One of the most curious scenes ever penned by cartoonist Art Spiegelman depicts a guy painting the Twin Towers -- New York City's World Trade Center -- engulfed in flames. The odd, striking, disturbing thing about Spiegelman's cartoon drawing is that it appears in his book "In the Shadow of No Towers," his memoir of experiencing 9/11 four blocks from Ground Zero, the neighborhood where he still lives today.
Yes, Spiegelman told me during a phone interview last week, he and his wife and daughter actually witnessed that scene -- that artist painting the doomed towers -- on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Spiegelman will present a free lecture on the history of comics and cartooning, and his place in it, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, in Elizabeth Hall on the campus of Stetson University, 421 N. Woodland Blvd., DeLand. (See my interview with Spiegelman in the My Week section in Sunday's News-Journal.)
"They passed some guy on Canal Street painting the towers," Spiegelman
writes under his cartoon depiction of the painter and his canvas.
"Glancing south, they could only see the billowing toxic smoke -- the
damn model had moved."
I recently bought a CD by Ravi Shankar, the master sitar player from India. Titled "Homage to Mahatma Gandhi," it features a piece, a raga titled "Mohan Kauns," that Shankar composed only a few days after the great Indian leader was assassinated. That tragic muse descended upon Shankar, of course, as he sought to express his grief, his nation's grief and the esteem they held for their beloved leader.
What was going through the mind -- and heart -- of that 9/11 painter? Neither Spiegelman nor I will ever know. The knee-jerk reaction that many of us might have -- that the guy is a soulless, unfeeling bastard who was ignoring the human tragedy unfolding before his eyes -- is too simple an explanation.
Who can say how any of us might react when profoundly stunned by sudden tragedy? Who can say how, when riddled with grief and shock, we might unleash the sudden, heavy sadness of our hearts?
Was that painter any different from the hundreds of photographers and videographers -- some journalists, some not -- who set their cameras in action that day?
Even more disturbing scenes appear in "No Towers." Some of the most unsettling depict the moments after Spiegelman and his wife arrived at their daughter Nadja's school just a few blocks from the flaming towers.
One panel shows a deeply anguished girl with an explanation in Spiegelman's caption: "Many of the kids saw the bodies falling past their windows. Some have parents who work at the towers."
That panel is juxtaposed with a depiction of two smiling, wide-eyed, teenaged boys and the caption: "Racing up 10 flights to get Nadja, I see two boys giving each other high fives. 'They hit the Pentagon,' says one. 'Cool!' says the other."
Yes, who can say how any of us might react when profoundly stunned by sudden tragedy, but talk about disturbing ...
If You Go
WHAT: Art Spiegelman will present a free lecture on the history of comics and cartooning, and his place in it.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday
WHERE: Elizabeth Hall on the campus of Stetson University, 421 N. Woodland Blvd., DeLand.
MORE INFORMATION: Rick de Yampert interview's Spiegelman in this Sunday's My Week.
Rick de Yampert is The Daytona Beach News-Journal's entertainment writer. He can be reached at rick.deyampert@news-jrnl.com
I recently bought a CD by Ravi Shankar, the master sitar player from India. Titled "Homage to Mahatma Gandhi," it features a piece, a raga titled "Mohan Kauns," that Shankar composed only a few days after the great Indian leader was assassinated. That tragic muse descended upon Shankar, of course, as he sought to express his grief, his nation's grief and the esteem they held for their beloved leader.
What was going through the mind -- and heart -- of that 9/11 painter? Neither Spiegelman nor I will ever know. The knee-jerk reaction that many of us might have -- that the guy is a soulless, unfeeling bastard who was ignoring the human tragedy unfolding before his eyes -- is too simple an explanation.
Who can say how any of us might react when profoundly stunned by sudden tragedy? Who can say how, when riddled with grief and shock, we might unleash the sudden, heavy sadness of our hearts?
Was that painter any different from the hundreds of photographers and videographers -- some journalists, some not -- who set their cameras in action that day?
Even more disturbing scenes appear in "No Towers." Some of the most unsettling depict the moments after Spiegelman and his wife arrived at their daughter Nadja's school just a few blocks from the flaming towers.
One panel shows a deeply anguished girl with an explanation in Spiegelman's caption: "Many of the kids saw the bodies falling past their windows. Some have parents who work at the towers."
That panel is juxtaposed with a depiction of two smiling, wide-eyed, teenaged boys and the caption: "Racing up 10 flights to get Nadja, I see two boys giving each other high fives. 'They hit the Pentagon,' says one. 'Cool!' says the other."
Yes, who can say how any of us might react when profoundly stunned by sudden tragedy, but talk about disturbing ...
If You Go
WHAT: Art Spiegelman will present a free lecture on the history of comics and cartooning, and his place in it.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday
WHERE: Elizabeth Hall on the campus of Stetson University, 421 N. Woodland Blvd., DeLand.
MORE INFORMATION: Rick de Yampert interview's Spiegelman in this Sunday's My Week.
Rick de Yampert is The Daytona Beach News-Journal's entertainment writer. He can be reached at rick.deyampert@news-jrnl.com
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