Response to NYTimes Essay: Fic vs. Non-fic in a 9/11 World

On the last page of the New York Times Book Review section (8/7) this week there is an essay stating that fiction is being cut back from magazines, as if it were a recent phenom, but actually, as a short story writer since the early '90's (ok, so I haven't been that prolific, but I have tried to send my stuff out) I can say that the editors of general interest mags have been cutting back on their fic since then.

But...one of the issues brought up by the essayist was that since 9/11, there hasn't been much fic in response to that tragedy. Or set in the post 9/11 world in a meaningful way. And that now we're a news centered culture.

This person is thinking of 9/11 like it's an event that's over, like it's a calendar day gone by. And now we're in a new world, a new day. It's not true. Here is the truth: There has been no new day since 9/11. After the planes hit the World Trade Center, we waited for more planes to hit, more buildings to explode. We waited, in front of TV's, hungrily eyeing our sets, to decide if we should flee, to look for some key to our own safety, to controlling our own destinies.

The calendar days rolled by, but the next explosions never came. And while we go through the pretense of our daily lives of working, raising our kids, getting married, partying on, we are still waiting, looking at our TVs, newspapers, magazines, websites for a new explosion, a message, a clue, a key to our survival.