago I used to think it was
possible Ior a novelist to alter the inner liIe oI the culture. Now bomb-makers and
gunmen have taken that territory. They make raids on human consciousness. What
writers used to do beIore we were all incorporated (41). This is exactly what has
happened to Mao II: DeLillo`s claim to authorship oI the narrative has been preempted by
the architects oI the September 11 attacks.
Critics such as Jesse Kavadlo and David Cowart argue against what Kavadlo
labels the 'terrorist ascendancy / authorial waning in DeLillo`s work (77). Kavadlo
argues that terrorists and novelists have both lost the ability to shape the consciousness oI
the culture 'to the oppressive combination oI the media, authorial Iixation, and
transnational capitalism, which together degrade the human body and spirit. In DeLillo`s
world, there are no raids on human consciousness. What is worse, there may no longer
be a human consciousness leIt to raid (72). The thrust oI Kavadlo`s argument rests on
the similarities between DeLillo`s presentation oI Bill Gray and Abu Rashid, the terrorist
leader. The divisions between them, Kavadlo claims, are 'illusion, and both the terrorist
and the novelist are subject to manipulation by the media, 'really, the terrorist and artist
are both playing their parts, diIIerent cogs in the same media machine where image
trumps even the reality oI dead bodies (85; 78). This is where Kavadlo`s argument
Ialters. While it is true that the media is able to manipulate and control the image oI the
novelist, the terrorist is able to control the media, or at least able to pass through the
media`s Iilters intact enough to exert some inIluence over the culture. Essentially,
terrorism`s entire existence is predicated on its ability to manipulate the media. The
media is the method DeLillo uses to illustrate the imbalance between the power wielded
over cultural consciousness by Bill and Rashid.
Mao II demonstrates the redistribution oI power in a very precise manner: Iirst by
establishing oppositions, speciIically crowd versus individual and novelist versus terrorist,
and then demonstrating that an imbalance exists between them. These oppositions are

13
established early in the novel. During the drive Irom New York to Bill`s secluded house
with Scott, Brita announces that, 'I Ieel as iI I`m being taken to see some terrorist chieI at
his secret retreat in the mountains (27). Aside Irom associating Bill with terrorists
(Scott`s response is 'Tell Bill. He`ll love that.), the exchange also alludes to a duplicate
scene at the end oI the novel when Brita is indeed on her way to photograph a terrorist
chieI, Abu Rashid, in Beirut. Both passages Ieature similar conversations about what
ultimately happens to photographs oI authors and terrorists. Brita admits to Scott that her
'census in still pictures oI writers will probably end up on display in a gallery (25). The
cab driver in Beirut inIorms her that 'a pair oI local militias are Iiring at portraits oI each
other`s leader which are hung on walls and displayed in vendors` stalls around the area
(227).
During the photo shoot, Bill conIronts Brita about the reason she photographs
only writers: 'This is why you travel a million miles photographing writers. Because
we`re giving way to terror, to news oI terror, to tape recorders and cameras, to radios, to
bombs stashed in radios . . . But you`re smart to trap us in your camera beIore we
disappear (42). This is exactly what she conIessed to Scott earlier, that she photographs
writers the same way she would document an endangered animal: 'For me, it`s a Iorm oI
knowledge and memory. I`m Iurnishing my own kind oI witness . . . I`m simply doing a
record. A species count (25-6). This is something Bill intuitively realizes himselI and is
the reason he agrees to sit Ior the photographs. He tells her,
Something about the occasion makes me think I`m at my own wake.
Sitting Ior a picture is morbid business. A portrait doesn`t begin to mean
anything until the subject is dead. This is the whole point. We`re doing
this to create a kind oI sentimental past Ior people in the decades to come.
It`s their past, their history we`re inventing here . . . The deeper I pass into
death, the more powerIul my picture becomes. (42)
Although Bill believes that writers are losing their power to inIluence doesn`t mean that
he accepts it. Bill hopes that his pictures will be powerIul enough to help restore his
cultural relevancy. He compares himselI to God in this way: 'The writer who won`t
show his Iace is encroaching on holy turI. He`s playing God`s own trick (37). With the
dissemination oI his imagethe Iamous recluse Iinally reveals himselIhe hopes that

14
the eIIect will rejuvenate some oI his social inIluence. However, he realizes that this will
not be the case: 'I`ve become someone`s material. Yours, Brita. There`s liIe and there`s
the consumer event. Everything around us tends to channel our lives toward some Iinal
reality in print or on Iilm (43).
By the end oI the novel, Brita has abandoned her 'only writers project: 'It
stopped making sense. She takes assignments now, does the interesting things, barely
watched wars, children running in the dust. Writers stopped one day. She doesn`t know
how it happened but they came to a quiet end (230). By exchanging writers Ior
terrorists, she reinIorces Bill`s views that terrorists are replacing novelists. Her decision
to quit authors seems to declare an end to the culture`s need Ior authors and literature; by
documenting them and then abandoning them, she eIIectively retires them (Cowart 116).
Whereas Brita`s photographs oI Bill Gray serve to memorialize him, her photos oI
Abu Rashid Iunctionally legitimize him. Rashid beneIits Irom the exposure in the way
that Bill hoped to but never could. The photographs oI the terrorist announce his
presence to the world just as loudly as the kidnapped hostage announced it a year earlier.
Brita approaches the two photo shoots identically, even telling each man, 'You`re
dropping your chin (40; 234). The primary diIIerence between the two episodes is one
oI perspective. Bill Gray discusses the 'curious knot that binds novelists and terrorists
Irom the vantage point oI the one being leIt behind (41). Rashid, however, addresses the
power terrorists inherit Irom novelists with his eye on the Iuture, telling Brita through a
translator,
He is saying terror is what we use to give our people their place in the
world. What used to be achieved through work, we gain through terror.
Terror makes the new Iuture possible. All men one man. Men live in
history as never beIore. He is saying we make and change history minute
by minute. History is not the book or the human memory. We do history
in the morning and change it aIter lunch. (235)
When Brita mentions the hostage Irom the previous year, the man Bill Gray set out to get
released, Rashid dismissively tells her that he was sold to the Iundamentalists. The
hostage was no longer useIul and couldn`t guarantee media exposure the way Brita`s
pictures can.

15
When Bill Gray initially meets with his publisher, Charlie Everson, to discuss the
press conIerence and live televised hostage release media event, he is skeptical to say the
least: 'Sounds pretty Iucking Iishy to me (98). Like Bill, Charlie realizes that
contemporary culture has become indiIIerent to the existence oI writers; however, instead
oI depending on a handIul oI photographs, which may or may not ever see the light oI
day, to return authors to the public consciousness, Charlie has become involved with a
'high-minded committee on Iree expression (98). When the terrorists in Beirut realize
their hostage is a poet and contact Charlie`s group to negotiate a deal, Charlie organizes a
news conIerence during which the hostage will be released on live television. Not only
will this create exposure Ior the terrorists and Charlie`s group, but also Ior everyone
involved. Charlie tells Bill, 'There`s an excitement that attaches to your name and it will
help us put a mark on this event, Iorce people to talk about it and think about it long aIter
the speeches Iade . . . I want a ripple eIIect. Word will spread, Iollow-up stories will
appear, curiosity will build. I want our work to have a Iuture (99-100). The prospect oI
ensuring the Iuture oI the novelist`s viability is why Bill allows Charlie to convince him
to read some oI the hostage`s poems during the event. The irony is that in attempting to
regain his power to shape culture, Bill may end up strengthening terrorism`s hold on the
public consciousness. As Keesey notes, 'media coverage may or may not help to win the
poet`s release, but it will certainly publicize the terrorist group holding him, which would
make Bill complicit along with the media in magniIying the importance oI the terrorists
and spreading their inIluence over the globe (Keesey 190). His plan to read a Iew
poems on live television moves Bill out oI the realm oI the individual, the writer`s natural
arena, and into the realm oI crowds, which is where the terrorist operates. This is
something that DeLillo alludes to in the prelude oI Mao II, 'At Yankee Stadium, when
he writes, 'The Iuture belongs to crowds (16). Boxall expands upon this and states,
'The writer, perhaps, belongs to the past, to the singular, to the unique, to the authentic,
whereas the terrorist belongs to the Iuture, to the crowd, to the loss oI the very concept oI
the singular and the unique (164).
II the crowd is a target oI terrorism, then the media is one oI its weapons.
Whereas novelists reach their audience one by one, terrorists target entire populations
halI a world away through staged media events that emphasize terrorism`s theatricality.

16
George Haddad, the spokesman Ior Rashid`s terrorist organization, explains to Bill that
the publicity is as essential Ior terrorists as the taking oI hostages: 'Certainly they
understand that this man`s release depends completely on the coverage. His Ireedom is
tied to the public announcement oI his Ireedom. You can`t have the Iirst without the
second (129). Also, as Charlie explains, 'We know next to nothing about the group that
has him. The hostage is the only prooI they exist (98). The hostage is prooI the terrorist
group exists, and the news conIerence with live coverage oI the release is the only prooI
the hostage exists. The relationship between terrorists and the media is so well
established that some groups, like Rashid`s organization, 'issue press credentials (228).
The writer`s relationship with the media is not as benevolent as the terrorists`.
Bill distrusts the media, so much so that he has become a recluse in order to escape it.
Scott tells Brita during dinner that,
Bill has the idea that writers are being consumed by the emergence oI
news as an apocalyptic Iorce . . . The novel used to Ieed our search Ior
meaning . . . But our desperation has led us toward something larger and
darker. So we turn to the news, which provides an unremitting mood oI
catastrophe. This is where we Iind emotional experience not available
elsewhere. We don`t need the novel. Quoting Bill. We don`t even need
catastrophes, necessarily. We only need the reports and predictions and
warnings. (72)
The media`s power to create reality or provide prooI oI the existence oI reality is a power
that once Iell under the domain oI the writer. Novelists had that ability at one time, as
well as the power, to oIIer an interpretive narrative Ior that reality. Now, terrorists
provide the narrative and the news media broadcasts it, in eIIect publishing it and making
it real. Houen notes that 'terrorists have usurped novelists` impact by exploding through
the media. And while the media might bestow an aura oI Iame upon the novelist, it also
undermines the communicational eIIicacy oI the novel (424-5). As Bill comments to
George, 'What terrorists gain, novelists lose. The degree to which they inIluence mass
consciousness is the extent oI our decline as shapers oI sensibility and thought. The
danger they represent equals our own Iailure to be dangerous. Bill goes on to say,
'Beckett is the last writer to shape the way we think and see. AIter him, the major work

17
involves midair explosions and crumbled buildings. This is the new tragic narrative
(157).
AIter the press conIerence is delayed by bomb threats and canceled when an
explosion rocks the building, showering Bill with dust and glass, George convinces Bill
to travel to Beirut and take the hostage`s place: 'When Gray is persuaded to take the
poet`s place in order to bring the whole aIIair into the public gaze, the curious knot` that
binds novelists, terrorists, and mass media is tightened into a political noose (Houen
425). Bill realizes that the media cannot restore his power. By undertaking the journey
without involving the press and without the assistance oI Charlie`s organization, he
reenters the realm oI the individual. He decides to deny power over his existence to any
oI these groups (Keesey 191). Bill determines to Iacilitate the release oI the hostage
himselI, on his terms: 'he would eventually walk into the headquarters oI Abu Rashid
and tell them who he was. Bill has never walked into a place and told them who he is
(215).
Bill Gray equates the process oI identiIication with the act oI writing. He
comments oIten throughout Mao II that writing is the 'only way he knew to think deeply
about a subject (160). In order to contemplate the hostage and his situation, Bill has to
write it down; he has to create it. Bill knows, even iI almost everyone around him has
Iorgotten, 'a writer creates a character as a way to reveal consciousness, increase the Ilow
oI meaning (200). Novelist`s capacity to construct reality, to create belieI in the world
and make it concrete, is what constituted their power. During their many conversations,
George actively attempts to persuade Bill to give up his manual typewriter and switch to
a word processor. He emphasizes word processors` ability to 'move words, paragraphs,
move a hundred pages, plus instant corrections: 'It`s completely liberating. You don`t
deal with heavy settled artiIacts. You transIorm Ireely, Iling words back and Iorth (137;
164). Bill, however, doesn`t want 'text susceptible to revision; he preIers the
concreteness oI the typewriter (137). For Bill, the word processor, with its capacity Ior
instantaneous revision, belongs to crowds; it`s a machine that Iunctions as terrorists
Iunction. It has the same abilities they have: the power to reshape existing narratives.
Typewriters belong to the individual.

18
By assuming the role in society Iormerly occupied by writers, terrorists have not
only acquired author`s powers but also erased their identity. DeLillo depicts this in a
passage told Irom the perspective oI the Swiss hostage. The hostage, held in isolation,
with a hood over his head, begins to Iorget who he is and why he`s there. He Ieels an
insect crawl across his hand and wants to 'speak to it, explain his situation. He wanted to
tell it who he was because this was now a matter oI some conIusion (110). Without
someone to speak with, without someone to hear his words or 'paper and something to
write with, some way to sustain a thought, place it in the world, he Iorgets himselI (110).
The terrorists, by taking away his tools oI creating narrative and then ignoring him, have
succeeded in rendering him powerless: 'Who knew him now? There was no one who
knew him but the boy |who brings him his Iood|. First his government abandoned him,
then his employer, then his Iamily. And now the men who`d abducted him and kept him
sealed in a basement room had also Iorgotten he was here. It was hard to say whose
neglect troubled him the most (112). The hostage`s situation is indicative oI the plight
oI all writers Iaced with the rise oI terrorism.
The terrorists themselves want to erase individual identity. Rashid`s Iollowers
consist oI children who wear hoods that cover their Iaces and a photograph oI their leader
stitched to their shirts. Brita asks who the children are and why they wear Rashid`s
image. Rashid`s response is that he provides them with a sense oI identity, 'These
children need an identity outside the narrow Iunction oI who they are and where they
come Irom (233). The time oI individual identities has passed; Rashid trains his
Iollowers to become part oI a Iaceless crowd: 'The boys who work near Abu Rashid have
no Iace or speech. Their Ieatures are identical. They are his Ieatures. They don`t need
their own Ieatures or voices. They are surrendering these things to something powerIul
and great (234). Brita steps over to one oI the boys, Rashid`s son, and rips the hood oII
his head. BeIore anyone has a chance to react, she snaps the unmasked boy`s picture.
DeLillo describes the boy`s reaction as one oI recognition and contempt: 'He knows her.
He wants her to think she is someone he has thought about and decided to hate. His hair
is matted and sweaty Irom the hood and he hates her not because she has humiliated him
but because he knows who she is (237). The boy hates Brita because she has her own
individuality and is not part oI the crowd.

19
While looking out oI the window oI her hotel room, Brita sees in Beirut`s graIIiti
Iurther evidence that Rashid`s notion oI group identity is becoming commonplace.
GraIIiti is by its very nature one oI the purest examples oI individual expression.
However, amidst the 'deep deposits oI names and dates and slogans, Brita 'sees in the
dim light that Ali 21 has made his way into the Christian sector. He is here in French and
English, newly and crudely sprayed (239). Ali 21`s graIIiti is Iormulaic and uninspired;
it lacks individuality. The variety oI languages and range oI locations implies that there
is more than one artist calling themselves Ali 21.
The death oI Bill Gray in 'Beirut, the epilogue oI Mao II, Iurther demonstrates
DeLillo`s idea that the novelist is becoming unnecessary. Bill`s identity is literally stolen.
The janitor who Iinds Bill`s body steals the passport and 'other Iorms oI identiIication,
anything with a name and number and plans to sell them to terrorist groups in Beirut
(217). Just as the writers` loss oI power is the terrorists` gain, so too is Bill Gray`s death
Abu Rashid`s gain. As Iar as the rest oI the world knows, Bill is still hidden away
working on his novel. Neither Scott nor Karen know iI Bill is alive or dead, they don`t
seem particularly concerned one way or the other, and they don`t intend to mention his
disappearance to anyone. The royalties Irom Bill`s two published works still
automatically deposit into his account every month. The house is paid oII, and since
Scott and Karen essentially ran everything beIore Bill leIt and 'made it possible Ior Bill
to devote his whole time to writing, they plan to continue as iI nothing has changed:
'The manuscript would sit. He might talk to Charles Everson, just a word concerning the
Iact that it was Iinished. The manuscript would sit, and word would get out, and the
manuscript would not go anywhere. AIter a time he might take the photographs to New
York and meet with Brita and choose the pictures that would appear . . . a small and deIt
selection, one time only (224). In Mao II, Bill Gray`s death is immediately Iollowed by
Brita`s photo shoot with Rashid. DeLillo structures the end oI the novel this way
intentionally. He purposeIully Iollows the author`s death with the ascendancy oI the
terrorist.
Following the September 11 attacks, Bill Gray`s death becomes even more
signiIicant than when the novel was originally published. DeLillo intended Ior the
ending to warn against granting terrorists the ability to inIluence contemporary culture.

20
Instead oI doing this, Mao II heralds the death oI the artist and the arrival oI the terrorist.
The book reads like a selI IulIilling prophesy. Boxall writes that 'Mao II oIIers a
glimpse oI the end oI history, a glimpse oI a Iuture that is already here, already a thing oI
the past (175). The collapse oI the trade towers colors our reading oI the novel so that it
has become impossible to read it in its original context. The events DeLillo sought to
warn against are already here, and the changes he tried to prevent have occurred.


























21
CHAPTER 2

'THE FRUIT LOOPS AND BATSHIT BOMB: PLAYING WITH POWER IN
ROBBINS` STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER

How do we know who are our friends and
Who are our enemies
Onlv bv what thev do, who thev hold on too,
who thev fight for and support. Who thev help,
who thev feed in the storm, whose side
thevre on.
Amiri Baraka, 'Understanding Readiness

Tom Robbins` Still Life with Woodpecker is a Iairy tale about a princess and an outlaw
that may or may not, as the blurb on the back oI the book suggests, 'take place inside a
pack oI Camel Cigarettes. It is also a novel about terrorism, the media, and the interplay
between individual identity and group consciousness. And, like DeLillo`s Mao II, Still
Life investigates the conIlict between terrorist narratives and those written by novelists,
and attempts to answer the question oI who deserves the right to alter public
consciousness. Robbins` approach to the issue contrasts with DeLillo`s in that he centers
the work on the terrorist; his novelist, a meta-narrator, makes occasional appearances in a
series oI interludes and asides to the reader. The relationship between terrorists and
novelists isn`t explicitly discussed by the characters, as it is in Mao II, neither is it
presented in the meta-narrator`s list oI the novel`s themes. Still Life does, however,
address the danger oI sacriIicing one`s individuality and sense oI selI to an organization.
Bernard Mickey Wrangle, alias the Woodpecker, is a domestic terrorist who calls
himselI an outlaw. Although the term 'terrorist is never directly applied to Wrangle in
the novel, his actions and his justiIications Ior those actions suggest that Ior him 'outlaw
and 'terrorist may be synonymous. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Wrangle`s
selection oI targets aren`t chosen simply Ior 'Iun and 'beauty (64). He dynamites
'draIt boards and induction centers because oI what they represent to the military and to
the citizens who witness the explosion and read about it in the newspapers (56). This is
demonstrated Iurther when he targets 'the chemistry building at the University oI

22
Wisconsin because 'allegedly, work perIormed in that building was helpIul to the war
the United States government was then waging in Southeast Asia (57). Attacking a
building on a college campus doesn`t make much sense strategically, but when that
building is substituted as a metaphor Ior a military target, then the action gains meaning
and the message is clear. Outlaw attacks, like terrorist attacks, are symbolically potent,
dramatic enough to attract the attention oI the media, and their narratives are explicit
enough to be easily understood by the intended audience.
Wrangle, in an open letter to an underground newspaper, deIines outlaws as those
that 'live beyond the law. We don`t merely live beyond the letter oI the lawmany
businessmen, most politicians, and all cops do thatwe live beyond the spirit oI the law.
In a sense, then, we live beyond society. Have we a common goal, that goal is to turn the
tables on the nature oI society (64). Rush Payton, in an article on the role oI the Meta-
Narrator in Robbins` work, argues that it is the outlaw`s 'Iunction as a witness (note, not
a member, but a witness) oI American society to change the very nature oI that society,
and damn the consequences (9). The decision to blow up the new age convention in
Hawaii is based on this desire to aIIect a change in the nature oI society: 'I brought my
dynamite to Maui to remind the Care Fest that good can be as banal as evil (99). The
societal alteration Wrangle hopes to elicit is a return to the privileging oI individual
identity over group identity. In their critical companion to Robbins, Catherine Hoyser
and Lorena Laura Stookey argue this point, stating that 'The Woodpecker`s philosophy
dismisses organizations operating as a whole instead oI the individual. Not only must
people accept responsibility Ior their own action or inaction, but also each individual
must actively choose personal belieIs and courses oI action or inaction (84). Wrangle
disbands his Woodpecker Gang relatively early in his career, understanding that even
membership in a small group oI Iour or Iive people 'allows the individual to act without
responsibility making 'the group responsible Ior whatever he or she does in the name oI
the group cause (Hoyser and Stookey 84). This is the opposite oI DeLillo`s terrorist,
Abu Rashid, who operates as the head oI a terrorist organization and desperately acts to
erase individuality in both his group`s members and in their terror attacks intended
audience by establishing universal identiIication with the crowd.

23
The erasure oI the individual is the problem Wrangle has with the Care Fest; even
though he may sanction the intentions oI the participants, he Iinds their eagerness to
sacriIice their individuality to the mentality oI the organization irresponsible. The meta-
narrator appears to agree with Wrangle on this point,
This may be said Ior the last quarter oI the twentieth century: the truism
that iI we want a better world we will have to be better people came to be
acknowledged, iI not thoroughly understood, by a signiIicant minority.
Despite the boredom and anxiety oI the period, or because oI it, despite
the uneasy seas that separated the sexes, or because oI them, thousands,
tens oI thousands seemed willing to lend their bodies, their money, and
their skills to various planetary rescue missions. (24)
While Wrangle and the meta-narrator agree that the idea oI an individual joining an
organization in an attempt to change society is appalling, they disagree over the method
the individual should adopt instead to exact that change him/herselI. The meta-narrator
adheres to the novelist`s traditional technique oI reshaping society one individual at a
time. Wrangle believes that it is his duty as an individual to attempt to change the
consciousness oI society all at once, hence his very public 'bombing oI institutions he
deplores as the representatives oI group think (Hoyser and Stookey 84). Due to its
theatricality, the narrative oI dynamite is communicated much Iaster than the writer`s
narrative, which transmits very slowly since reading is a solitary pursuit, a dialogue
between the reader and the writer.
Princess Leigh-Cheri Iunctions in the novel as both disciple/love interest Ior
Wrangle, the Woodpecker, and as a surrogate Ior the reader. She`s a member oI a
deposed royal Iamily oI a small unnamed European nation who dedicates herselI to what
she believes to be the only avenue leIt to a Princess dedicated to helping the world:
environmental humanism. To this end, she reads up on solar radiation and
overpopulation, watches current events news broadcasts, wears 'No-Nukes-Is-Good-
Nukes T-shirts, and masturbates to Iantasies starring Ralph Nader. Initially Leigh-Cheri
Iinds the Geo-Therapy Care Fest to be a wonderIul idea, and, outraged by his impulse to
disrupt the conIerence, places Wrangle under citizen`s arrest when her aged chaperone
points him out as the bomber. However, by the time she takes to her simulated prison

24
cell in her parents` attic, Leigh Cheri has become a convert to Wrangle`s brand oI
individualism. So much so that, while in bed with A`ben Fizel, instead oI thinking over
her upcoming marriage or contemplating the giant pyramid Fizel`s constructing in her
honor, she Iinds herselI mulling over the implications oI Wrangle`s philosophy:
In a society that is essentially designed to organize, direct, and gratiIy
mass impulses, what is there to minister to the silent zones oI man as an
individual? Religion? Art? Nature? No, the church has turned religion
into standardized public spectacle, and the museum has done the same Ior
art. The Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls have been looked at so much
that they`ve become eIIete, sucked empty by too many stupid eyes. What
is there to minister to the silent zones oI man as an individual? (221-2)
Leigh-Cheri`s transIormation Irom card carrying member oI several liberal
environmental organizations to adherent oI radical individualism is one that the meta-
narrator assumes the reader has made with her. In several passages, the meta-narrator`s
observations on the state oI the Princess and Outlaw`s love liIe take the Iorm oI a sermon
on individualism: 'no matter how Iervently a romantic might support a movement, he or
she eventually must withdraw Irom active participation in that movement because the
group ethicthe supremacy oI the organization over the individualis an aIIront to
intimacy. Intimacy is the principal source oI the sugars with which this liIe is sweetened
(150). 87 97
Robbins uses the media in Still Life to communicate the terrorist`s narratives and
illustrate its own culpability in replacing individual identity with group consciousness.
Throughout the novel the media reports on the activities oI the Woodpecker. He doesn`t
know that he killed a college student in the University oI Wisconsin chemistry building
explosion until he hears it reported by the radio news; typically, he enjoys listening to the
media coverage oI his exploits: 'For once, the reports Iailed to entertain him (58). King
Max reads several exposes oI the Woodpecker`s career in the pages oI the Seattle Post-
Intelligencer aIter Wrangle`s capture. He`s known all over the world, even placing
twelIth on an almanac`s list oI the twelve most Iamous redheads. Wrangle`s celebrated
response to the open letter to the editor, published in the 'leading liberal periodical,

25
wherein he outlines the criteria Ior living the outlaw liIe, is described as 'inIamous and
presented by the meta-narrator as an important piece oI underground literature (63).
The media primarily disrupts individuality through its interactions with Leigh-
Cheri. Early in the novel she outlines her intention to establish an organization entitled
the 'Monarchy oI Mu to a reporter Irom People magazine. This group, which will be
comprised almost entirely oI the world`s deposed royalty who no longer have 'individual
kingdoms to serve and would 'band together to serve the world (75). She envisions a
new purpose Ior the Iormer leaders oI the world; instead oI living lives oI idle luxury,
they would use their status as Iigureheads and their great wealth to promote global causes.
Leigh-Cheri uses the interview as a vehicle to promote her ideas Ior the new organization
while the reporter latches onto her words as the perIect way to sell copies oI the magazine
by depicting her as a 'misty-eyed romantic (77).
The media`s portrayal oI her alters by the end oI the novel, once she has
abandoned group involvement and reestablished her individual identity and locked
herselI in the attic: 'Whereas the media had been politely interested in a beautiIul young
princess who wished to enlist deposed royalty in the service oI environmentalism, they
were savagely intrigued by a beautiIul young princess who was involved, politically,
romantically, or both with a notorious bomb-throwing outlaw (142). The press coverage
oI her is so extensive that her individual act oI sequestering herselI away Irom the world
accumulates several imitators, in eIIect rendering her gesture meaningless. King Max
inIorms her that, 'At last count, seventeen young women and one young man have locked
themselves in their rooms in emulation oI your lovesick selI-indulgence (179). When
Wrangle hears oI the Iollowing Leigh-Cheri has gathered, he smuggles a letter out oI
prison in order to voice his Ieelings to her:
I thought you`d learned by now that romantic movement` is a
contradiction in terms and that, iI prompted, society is all too eager to turn
the deepest, most authentic human experiences into yet another shallow
Iad. You prompted. I guess you can take the girl out oI the movement,
but you can`t take the movement out oI the girl. Even in solitary, you
couldn`t curb your herding instincts. Leave it to a nave world-saver like
you to view our love as Sacred Cause . . . (201)

26
The media`s Iascination and zeal in reporting the saga oI the princess in the attic
constitutes the sole reason Ior the imitators. Leigh-Cheri neither cultivated nor
encouraged the movement Wrangle is so quick to condemn. The phenomenon is entirely
a media construction, as is the imaginary terrorist kidnapping oI Leigh-Cheri towards the
end oI the novel when Fizel seals her with Wrangle inside the pyramid.
The interplay between individual identity and group consciousness is also a
Ieature oI the series oI interludes and asides the meta-narrator makes to the audience
throughout the novel. In the 'Prologue, the narrator announces, 'II this typewriter can`t
do it, then Iuck it, it can`t be done (ix). The reader is then inIormed that the 'author
has just purchased a new typewriter with which to compose 'the novel oI my dreams
(ix). The Remington SL3 is an electric typewriter that overwhelms the narrator over the
course oI the book and seems to have a will oI its own. Hoyser and Stookey point out
that the typewriter 'anticipates the comments oI critics; plays devil`s advocate in
philosophical discussions about the moon, love, and liIe; and reminds readers that they
are having a wonderIul time reading a narrative rather than watching or hearing one (87).
The Remington, despite being a tool oI the novelist, is presented by the meta-narrator as
something akin to writing by committee. Having to wrestle with the thing, not knowing
whether the words on the page belong to the writer or the typewriter is something the
narrator, who is a proponent oI individualism, cannot handle. Despite arguing that
'biographical inIormation can get in the way oI the reading experience, in a 2000
interview with Linda Richards, without admitting to modeling the meta-narrator aIter
himselI, Robbins describes his decision to incorporate his electric typewriter into the
narrative oI Still Life. He explains that he painted the typewriter red like the narrator
does in the interlude at the end oI 'Phase II because he didn`t like the original color.
Robbins also explains that the humming noise it made drove him nuts, 'so one day I just
ended up taking a two-by-Iour and smashing it to pieces. But then I wrote that into the
book and I Iinished it in longhand. I mean literally: the printed page oI the book is in my
handwriting (Richards). The last portion oI the book does indeed depict the death oI the
typewriter: 'Enough already. I`m going to pull its plu / ug / gggg (272). Robbins`
personal issues with it aside, the death oI the Remington in the novel symbolizes the
reemergence oI individualism and a return to personal consciousness. The handwritten

27
pages that close out the book are indeed the individual identity oI the meta-narrator
triumphing over the collaborative authorship the typewriter was creating.
Robbins never explicitly answers the question oI whose method oI altering
cultural consciousness wins out: the terrorist`s or the novelist`s. Within the interior
narrative, Wrangle`s technique oI exacting change by inIluencing large portions oI
society at a time seems to be an eIIective tool Ior combating organizations and groups.
However, as the printed pages demonstrate, the meta-narrator was also successIul in
maintaining his ability to reach other individuals. Robbins acknowledges the validity oI
both the terrorist`s and the writer`s narratives as long as individuality is privileged.























28
CHAPTER 3

'THE SKY IS THIN AS PAPER HERE: LITERATURE, EXPERIMENTATION, AND
TERRORISM IN BURROUGHS` CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT

Perhaps the surest svmptom of terror is preciselv the paralv:ing inabilitv
to determine whether we have entered onto a new realitv or are merelv
confronting for the first time the realitv we had been living all along.
GeoIIrey Galt Harpham, 'Symbolic Terror

Like DeLillo in Mao II and Robbins in Still Life with Woodpecker, William S. Burroughs
employs terrorism and terrorist techniques to propel the interrelated narratives in his
novel, Cities of the Red Night. However, while the novels in the previous chapters
address the power relationship between novelists and terrorists, Burroughs` work presents
the novelist as terrorist, with the conventions and limitations oI the novel as his target.
Indeed, the terrorism Iound within the novel`s narrative strands is reIlected in the
structure oI the novel itselI. The structure and the storyline each inIorm the other,
providing the reader with a map oI how to read the book. Cities begins linearly,
alternating between three relatively straightIorward narratives: the establishment oI
pirate communities in South America in the early eighteenth century, a murder-mystery
centered around a private detective named Clem Snide, a selI-styled 'Private Asshole,
and a disaster Iantasy Iocusing on the reintroduction oI a virus Irom the six ancient cities
oI the book`s title. Initially, the three strands are selI-contained, and each reaches a
minor resolution near the end oI book one beIore the novel shiIts literary gears and
narrativity is disrupted in book two and Iinally dissipates entirely in book three. It is the
Iinal third oI the novel that makes the most oI Burroughs` terrorist technique through his
use oI experimentation and his application oI the cut-up. By constructing the novel in
this manner, by employing increasingly unstable narrativity, Burroughs teaches his
audience how to read the work, as well as how to interpret the narratives and apply them
to the novel as a whole.
The pirate and the plague strands are both centered around terrorist activity, while
the Snide strand doesn`t overtly involve terrorism until it collapses into the other two.

29
The plague narrative is loosely modeled aIter thrillers and disaster novels, and Burroughs
includes the mandatory scenes detailing the eIIects oI the virus` initial outbreak and the
government`s attempts to contain and control it. The virus` origins are uncertain,
reportedly stemming Irom a 'red glow that covered the northern sky at night (20).
Burroughs makes it clear that this red glow is radioactive in nature and that it mutated an
already existing virus into something Iar more virulent. He never explains who or what
released the radiation. During a meeting oI experts and high level government oIIicials at
the headquarters oI a CIA-like organization, Dr. Pierson speculates on possible strategic
uses Ior the virus as a weapon oI biological warIare. He believes it would be unwise to
allow the virus to run rampant in 'contemporary America and Europe (21). The virus
gave rise to the white race, and while it might help subjugate the other races, the eIIect it
would have on whites, since they are already products oI the virus, is potentially
devastating, 'leaving a wake oI unimaginably unIavorable mutations all ravenously
perpetrating their kind (21). Instead, Pierson suggests the agency shiIt their experiments
with the virus 'into past time, where the human population is considerably less, and
outbreaks can be controlled more easily, although he admits that containment oI the virus
to the population oI test subjects cannot be guaranteed (21). Later, once the narratives
begin to break down, Pierson tells Snide, 'suppose a mysterious plague broke out
attacking the white race, while the yellow, black, and brown seemed to be mysteriously
immune . . . We would then be justiIied in using biologic and/or chemical weapons in
retaliation (203). Pierson`s plan is to use the virus to pin an attack oI biological
terrorism on the non-white nations oI the world in order to legitimize a counterattack by
the United States and Europe. When Snide points out that the white race would be
rendered extinct as a result oI the scenario, Pierson replies that the government has
planned Ior that: 'We would have the Iever sperm stocks. We could rebuild the white
race to our speciIications . . . (203). The ultimate goal oI Pierson`s biological warIare is
the creation oI a race oI white supermen to control the world.
The objective oI the pirates` narrative isn`t nearly so insidious, although it is
equally ambitious. This strand is written in the style oI a boy`s adventure book, the type
oI thing Burroughs read during his childhood in the early twenties. However, the
adventure the boys in Cities encounter isn`t one that pits them against marauding pirates;

30
instead, the boys join Iorces with the pirates in their eIIorts to liberate South America
Irom the colonizing Spanish. The pirates live in utopian communities and oIIer sanctuary
to all those who wish to escape Irom the controlling inIluence oI the European nations.
Burroughs models these jungle communes on those actually established by Captain
Mission in the eighteenth century on the Madagascar coast. Mission called his colony
Libertatia and oIIered asylum to all those who wished it, regardless oI their race or
nationality. In the introduction to Cities of the Red Night, a chapter entitled 'Fore!,
Burroughs writes that,
At once we have allies in all those who are enslaved and oppressed
throughout the world, Irom the cotton plantations oI the American South
to the sugar plantations oI the West Indies, the whole Indian population oI
the American continent peonized and degraded by the Spanish into
subhuman poverty and ignorance, exterminated by the Americans,
inIected with their vices and diseases, the natives oI AIrica and Asiaall
these are potential allies. (xiii)
Burroughs` pirates operate under this philosophy and rely on escaped Iugitives and the
oppressed to help swell their population and diversiIy the abilities oI their combatants.
The growth oI their group is important because as Burroughs states in a 1977 interview,
'It`s unrealistic Ior any small group to make any political changes, except Ior the worst.
The days oI old-Iashioned terrorism and barricades are over (Delp 385). Also, in
Burroughs` vision, the natives that wiped out the original Mission settlement have
become the pirates` allies. Europeans 'will be welcomed as workers, settlers, teachers,
and technicians, but not as colonists or masters (xiv).
The pivotal scene in the war against the Spanish takes place when Noah Blake
invents the exploding projectile a century or so early, thereby altering history.
5
Blake,
who has become the head gunsmith and weapons specialist Ior the pirates, reads a book
on guns and weaponry when suddenly he Iinds himselI sexually aroused: 'I prop the
book against the wall on the Iar side oI the desk and bend over a chair. As Hans Iucks

5
Burroughs Irequently mentions this in interviews. For example, 'I`ve always been very much interested
in the whole development oI weaponry. And interested in the extraordinary Iact, Ior example, that it was
500 years oI cannonballs beIore someone gets the idea that a cannonball can explose |sic| on contact. Just
the simple idea oI the explosion on contact, which is the shell, oI course. (Foye 399)

31
me, the drawings seem to come alive belching red Iire and just as I go oII, Chinese
children set oII a string oI Iirecrackers against the door and I see a huge Iirecracker blow
the library to atoms as a gob oI sperm hits the book six Ieet away (129). Blake`s sudden
epiphany gives the pirate colonies a real chance against the Spanish by allowing them to
reduce the Spanish`s advantage oI greater numbers.
In addition to Blake`s invention, the pirate colonies plan to employ several tactics
borrowed Irom twentieth century terrorist organizations. Burroughs deIends the use oI
these methods in The Job, arguing that it`s all or nothing: 'I don`t believe in any solution
that proposes halIway measures. Unless we can abolish the whole concept oI the nation,
and the whole concept oI the Iamily, we aren`t going to get anywhere at all. It`s the same
thing with some other name (73). The Iirst oI these borrowed strategies is biological
warIare. Like Dr. Pierson in the plague narrative, Dr. Benway addresses a group oI his
colleagues at one oI the pirates` tactical dinners on the desirable aspects oI a selective
pestilence and speculates about the beneIits oI a controlled outbreak oI the Spanish
inIluenza among the Spanish armies: 'Sickness has killed more soldiers than all the wars
oI history |.| II your enemy is sick and you are well, the victory is yours (104). He
also mentions several diseases, such as dysentery, jaundice, and typhoid Iever, which can
be introduced by tainting the enemy`s water supply. Benway maintains that the pirates
can remain healthy by simply boiling their drinking water and eating only cooked Iood
and peeled Iruit. OI course, he is quick to point out the natural immunity oI heroin
addicts to respiratory illnesses, even 'periodic users who need not become addicted are
equally immune (104).
The pirate communes also plan to encourage subversive 'alternative religious
belieIs to break the Christian monopoly. We will set up an alternative calendar with non-
Christian holidays. Christianity will then take its place as one oI many religions
protected Irom persecution by the articles (105). Burroughs alludes to this passage in an
interview with Larry McCaIIery and Jim McMenamin in 1987: 'One oI the things that
interested me in Cities of the Red Night was seeing what would have happened iI you
could get rid oI the Catholic inIluence (675). The Spanish manipulated Christianity and
used it as a mechanism Ior maintaining control over the population. Even aIter the
Spanish were Iorced out oI South America in the 1840`s, 'their whole way oI doing

32
thingsthe bureaucracy, the language, the calendar, the Churchwas still in eIIect.
What would have happened iI that inIluence had leIt with the Spanish? (675).
AIter the pirate army deIeats Spain and occupies Panama City, Noah Blake reads
and explains the Articles oI the newly established aIIirmative society to the captured
Spanish soldiers. In The Job, Burroughs oIIers insight into his reasons behind replacing
the bureaucracy oI the Spanish Iorm oI government with the pirates` six simple tenets:
'History has shown that when a system oI government is overthrown by Iorce a system in
many respects similar will take place (101). In order to prevent this Irom happening in
the pirate communities, Burroughs distills everything down to personal Ireedom. These
Articles are designed and worded in such a way as to preserve, not limit, the individual
Ireedom oI the men who live under them. The Articles are modeled on those actually
used by Captain Mission to govern Libertatia. Only Article Five, outlining sexual
Ireedom, doesn`t appear in the historical list oI rights described in Burroughs`
introduction. The other Articles abolish slavery, guarantee religious Ireedom, eliminate
imprisonment Ior debt, outlaw the use oI torture, and prevent the application oI the death
penalty except in cases that violate the Articles.
Burroughs uses the pirate utopia storyline in the same way that Pierson plans to
use 'past time in the plague strand: as an arena in which to conduct his experiments.
However, whereas Pierson`s experiment is viral, Burroughs` is political. His purpose is
to disrupt history and perIorm a sort oI temporal cut-up. He reIers to Cities as 'a book oI
retroactively changing history by introducing the possibility oI a simple invention
namely the cartridge gunback in the late 18
th
century (Foye 399). Murphy discusses
this in Wising Up the Marks: 'II history is the totality oI rigid and enslaving
determinisms that can be broken by certain kinds oI action, then it Iollows that this
rupture oI history will be suIIicient in itselI to generate a diIIerent, Iundamentally open
and Iree world (171). He argues that Burroughs attempts to erase 'historical authority
and dismantle the control systems in the present by attacking their Ioundation in the past:
'History is the negation oI Ireedom, so a revolution that simply negates history produces
the aIIirmation oI Ireedom (171). This negation oI history does more than simply
rewrite history, it causes a disruption that Burroughs uses to break Iree Irom the
repetitions oI history altogether: 'A man has to get beyond his conditioning, or his Iuture

33
is going to be a repetition, word-Ior-word repetition. I would say that Ior a great
percentage oI people, all they do is repeat their past. They really don`t have any Iuture at
all. And it`s only by a sort oI break with the past that anything new and diIIerent will
emerge (Skerl 'Interview 6).
In a 1982 interview, Burroughs describes his creation oI 'retroactive utopias as
parachuting commandos 'behind enemy lines in time so they can 'sort oI |clean| up and
drastically |alter| South and Central America (Bohn 573). Any successIul attack made
on the past will instantaneously aIIect the present. Burroughs gives us glimpses oI this in
the third book when Blake passes through customs in French Canada. This episode
occurs sometime in the mid-twentieth century, almost two Iull centuries aIter the pirates
liberate South America Irom the Spanish.
I am Iirst in line. The agent looks at my passport and sneers.
'Is this something oI your own invention?
I tell him it is something issued by the United States Government.
|.|
My passport is dropped into the wood stove. He turns to the other
American passengers.
'All oI you now come Iorward and surrender your lies.
Documents purportedly issued by a government which ceased to exist two
hundred years ago . . . (253)
The events oI the pirate revolution in the past cause the United States in the present to
suddenly disappear, becoming nothing more than a Iootnote in a history book.
Burroughs`s perception 'oI all history as an inherently repressive Iorce, as a kind oI static
or serial repetition leads him to argue that the only way to break the repetition is to write
your way out (Murphy 171). In the novel, Burroughs treats writing as a magical system;
writers are capable oI disrupting the repetitions oI history through the creation oI a
Ilawed copy. They write it into existence.
AIter Snide solves Jerry Green`s disappearance, he`s retained by the Iguana sister
to locate the original text oI Cities of the Red Night: 'Changes, Mr. Snide, can only be
eIIected by alterations in the original. The only thing not prerecorded in a prerecorded
universe are the prerecordings themselves. The copies can only repeat themselves word

34
Ior word (166). The Iguana sister shows Snide a series oI copies oI the original text,
telling him that they are nearly Ilawless reproductions. However, instead oI searching Ior
the original, Snide heads to an art store: 'I had already decided to Iabricate the complete
books iI I could Iind the right paper. In Iact, I Ielt sure that this was exactly what I was
being paid to do (170). He buys paper and ink Irom an art Iorger and sets to work
recreating the books. Snide writes the narrative, while his assistant, Jim, provides the
illustrations: 'The books seem to age two hundred years overnight. I am working mostly
on my pirate story line (173). It`s here that Burroughs reveals Snide to be the author oI
the Noah Blake narrative. When Snide Iirst browses through the copies the Iguana sister
shows him, he notices that
They are composed Irom a variety oI styles and periods. Some oI them
seem to stem Irom the 1920`s oI The Great Gatsbv, old sport, and others
to derive Irom the Edwardian era oI Saki, reIlecting an unbearably Ilawed
boyishness. There is an underlying current oI proIound Irivolity, with
languid young aristocrats drawling epigrams in streets oI disease, war, and
death. There is a Rover Boys-Tom SwiIt story line where boy heroes
battle against desperate odds. (167)
This description alerts the reader that the pirate story line was already present in the
original texts and that Snide only re-imagines it; he doesn`t invent it entirely. His
meeting with Dr. Pierson (mentioned above) also reveals him to be the author oI the
plague story line as well. Pierson outlines his plan Ior the biological race war and Snide
guesses what the CIA man wants Irom him: 'And you want me to write the scenario.
Pierson responds with, 'That`s it. You`ve written enough already to get the ball rolling
(203). Pierson oIIers Snide one million dollars to write his scenario into existence using
the same procedures he used to Iorge the pirate narrative: 'You will Iinish the scenario.
Your assistant will do the illustrations (204).
Almost immediately aIter Snide is contracted to Iorge the second strand,
Burroughs narrative begins to Iragment signiIicantly. The three strands collapse into
each other. Clem Snide disappears and is replaced by Audrey, who serves as an avatar
Ior Snide. Audrey also does his utmost to write the pirate story line into existence. In the
Iinal pages oI the novel, we are conIronted with an image oI Audrey sitting at his

35
typewriter: 'In Iront oI him is the etching depicting Captain Strobe on the gallows.
Audrey glances up at the picture and types: The Rescue` (330). 'The Rescue is the
title oI the Iirst chapter oI the pirate strand and is about the dramatic rescue oI Captain
Strobe moments beIore he dies in the noose. Interestingly, Audrey also Iunctions as an
avatar Ior Blake as well as Snide. During the planning stages oI the conIrontation with
the Spanish, the consciousnesses oI Blake and Audrey brieIly coexist and they experience
overlapping visions oI the courtyard:
I am the eternal spectator, separated by unbridgeable gaps oI knowledge,
Ieeling the sperm gathering in tight nuts, the quivering rectums, smelling
the iron reek oI sex, sweat, and rectal mucus, watching the writhing brown
bodies in the setting sun, torn with an ache oI disembodied lust and the
searing pain oI disintegration. (197)
Following this, Blake momentarily metamorphoses into Audrey and sees the whole aIIair
through his eyes, 'standing in the empty ruined courtyard hundreds oI years Irom now, a
sad ghostly visitant in a dead city, smell oI nothing and nobody there (197).
It is also important to acknowledge Blake`s role as a writer. Initially, the strand is
narrated in the third person; however by the middle oI the second chapter, it is
reproduced entirely Irom the pages oI Blake`s diary.
6
Blake explains that he is given
'two hours oI leisure each day in which to record the events oI his voyage and notes that
'Strobe has placed a desk and writing material at |his| disposal, being interested Ior some
reason in printing |his| account (72). Later Strobe reveals that despite Blake`s inventive
contribution to the conIlict with the Spanish, the diary is the main reason he was recruited:
'Noah writes that I am interested in printing his diaries Ior some reason.` Does he have
any inkling what reason? He must be kept very busy as a gunsmith lest he realize his
primary role (91). Strobe intends Ior Blake`s writings to perIorm the same Iunction as
Snide`s. He seems to be aware that Blake has 'always been a scribbler (102). Blake
becomes giddy at the sight oI all the pirate activity aIter the ship arrives at Port Roger,
and he`s reminded that

6
With the exception oI the 'Port Roger chapter, which brieIly begins with a 'page Irom Strobe`s
notebook beIore returning to entries Irom Blake`s diary (91).

36
during the long shut-in winters |he| Iilled notebook aIter notebook with
lurid tales involving pirates Irom other planets, copulations with alien
beings, and attacks oI the Radiant Boys on the Citadel oI the Inquisition.
These notebooks with illustrations by Bert Hansen are in |his| possession,
locked in a small chest. The conversation at the dinner table gave |him|
the Ieeling that |his| notebooks were coming alive. (103)
These early Iantasies oI Blake`s also make their way into the books Snide Iorges. They
appear at the end oI Burroughs` novel as well and get mixed in with the other narrative
strands in book three.
Skerl argues that Burroughs` decision to Iocus this novel on writers and writing is
based on an autobiographical urge: 'The theme oI the writer`s quest in the later novels is
conveyed by autobiographical images oI Burroughs himselI as a writer (191). Audrey,
in addition to Iunctioning as an avatar Ior Snide and Blake, also acts as one Ior Burroughs
himselI. However, Skerl observes that the writer`s ability to manipulate the
prerecordings ('the reality Iilm) is limited. She writes that the avatar 'has more
importance as a writer because only writers create stories, and all Iantasy is story; yet he
is most aware oI the limitations oI Iantasy (191). Writing breaks down as a magical
system because 'Whereas |the writer| has total power over his characters, his power over
readers is limited to example, and he has no power to Iree himselI Irom his individual
consciousness, history, or death (191). The problem with this analysis is that Burroughs
demonstrates that writers can Iree themselves Irom history. Snide alters what serves as
the present by scripting a successIul revolution by the pirate colonies and completing
Pierson`s white plague scenario. Blake`s early scribblings about space pirates and
intergalactic orgies brings these things into physical existence late in the novel. He Iinds
that Mission`s oIIer oI reIuge Ior all those 'who suIIer under the tyranny oI
governments applies to reIugees Iorm other planets as well.
Burroughs believes that real world writers have the ability to shape History, just
as the writers in Cities of the Red Night do. When asked in a 1978 interview what he saw
as the role oI writers in the modern world, Burroughs answered 'An important one and I
think also an inIluential one. Kerouac comes to mind, his inIluence on the way oI living
oI millions oI young people. Then there`s Scott Fitzgerald, his inIluence on the

37
generations between the two World Wars. The inIluence oI a writer may not be as direct
as that oI a journalist, but it may possibly go Iarther (Lemaire 'Terrorism 403).
Burroughs believes that writers can recreate the world simply by writing that new world
into existence. This is the primary role oI writers, 'to create a universe in which they
have lived or where they would like to live (Adding Machine 176). However, the tools
writers are given in which to do this are becoming increasingly inadequate. Burroughs
sees the novelistic Iorm as 'outmoded (Job 27):
The basic idea is a beginning, a middle and an end, an all-knowing author
who`s aware what his characters think and what`s going to happen, and
then building by chapters. With this kind oI construction, each chapter has
to plunge you into anticipation, create suspense. You`re Iorced to keep
going through the next chapter beIore you can return in the third chapter to
what was going on in the Iirst. Obviously that`s not how things happen in
reality. It`s a totally artiIicial Iorm. (Lemaire 'Terrorism 402)
Obviously this is what Burroughs does with Cities of the Red Night. Each oI the strands
begins as a straightIorward narrative, alternating chapters, until the text`s writers interIere
and the novel`s structure Iragments and collapses into itselI.
Burroughs views the artiIiciality oI the novelistic Iorm as increasingly alien to
real world applications. In addition, the novel`s conventions prove conIining Ior both
writers and their audience. Burroughs argues that the novel as an art Iorm hasn`t kept
pace with other types oI expression, such as painting or music, which have undergone
several revolutions in perception and compositional process: 'There`s no book, say in
literature, comparable to the way that painting has developed. There`s no such thing as
minimalism, impressionism, or any oI those developments (Skerl 'Interview 11). The
novel has remained static since Joyce wrote Ulvsses in the second decade oI the twentieth
century. Burroughs states that Joyce`s experiments have since become common place.
In regards to Ulvsses, he tells an interviewer, 'it was considered incomprehensible when
it was Iirst published, but not as much later on, and now not at all. It`s a Iluctuation in
thinking about the novel that characterizes the 20
th
century, a current that alternates
between readable and unreadable (Lemaire 'Labyrinths 408). Burroughs assumes the
responsibility as a novelist to make the Iorm challenging again. He wants the novel to

38
undergo continuous evolution similar to those experienced by painting and music. Cities
of the Red Night provides the roadmap Ior this Ior both readers and other writers.
The cut-up method was invented by Brion Gysin in the late IiIties and developed
by Burroughs into a viable literary device shortly thereaIter. The cut-up is actually a
conglomeration oI several diIIerent compositional techniques that disrupt the linearity oI
a preexisting text. The process which is perhaps the most Iamous and widely written
about consists oI physically cutting a page oI text into strips and randomly rearranging
the strips to Iorm new text.
7
This new text is composed oI the exact same elements that
make up the original text, just reordered. Burroughs describes the eIIects oI the new
combinations in an essay Irom The Adding Machine: 'When you cut and rearrange
words on a page, new words emerge. And words change meaning. The word draIted,`
as into the Army, moved into a context oI blueprints or contracts, gives an altered
meaning (52). In addition to rearranging the strips oI a single page, Burroughs
introduces strips oI text Irom other sources cut-up in the same way. In this way, portions
oI Hamlet, Rimbaud`s A Season in Hell, or even The Concise Oxford Dictionarv might
Iind their way into his novels. Even though he wrote a trilogy oI novels in the sixties and
seventies using the cut-up method exclusivelywhich caused him to temporarily
abandon narrativityit wasn`t until Cities of the Red Night was published in the early
eighties that Burroughs successIully demonstrated that the cut-up method was capable oI
a lasting contributing to the novelistic Iorm`s evolution. This was accomplished through
the application oI the cut-up to the conventional narrative.
Burroughs uses the cut-up to disrupt narrativity in the same way that Snide uses
his Ilawed copies to disrupt history. Critics mistakenly praise Cities as Burroughs` return
to narrative, and Daniel Punday writes that Burroughs 'can be seen as working through
the deconstructive impulse that dominated writing oI the 1970s and searching Ior some
way oI reintroducing narrative structure without rejecting that deconstruction wholesale.
However, Cities is not the renunciation oI experimentation lauded by critics. Burroughs
realizes that the cut-up cannot completely eliminate narrative anymore than Snide`s
Ilawed copies can erase history. History and narrativity can only be altered, reshaped,

7
Another notable example oI the cut-up method is the Iold-in, which Iunctions exactly the way you would
think and is nearly identical to the Iold-in image Ieatured on the back cover oI Mad Magazine.

39
and temporarily disrupted; they cannot be made extinct. Without narrative, novels are
liable to Iall victim to the literary aIIliction Burroughs calls 'blind prose. This is empty
language that contains no substance or inIormation, almost like a human being subsisting
on a diet oI iceberg lettuce: 'II you see the Iunction oI word as extension oI our senses to
witness and experience through the writer`s eyes, then blind prose 'sees nothing and
neither does the reader (Job 104). Despite the cut-up method`s innovation, it cannot
save a novel Irom blind prose. Burroughs told an interviewer in 1980 that the novel
needs a narrative, no matter how tenuous, to hold it together: 'so Iar as writing goes, you
can`t get away Irom a narrative style altogether because they won`t read it. Nor does it,
in my opinion, convey very much (Skerl 'Interview 11). Burroughs` aim is not to
destroy the novel`s narrative. His goal is to use the cut-up to disrupt the narrative causing
it to mutate it into something unexpected. The introduction oI the random Iactor, the cut-
up, mutates the novel`s narrative into a new paradigm. The result is a narrative that
'jumps like a broken typewriter. The conIines oI the novelistic Iorm and the rigidity oI
the novel`s structure are replaced by an element oI chance. Instead oI the novel`s
Iamiliar Iorm, you end up with something impossible to predict.
Burroughs demonstrates that it is possible Ior a novelist to break Irom the past and
operate outside oI language`s control just as Snide is able to operate outside the inIluence
oI History. The two are inexorably linked in Cities of the Red Night. One inIorms the
other. Burroughs argues that 'there are certain Iormulas, word-locks which will lock up a
whole civilization Ior a thousand years (Job 49). Since human beings think in language,
those who have control over language have control over thought; he states that
The Egyptian and Mayan control systems were predicated on the Iact that
only the ruling caste could read the written language. The supposition
now arises that the present control system which we intend to overthrow is
predicated on precisely the same consideration: only the selI-written elite
have access to the Board Books.` Control phrases which they place in
magazines, newspapers, and in popular songs precisely correspond to a
secret picture language. (Job 206)
Burroughs considers the word 'one oI the most powerIul instruments oI control;
however, by 'cutting these up and rearranging them it is possible to interIere with the

40
control systems (Job 33). The control phrases buried in newspapers and magazines are
susceptible to disruption as are the repetitions oI history. Burroughs presents history in
Cities as a virus and he has elsewhere called language a virus. When the iguana sister
tells Snide that 'A virus is a copv. You can pretty it up, cut it up, scramble itit will
reassemble in the same Iorm, she inIorms him that the control systems cannot be
destroyed outright; they will simply reconstitute themselves (166). These systems can
only be disrupted in the same way that history and narrativity can be disrupted, by
introducing Ilawed copies or Ioreign text to the system. By interIering with the
repetitions, the pattern is interrupted.
In the Iinal chapter oI the novel, aIter expounding on the inevitable success oI his
strategies Ior combating the instruments oI control, Burroughs presents a melancholic
scene that illustrates the consequences oI victory. Audrey (possibly in his Noah Blake
incarnation) returns to Port Roger several years aIter the pirates vanquished the Spanish.
Burroughs paints the town as dilapidated and ignored. Audrey/Blake retrieves his diary
Irom the lock box and reads through the Iinal entries. He Ilashes back to the moments
beIore the opening battle and Ieels sorry Ior the Spanish: 'It`s too easy . . . our shells and
mortars rip through them like a great iron Iist. A Iew still take cover and return Iire . . .
The easiest victories are the most costly in the end (332). He realizes that his alterations
oI the past may have unintended personal consequences. By writing himselI into
existence in the past, he erases his relevance in the present: 'Like Spain, I am bound to
the past (332). By writing this as the Iinal line oI the novel, Burroughs acknowledges
that, like Audrey/Blake, he is bound to that which he struggles against. Without the
instruments oI control, there is nothing to resist.









41
CHAPTER 4

POSTSCRIPT: (RE)ACTIONS TO SEPTEMBER 11 AND WRITTEN TERRORISM
IN RECENT WORKS BY DELILLO, UPDIKE, AND BARAKA

He said we were a band of Arabs coming in to blow up New York.
Jack Kerouac, On the Road

In the years Iollowing September 11, 2001, Amiri Baraka, John Updike, and Don DeLillo
each published major works responding to the terrorist attacks. Certainly these writers
weren`t alone in doing so: several collections oI essays, critical responses, and
commemorative writings appeared in print almost immediately, seemingly beIore the
country had a chance to catch its breath. Most oI these responses attempted to establish
an emotional context Ior the attacks and strove to help the nation know how to Ieel about
the towers` collapse and the epic loss oI liIe. DeLillo and Updike each published short
pieces as part oI this initial surge oI material. DeLillo wrote an article Ior the Atlantic in
December oI 2001 that strove to come to terms with the new global paradigm created by
the event. Updike`s short story, 'The Varieties oI Religious Experience, appeared in the
November issue oI the same magazine a year later and explored the event Irom the
survivors` perspective. In attempts to Iurther exorcise the psychological damage the
nation suIIered as a result oI the World Trade towers` collapse (the events at the
Pentagon and the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pennsylvania Iield are completely
ignored), both writers subsequently released novels that deal directly with the attacks.
Updike`s Terrorist (2006) tells the story oI a young Arab-American recruited by a
terrorist organization to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel, and DeLillo`s Falling Man (2007)
Iollows the lives oI a Iew people in the aItermath oI the attacks, one oI them a lawyer
who survived the towers` collapse. Baraka composed 'Somebody Blew Up America
immediately aIter 9/11 and had begun perIorming it in public by October oI that year.
His poem diIIers in tone and agenda Irom most oI the other literary responses to
September 11. Instead oI seeking to understand why the terrorists attacked, Baraka
announces, not only that he understands the terrorists` motives, but that he empathizes

42
with their desire to strike out at the United States. Whereas Terrorist and Falling Man
Iunction as explorations into the attack and its lasting eIIect on the individual, Baraka`s
poem serves as a sociopolitical accusation reminding his country oI its culpability in the
event.
The two novels are told primarily Irom the perspective oI those victimized by
September 11. The passages in Falling Man narrated Irom the point oI view oI Hammad,
one oI the 9/11 hijackers, and Updike`s attempts to bring insight to the motivations oI
fihadists in Terrorist are insuIIicient to counteract the sense oI inescapable vulnerability
that permeates the characters and their lives. Conversely, Baraka`s poem exudes
aggression and deIiance. He hasn`t been intimidated by the attacks or awed by the
images oI the towers` collapse; instead, he takes the events oI September 11 as an
indication that the mechanisms oI American imperialism are beginning to malIunction
and seize up. He uses the occasion oI the large scale terrorist attack on American soil as
an excuse to revisit all oI the small scale terrorist attacks the white American hegemony
has been using to oppress its own citizens and to Iorce its concepts oI compromised
democracy and oppressive capitalism on other countries.
DeLillo brieIly addresses these same issues through the character oI Martin
Ridnour, a European art dealer who may have been a German terrorist in the early
seventies. During the conversation with his lover and Lianne`s mother, Nina Bartos, that
takes place mere days aIter the towers Iell, Martin argues that the attacks occurred
because the terrorists resent western inIluence: 'They strike a blow to this country`s
dominance. They achieve this, to show how a great power can be vulnerable. A power
that interIeres, that occupies (46). Echoing Baudrillard`s 'Requiem Ior the Twin
Towers, Martin posits that the very reason the twin towers were built were to be targets
Ior terrorism: 'Weren`t the towers built as Iantasies oI wealth and power that would one
day become Iantasies oI destruction? You build a thing like that so you can see it come
down. The provocation is obvious. What other reason would there be to go so high and
then to double it, do it twice? It`s a Iantasy, so why not do it twice? You are saying,
Here it is, bring it down (116). However, Martin`s contention that the towers were
symbols oI American imperialism and that their collapse was not only anticipated but
inevitable is dismissed by Nina and Lianne and quickly Iorgotten.

43
Both Nina and Florence, Keith`s lover and a Iellow survivor oI the towers`
collapse, blame the terrorists` religious belieIs Ior the attacks. Florence counterbalances
her assertion that the hijackers` are 'anti everything we stand Ior with the statement that
they believe in God (90). She wonders how both can be true. The implication is that
there is something wrong with the terrorists` God. A deity that would allow, even
encourage, its Iollowers to take the lives oI innocents must be Ilawed. Nina expresses the
same sentiment during a later conversation with Martin. She demands that the Islamic
God take responsibility Ior the terrorists` actions: 'God is whatever God allows (112).
Ultimately, DeLillo reIuses to settle on one explanation Ior September 11. He
uses his primary characters to explore diIIerent narrative interpretations oI the attacks.
Surprisingly, he seems to be Iurthest Irom reaching deIinitive conclusions about the
hijackers` motives when he imagines 'the inner thoughts oI the terrorists as the planes
head Ior the World Trade Center. Here he seems more like |the perIormance artist|
Falling Man, whose art is mere re-enactment (Minzesheimer). In the depiction oI the
terrorist, Hammad, we`re not shown an individual Iull oI rage, whether justiIiable or
misguided; instead, DeLillo provides us with a man who appears more conIused than
anything. He can`t explaineven to himselIwhy he does what he does. He Iollows
orders and that is enough. DeLillo`s representation is indeed re-enactment. We`re shown
the actions, but not the reasons Ior them. DeLillo`s portrayal oI the hijackers Ieels as
insincere as Hammad`s attempts to convince himselI that he believes in the cause.
Falling Man seems to be a return to ground already well covered by DeLillo ten
years earlier in Mao II. II the previous novel seems to predict the events oI September 11,
Falling Man Iunctions in the dual role as a reinIorcement oI that prediction and as a
thematic sequel.
8
The novel revisits the writer`s loss oI cultural agency and the terrorists`
surrendering oI their individuality to the group consciousness. Instead oI Iocusing on one
iconic writer, as Mao II does with Bill Gray, Falling Man incorporates a subplot
involving a group oI Alzheimer`s patients that struggle to write their way through their

8
DeLillo also uses the very brieI subplot surrounding the book Lianne aggressively campaigns to edit to
make certain his readers understand that he wasn`t alone in Ioreseeing the potential oI terrorism in New
York. Other writers had a handle on this as well. The unpublished manuscript Carol Shoup mentions to
Lianne is 'a book detailing a series oI interlocking global Iorces that appeared to converge at an explosive
point in time and space that might be said to represent the locus oI Boston, New York and Washington on a
late-summer morning early in the twenty-Iirst century (139).

44
memories and record their impressions oI the dramatic events oI September 11. Lianne
leads this group and encourages them to choose topics to write about. By making these
writers a group oI Alzheimer`s patients, DeLillo is able to show them both Iiguratively
and literally losing their identities. In one memorable passage, the writers share the
symptoms oI their disease with each other: One Iorgets where she lives, another can`t
Iigure out iI his pants are on correctly, which causes him to take them oII and put them
back on repeatedly, a third writes about losing his way on the subway, and another
misplaces his wristwatch Ior a time and then cannot remember how to Iasten it to his
wrist. DeLillo describes the latter man`s aIIliction as a type oI erasure: 'There was a
spatial void, or some visual gap, a riIt in his Iield oI vision, and it took him some time to
make the connection, hand to wrist, pointed end oI wristband into buckle (95).
As writers, they want to write about their emotional reactions to the events oI
September 11. Lianne encourages them in this. However, in writing about 9/11, they
end up doing exactly what DeLillo and Updike do, which is to allow the hijackers`
narrative to become their narrative: 'They wrote about the planes. They wrote about
where they were when it happened. They wrote about people they knew who were in the
towers, or nearby, and they wrote about God (60). Initially, they are resistant to writing
about the terrorists, preIerring to Iocus on the details oI the event instead oI those that
caused the event. At Lianne`s urging, they reluctantly include the terrorists in their
discussions. They claim that the towers` collapse overwhelms them, 'it`s way too big,
it`s outside someplace, on the other side oI the world (64). However, they can handle
the details. By Iocusing on the small events oI the day, they`re able to avoid crumpling
under the enormity oI it. The terrorists themselves are a diIIerent story. The writers have
no access to them. Their attempts to access the terrorists are plagued by the same
aIIliction as DeLillo`s passages about Hammad. They can recreate what happened, but
they can`t comprehend it; they`re unable to understand it. One oI the writers says that the
hijackers are invisible to her, 'You can`t get to these people or even see them in their
pictures in the paper. You can see their Iaces but what does it mean? (64).
In addition to using the Alzheimer`s patients to demonstrate the writer`s loss oI
identity, DeLillo represents this stylistically. Each new passage in the textwith the
exception oI Hammad`sbegins with a pronoun instead oI the character`s name.

45
DeLillo delays identiIication oI the new passages` primary character Ior several
paragraphs. This technique prevents the reader Irom immediately understanding whose
perspective they`re experiencing the narrative through, momentarily disorienting the
reader and simulating the erosion oI the writer`s individual identity.
DeLillo also returns to Mao II`s theme oI terrorism belonging to crowds. The
sections that Iocus on Hammad depict the slow erosion oI his individuality and the
ascendancy oI the terrorist organization`s group mentality. He begins as a man who
questions the rhetoric oI his co-conspirators concerning Jews and the inIluence oI the
corrupt West. Hammad dates a German woman and spends his Iree time with the woman
and her roommate practicing Ioreign languages. He sometimes lusts aIter the roommate
and secretly wants to marry his girlIriend and have babies. Sometimes he daydreams
about leaving the apartment he shares with the other conspirators and pursuing an
ordinary liIe.
Over the course oI Hammad`s three passages, DeLillo shows Amir (Mohamed
Atta) and the other hijackers tearing down Hammad`s sense oI selI and slowly replacing
it with a group identity: 'Amir looked at him, seeing right down to his base selI.
Hammad knew what he would say. Eating all the time, pushing Iood in your Iace, slow
to approach your prayers. There was more. Being with a shameless woman, dragging
your body over hers. What is the diIIerence between you and all the others, outside our
space? (83). Hammad is someone who`s aware that he`s not the brains oI the group;
he`s there Ior muscle. DeLillo paints him as 'bulky and 'clumsy and easily lead (79).
He has to struggle against his urges to be normal and Iit in with the organizations` ideals:
'there were rules now and he was determined to Iollow them. His liIe had structure.
Things were clearly deIined. He was becoming one oI them now, learning to look like
them and think like them. This was inseparable Irom jihad. He prayed with them to be
with them. They were becoming total brothers (83). As a group, 'they were strong
willed, determined to become one mind. Shed everything but the men you are with.
Become each other`s running blood (83). As September 11 grows closer, despite the
inIluence oI the other hijackers, Hammad Iantasizes about Ialling in with groups oI
college kids, 'laughing and smoking and living an ordinary liIe (172). The conIlict
between Amir`s teachings and Hammad`s desire Ior normalcy grows until he cannot

46
recognize himselI either as an individual or as a member oI the organization: 'He sat in a
barber chair and looked in the mirror. He was not here, it was not him (175). The Iinal
passage in the book shows Hammad guarding the door to the cockpit as the hijacked
plane makes it Iinal approach to the World Trade Center. Here, he has no doubt about
who he is or the role he`s intended to play. His individual identity is completely erased,
and he`s now one with the group: 'The aircraIt was secured now and he sat in the jump
seat across Irom the Iorward galley, keeping watch. He was either supposed to keep
watch here, outside the cockpit, or to patrol the aisle, box cutter in hand. He was not
conIused, only catching a breath, taking a moment (237). His Iinal thoughts are
gratitude that he is able to die with his brothers in the tradition oI 'the pious ancestors
(239).
DeLillo divides Falling Man into three separate segments: the Iirst details the
days immediately Iollowing September 11, the second section takes place over the next
Iew months aIter the attacks, and the Iinal section is set around the time oI the United
States` invasion oI Iraq. Each oI these sections is identiIied with the name oI one oI the
terrorists in the book. Additionally, each oI the names Iunctions as an alias oI sorts Ior
the terrorist. The Iirst part is titled 'Bill Lawton which is a conIusion oI bin Laden
misunderstood and interpreted by children. Part two is named aIter Martin Ridnour`s real
name, a name that Ieatures prominently on several German wanted posters Irom the
seventies. The Iinal section is named aIter Falling Man. We don`t discover that his real
name is David Janiak until Lianne discovers his obituary in the paper and revisits the
controversy surrounding his reenactments oI 9/11. By identiIying each oI these sections
with the alter ego oI a terrorist, DeLillo draws attention to the disconnect between a
terrorist`s individual identity and the one given by the organization and subsequently the
public.
Updike`s Terrorist also addresses this issue. Ahmad willingly submits to his
Imam`s manipulations and surrenders his individual identity in exchange Ior membership
in the New Jersey terrorist organization. For Ahmad, the opportunity to send an
unmistakable message to the 'weak Christians and 'nonobservant Jews corrupted by
godless America is only part oI the attraction (3). The Ieeling oI brotherhood and
belonging that the group oIIers him is the true allure. Ahmad is the most pious student at

47
New Prospect`s Central High School. He is Iriendless, subjected to bullying, and views
his teachers as 'troublemakers, worldly and cynical and just in it Ior the paycheck, and
even though a signiIicant portion oI the students are Muslim, Ahmad`s Iaith runs much
deeper than theirs and he is more devout (85).
It is Ahmad`s piety that makes him vulnerable to the imam`s recruitment
techniques. At every opportunity, the imam, Shaikh Rashid, reinIorces Ahmad`s Ieelings
oI separation and reminds him how diIIerent he is Irom other people his own age. He
provides Ahmad with a radical Iundamentalist view oI the world in an attempt to isolate
him, even Irom his own mother. When Ahmad asks whether God`s purpose isn`t
conversion and mercy over hate and terror, Rashid replies with, 'The cockroaches that
slither out Irom the baseboard and Irom beneath the sinkdo you pity them? The Ilies
that buzz around the Iood on the table, walking on it with the dirty Ieet that have just
danced on Ieces and carriondo you pity them? (76). Ahmad`s daily lessons with the
imam serve a dual purpose. Ostensibly they`re designed to teach the boy Arabic and to
enhance his appreciation oI the Qur`an. However, Rashid structures the lessons so that
they plant seeds in Ahmad to help prepare him Ior the role the organization has planned
Ior him. Rashid careIully selects passages Irom the Qur`an that support his worldview oI
hatred Ior the West. The lessons are punctuated with strange moments where the imam
demonstrates an almost unendurable desire to see Paradise. These he uses to question
Ahmad`s interest in the aIterliIe as well. Like some sort oI strange ritual, Rashid asks
Ahmad three times iI he desires to see Paradise. The Iirst time, he asks iI Ahmad longs
Ior Paradise 'ardently (107). When Ahmad agrees that he does, Rashid pushes Iurther
and asks iI he is 'impatient with this world (107). Again, Ahmad agrees, and, Iinally,
Rashid halI-jokingly asks iI he wants to see Paradise merely because oI the promised
'virgins with large dark eyes (106). Ahmad assures him that`s not the case: 'Oh, no. I
thirst Ior Paradise (106).
It is evident Irom the moment Updike introduces Ahmad that the boy is under the
inIluence oI his imam. Jack Levy recognizes that Ahmad`s diction doesn`t come to him
naturally: 'he is imitating, Levy Ieels, some adult he knows, a smooth and Iormal talker
(34). Also, Rashid`s insistence that Ahmad Iorgo college to drive the delivery truck Ior
the Chehab brothers` Iurniture store, Excellency Home Furnishings, irritates Levy enough

48
Ior him to seek out Ahmad`s mother to meet with her about the boy`s Iuture:
'Somebody`s putting pressure on Ahmad, Ior whatever reason. He can do better than be
a trucker. He`s a smart, clean-cut kid, with a lot oI inner-directedness (83). Her
response to Levy`s pitch advocating a college education Ior Ahmad reveals that she`s
aware oI how much her son has been inIluenced by the teachings oI Rashid: 'at this
phase oI his development he sees what college oIIers, those subjects you name, as part oI
godless Western culture, and he doesn`t want more oI it than he absolutely can`t avoid
(85). Even Ahmad himselI acknowledges his imam`s manipulations. During the
recruitment speech Ior the suicide bombing beneath the Lincoln Tunnel, Rashid clumsily
attempts to shame Ahmad into accepting the mission by stating that, iI the boy is too
Irightened to drive the truck, the organization will Iind someone else to do it, 'someone
with more courage and Iaith (237). Ahmad sees Rashid`s maneuver Ior what it is; he
'knows he is being manipulated, yet he accedes to the manipulation, since it draws Irom
him a sacred potential (237).
Updike returns to the question oI who has control oI Ahmad`s identity at the end
oI the novel when, improbably, Levy climbs into the cab next to the boy while the truck
is stopped at a traIIic light. Initially, Levy reasons with Ahmad, careIully explaining that
the government has inIiltrated the terrorist organization and seized most oI the group`s
leaders. This leaves Ahmad unmoved; however, Levy`s mention oI Charlie`s death and
the role he played in bringing down the organization startle Ahmad. He Ielt closer to
Charlie than to anyone else in his liIe and saw him as an older brother. When he still
reIuses to turn the truck around, Levy tries to make Ahmad angry, hoping that a surge oI
emotion will help bring the boy to his senses. When he tells him, 'Listen. There`s
something I need to say to you. I Iucked your mother, Levy reasons that the insult will
disrupt the boy`s identiIication with the organization long enough Ior his outrage at the
statement to remind him that he`s responsible Ior his own actions (301). This doesn`t
work as Ahmad is already aware oI the aIIair. It`s not until the truck reaches the
designated spot where the tunnel`s weakest that Ahmad`s individuality returns. He`s
thinking oI his own death and how it will help to bring him to God when he realizes that
Levy wants him to push the button. The older man`s desire Ior death shocks Ahmad into
the realization that God urges creation, not destruction: 'He does not want us to desecrate

49
His creation by willing death. He wills liIe (306). Once Ahmad`s thinking Ior himselI
again, the Iirst thing he does is Ilip the switch that disarms the explosives in the back oI
the truck.
By ending the book with Ahmad deciding against blowing up the Lincoln Tunnel,
Updike reveals his conIusion about September 11. He doesn`t really understand the
terrorists` motives and his attempt to explore their reasons Ior attacking the World Trade
Center are ultimately unsuccessIul. He allows Rashid and Charlie to list what they see as
problems with America, but none oI their justiIications Ior violence Ieel like legitimate
complaints. Charlie`s concern Ior AIrican Americans and the civil rights movement
comes across sounding more like a history lesson and less like a sincere grievance.
Updike appears to be simply chronicling his own issues with the country. This becomes
even more apparent when his depictions oI Jack and Beth Levy are added to the equation.
He uses this couple to represent the worst oI America. Beth is incredibly obese; Updike
devotes a Iull eight pages to her thoughts as she struggles to climb out her recliner and
answer the ringing telephone. Levy is a nonpracticing Jew, who`s involved in an
adulterous aIIair with the mother oI a student. At times Updike seems to use Levy as a
vehicle Ior expressing his own concerns, such as his critique oI the American health care
system or his diatribe against consumerism:
They think they`re doing pretty good, with some Ilashy-trashy new outIit
they`ve bought at halI price, or the latest hyper-violent new computer
game, or some hot new CD everybody has to have, or a ridiculous new
religion when you`ve drugged your brain back to into the Stone Age. It
makes you seriously wonder iI people deserve to liveiI the massacre
masterminds in Rwanda and Sudan and Iraq don`t have the right idea.
(137)
The analysis provided by the undersecretary to the Secretary oI the Department oI
Homeland Security comes closest to genuine insight into the whole business.
Responding to the Secretary`s complaint that he can`t understand why anyone would
want to attack the United States, Hermione asserts that, 'They Iear losing something,
something precious to them . . . So precious they will sacriIice their own children to it. It

50
happens in this country, too. The marginal sects where some charismatic leader seals
them oII Irom common sense (258).
Ultimately, Updike agrees with Hermione`s assessment oI terrorists when she
claims that 'They hate the light . . . Like cockroaches. Like bats. The light shone in
darkness . . . and the darkness comprehended it not (48). He demonstrates this by not
allowing Ahmad to detonate the bomb in the tunnel. Ahmad leaves the darkness and
enters the light. Levy says as much in the last bit oI dialogue in the novel: 'Thank God
you chickened out. Or relented, let`s say. Saw the light (310). Updike also Ieels pity Ior
them just as Ahmad pities the cockroaches in Rashid`s illustration oI God`s purpose Ior
man. On the morning oI the planned suicide bombing, Ahmad Iinds a beetle trapped on
its back, kicking its legs in the air. He attempts to rescue the bug by Ilipping it over onto
its Ieet. Even though he has a timetable to Iollow, Ahmad watches the bug Ior a Iull 'Iive
minutes that partake oI the eternal (254). He Ieels the presence oI God in the death oI
the beetle: 'It had been on its back in its death throes and now is dead, leaving behind a
largeness that belongs not to this world. The experience, so strangely magniIied, has
been, Ahmad Ieels certain, supernatural (254). Updike calls both the terrorists and their
intended victims cockroaches in the novel, and both times the labels are applied, it is with
scorn and derision. However, Ahmad, who straddles the two worlds, Ieels nothing but
sympathy Ior them.
Baraka, on the other hand, Ieels no sympathy Ior either terrorists or the victims oI
terrorism. His poem, 'Somebody Blew Up America, operates in an entirely diIIerent
realm Irom Updike or DeLillo`s novels. Where their books seek understanding, Baraka`s
poem oIIers explanation. He doesn`t ask why September 11 happened; he knows why it
happened and tells us we deserved it. As Piotr Gwiazda states, 'The poem goes beyond
the events oI September 11 in its pursuit oI the ultimate causes oI terrorism . . .|it| is
written in response to speciIic acts oI terrorism, but as a whole it Iunctions as a sustained
inquiry into the causes oI violence, oppression, and injustice (479). Baraka accuses the
white hegemony oI the United States oI being the true terrorists. He cites hundreds oI
years oI oppression and oIIers a litany oI sins as his evidence. He opens the poem with a
parenthetical which brieIly summarizes his views oI the events:
(All thinking people

51
oppose terrorism
both domestic
& international . . .
But one should not
be used
to cover the other) (41)
In this, Baraka inIorms the reader that he opposes the terrorist attacks oI 9/11 just as he
opposes the preceeding hundreds oI years oI terrorist attacks perpetrated by the United
States. He also warns against allowing the United States to use the World Trade Center
attacks as an excuse Ior generating Iurther oppression. The poem makes this pretty clear,
and the Iirst couple oI stanzas lay out right away which direction the rest oI the poem will
head. 'It wasn`t our American terrorists / It wasn`t the Klan or the Skin heads Baraka
writes, going on to say that it wasn`t those 'that have murdered black people / Terrorized
reason and sanity / Most oI humanity, as they pleases (41).
What Iollows is a lengthy list oI declarative statements describing the atrocities
committed by our 'American terrorists. Most critics oI the poem, especially those in the
media, describe these as questions. They assume that Baraka is asking his readers, who it
is
Who killed the most niggers
Who killed the most Jews
Who killed the most Italians
Who killed the most Irish
Who killed the most AIricans
Who killed the most Japanese
Who killed the most Latinos (44-5)
However, the lack oI question marks suggests that Baraka isn`t asking so much as telling
his readers who it is that did these things. Early in the poem, Baraka does ask a question:
'They say (who say? Who do the saying) (42). This is where he identiIies the subject oI
the repetitive pronoun 'who: 'They is 'who, and 'they is the 'American terrorists
and the west as a whole.

52
This is what caused so much controversy in the press when Baraka Iirst started
perIorming the poem in public toward the end oI 2001. In a supposed response to
terrorist attacks, instead oI taking the opportunity to help heal and console the American
public, Baraka chooses to criticize both the current administration ('Who the Iake
president) and the nation as a whole Ior its past actions (43). Initially, Baraka Iaced
criticism Ior the lines,
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get
Bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day (49)
He was accused oI anti-Semitism and the Anti-DeIamation League viliIied him.
However, those who came to Baraka`s deIense were quick to point out that the accusers
only Iocused on those particular lines and ignored other lines that include attacks against
Jews in the listed acts oI terrorism:
Who put the Jews in the ovens,
And who helped them do it
Who said 'America First
And ok`d the yellow stars (48)
Also, as William Harris and Aldon Lynn Nielsen argue, attacks on Israel don`t instantly
translate into attacks on Jews: 'II it is the case that Israel is a democracy with Arabic
citizens, then it cannot be the case that attacks upon the government oI Israel are
automatically attacks upon Jews (185). It is also necessary to note that the controversial
lines are immediately preceded in the poem by the statement: 'Who started the Reichstag
Fire (49). This is in reIerence to the 1933 Iire that allowed Hitler to consolidate his
power and begin his political persecutions. By placing these two incidents in such close
proximity within the poem, Baraka alludes to the rumor that President Bush had advance
knowledge oI the attacks and allowed them to take place in order to legitimatize his
desire to invade Iraq to secure the United States` oil interests.
Gwiazda asserts that poetry can be seen as an agent 'oI social or political change
(460). He also argues that there is a divide between the aesthetics oI poetry and the
politics oI poetry. The critics oI Baraka`s poem, he argues, ignore the literariness oI the

53
poem and Iocus on its political agenda. This is also the Ilaw with arguments that deIend
the poem; they turn the controversy into a Iree speech issue and ignore the merits oI the
poem as poetry. Gwiazda argues that 'Somebody Blew Up America should be analyzed
as a poem, albeit one that provides political commentary. However, this is where
Gwiazda`s argument collapses and he ends up doing exactly what he criticizes others Ior;
he misses the point oI the poem. Gwiazda undermines Baraka`s message by insisting that
it is a poem about political events and not a political event itselI. Gwiazda`s insistence
that a 'troubling aspect oI the controversy over the poem is the Iact that almost none oI
the commentators who spoke about the poem publicly took it Ior what it really isa
poem eIIectively neuters it and denies the ability oI the poem to aIIect social change
(471). Baraka`s postscript to 'Somebody Blew Up America, published alongside the
poem in the 2003 book, makes it quite clear that he was less concerned with making an
aesthetic statement than he was a political one. Gwiazda concedes that 'Baraka`s poem
is an attempt to provoke class revolution by verbal means and that 'Baraka conceives
his writing career in pragmatic terms as a Iorm oI political action aimed at the destruction
oI racism and imperialism in the United States, but here again he hurts his own
argument (477;463). He can`t have it both ways. Either the poem is just a poem, and the
commentators are ridiculous Ior getting so worked up over something that is obviously an
aesthetic statement, or the poem is a political event that provokes a reaction Irom its
audience that is just as powerIul as the attacks it discusses.
Sherry Brennan argues in her article on Baraka`s 1969 poem, 'Black Art, that
Baraka believes that poets have 'a very real responsibility toward the world directly,
which cannot be discharged through the creation oI the poem as a separate, aestheticized
object. The poem must produce active, material eIIects (301). She goes on to assert that
'the poem must be both word and thing and that it must be active, as 'active as we are
(302-3). II the poem is going to be about terrorism, it must be terrorism. Brennan writes
(while quoting extensively Irom 'Black Art) that Baraka`s poems 'are live words.`
They are poems that kill.` The doer in this poem is the poem, the bad poem.` Poems /
like Iists beating,` dagger poems,` poems to smear,` Assassin poems, poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops` . . . (302). 'Somebody Blew Up America is in this
tradition. The poem doesn`t simply declare:

54
Who live on Wall Street
The Iirst plantation
Who cut your nuts oII
Who rape your ma
Who lynched your pa (42)
It actually becomes these acts. It embodies the atrocities it depicts in order to return them
to the perpetrators. The poem addresses the cycle oI oppression, how the oppressed
become the oppressors, and actively participates in the cycle. While no one would go so
Iar as to call Amiri Baraka a terrorist, it is possible to argue that his poems are just as
aIIective as a terrorist attack. Both exist in a way that moves beyond their physical being
and enters the realms oI symbolism and metaphor.
This is why Baraka`s poem succeeds as a response to September 11 and Updike`s
and DeLillo`s novels do not. Instead oI the attacks dictating the poem`s narrativeas
happens with both Falling Man and Terroristthe poem enhances and enlightens the
terrorists` narrative. It contextualizes 9/11 in a way that the novels just can`t do. DeLillo
and Updike try to understand the terrorists Irom the perspective oI the victims, whereas
Baraka points out that the aggressors are the victims, just as the victims are the aggressors.
'Somebody Blew Up America doesn`t just respond to the attacks, it engages in dialogue
with them.













55
CONCLUSION

EXPRESSING THE INEFFABLE: TERROR, VIOLENCE,
AND THE AFTERMATH

It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of
vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
William Ralph Inge

In April oI 2003, Tom Robbins published Jilla Incognito, a novel that deals primarily
with the present day exploits oI three American soldiers listed as MIA at the end oI the
Vietnam War. The novel takes place in the jungles oI Southeast Asia during the months
oI August and September 2001. While the novels and poem I discuss in my Iinal chapter
strive to understand the events oI September 11 and to place the attacks within the
context oI the new global paradigm, Robbins` text ignores the implications oI 9/11 and,
instead, Iocuses on the inevitable war the country was about to rush into.
9
In his narrative,
9/11 becomes simply a literary device, a method oI comparing the Vietnam War with the
impending Iraq War without explicitly declaring a connection. Robbins` descriptions oI
the attacks are incredibly brieI and take a backseat to the demands oI the plot, and except
Ior a very Iew short passages, the incident is largely ignored by the characters. The
events oI September 11 are absolutely essential iI the message oI the work is to succeed;
however, the book couldn`t be less concerned with September 11.
The reason I mention Robbins` book here is that it seems to take a completely
diIIerent approach to notions oI contemporary terror and terrorism than either his earlier
work, such as Still Life with Woodpecker, or anything by any other major writer
published aIter the Trade Tower attacks. As I discussed in my Iirst chapter, the eIIects oI
September 11 are so Iar reaching that even works that were written beIore the attacks
seem to reIer to the attacks. Robbins, with Jilla Incognito, has written a work that
addresses the attacks without dwelling on them in the way other works Iind inescapable.
Some writers` entire careers appear to herald the attacks. DeLillo Ialls into this category.

9
The invasion oI Iraq oIIicially began in March 2003, a month beIore Jilla Incognito was published.

56
In my Iirst chapter, I argued that Mao II has a clear division in its narrative history.
BeIore the September 11 attacks, the novel`s narrative dealt primarily with the media, its
relationship with terrorism, and how the two phenomena Ieed oII and reinIorce one
another. DeLillo`s concern was that the media and the narratives it published every
morning in the newspapers and broadcast every evening on the nightly news were
replacing the narratives supplied by novelists. DeLillo Ieared that the media`s ability to
capture the public`s attention and inIluence culture would make the novelist obsolete.
However, aIter September 11, which is when the narrative divide occurs, Mao II has its
narrative rewritten by a terrorist act. DeLillo`s preoccupation with the media is recast as
a prediction oI terrorism`s ascendancy to a position oI power in American culture. In this
new narrative, the media becomes a somewhat ineIIectual byproduct oI terrorism, a tool
Ior terrorists to use in order to increase the size oI their message`s audience. Bill Gray`s
attempt to regain some oI his lost cultural inIluence, restoring novelists to a position oI
cultural power, ultimately Iails. Gray doesn`t understand that the media isn`t responsible
Ior the novelists` decrease in status; he conIuses the message with the messenger. By the
time he realizes his mistake, it`s already too late and Rashid and his organization have
replaced him in the cultural consciousness.
Robbins` Still Life with Woodpecker, as I point out in my second chapter,
addresses some oI the same issues as Mao II, speciIically the relationship between
terrorists and crowds. Robbins puts an interesting spin on the relationship, however, by
portraying his terrorist as an individualist and the Iairy tale princess as an advocate oI
crowds and group consciousness. Wrangle believes that it is his personal responsibility
to disrupt any organization, no matter how noble or beneIicial, that takes itselI and its
mission statement too seriously. This is why he interIeres with the Care Fest, a
conIerence dedicated to environmental causes, new age medicines, and promotion oI the
natural over humankind`s tendency toward the artiIicial. Normally these are cause that
Wrangle supports; however, the earnestness oI the Fest itselI, Iorces him to resort to a
couple sticks oI dynamite. Robbins uses his metanarrator to reIlect the attitudes oI
Wrangle. The metanarrator struggles with his typewriter Ior control oI the novel. In the
end, the metanarrator wins out by destroying the typewriter and Iinishing the novel by
hand. Robbins argues that the problem with groups and organizations is that they

57
alleviate the individual oI any responsibility Ior his or her actions. The group does the
person`s thinking Ior them, and, consequently, relieves them oI the need to deal with the
consequences Ior their actions. Responsibility is dispersed over the entire group.
Burroughs, as I discussed in my third chapter, inserts two diIIerent types oI
literary terrorism into Cities of the Red Night. The most obvious is that he writes about
terrorists. The pirates` attacks against the Spanish colonists in the boy`s book section are
modeled aIter terrorist attacks in the twentieth century. These attacks involve everything
Irom planting explosives to tainting the enemy`s water supply to employing chemical
weapons. The not so obvious Iorm oI literary terrorism that Burroughs includes involves
organized attacks, by the novelist, on the conventions oI the novel and on literature itselI.
Burroughs writes himselI into the book in the Iorm oI a series oI avatars that use writing
to disrupt historical linearity and conventional narrativity. The actions oI these characters
are representative oI the novel as a whole. Their methods are Burroughs`. Snide Iorges
the books oI the red night in order to escape Irom the control oI History. Disrupting the
historical timeline allows Snide and the others to become the manipulators oI History
instead oI the manipulated. Burroughs uses the same methods as Snide to Iracture the
narrative in order to shrug oII the rigidity oI the novel. He realized that his previous
experiments with the Iorm oI the novel weren`t successIul because he attempted to
replace narrative with the cut-up. The realization that one needs narrative to hold a novel
together is what makes Cities of the Red Night a success. Whereas previously Burroughs
had only used the cut-up at the sentence level, he now applied it to the novel as a whole,
which leIt the narrative intact, but allowed it to assume a new Iorm.
The Iinal chapter deals with written responses to September 11 by DeLillo,
Updike, and Baraka. While all three texts address the issues raised by the Twin Towers`
collapse, they do so in diIIerent ways. Updike and DeLillo take the position oI survivors
and narrate their novels Irom the perspective oI those who lived through the attacks.
Baraka takes the opposite route and uses his poem to engage the attacks in metaphoric
dialogue. Each oI the works attempts to investigate the terrorists` motivations, and they
each reach separate conclusions. DeLillo`s hijackers are depicted as attacking the World
Trade Center out oI a sense oI obligation to their God and to each other. Hammad
doesn`t really want to be on the plane guarding the entrance to the cockpit with a

58
boxcutter, but he realizes that it`s his assigned role to play, and he resigns himselI to it.
Ahmad, while he doesn`t actually go through with the suicide bombing, is drawn to the
act because oI the Ieelings oI brotherhood and companionship he Ieels Irom Charlie.
Updike`s terrorist agrees to his role out oI loneliness and a desire to belong. Baraka
doesn`t give his reader reasons whv the terrorists attack the United States so much as he
Iorces the reader to ask, 'Why wouldn`t they? 'Somebody Blew Up America`s list oI
oIIenses is long and brutal. Most oI the poem`s aggression is directed toward the United
States, which is one oI the reasons, Baraka received so much criticism Ior the poem.
Overall, this thesis examined the three major types oI terrorist literature: literature
written about terrorism (DeLillo and Robbins), attacks against literature (Burroughs), and
literature as terrorism (Baraka). OI the three, the Iirst type is overwhelmingly the most
prevalent. Spy novels, thrillers, and action-adventure books make an appearance on best
seller lists almost weekly. This type oI terrorist literature also has the most popular
authors, with names like Tom Clancy, Dan Brown, and Robert Ludlow. The other two
types oI literary terrorism are Iar less popular. However, they have been steadily gaining
ground in the years since September 11.
















59
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62
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH


Stacey Suver received his B.A. Irom the University oI South Florida in 2004. He
received his M.A. Irom Florida State University in 2008. He plans to continue his
graduate education and pursue his Ph.D. with a specialization in Twentieth Century
American Literature at Florida State University