20 years without "twins"

How New York recalled September 11. Conversation with cultural scientist Solomon Volkov

Today, in the new episode of the Podcast “Genis: a look from New York” -a conversation with a cultural historian, a musicologist and a New Yorkist with a 40-year experience, we are discussing the 20th anniversary of the raid of terrorists at the “Gemini”: who and why recalls-in series, in museums and in our lives.

We are easy to find on the air and on the Radio Liberty website. Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes , Google Podcasts , Yandex Music . Take up in a conversation: write to me on social networks and in the accounts of "Freedom", as well as on all podcasts.

Alexander Genis: By the 20th anniversary of the raid of terrorists on New York, the city was preparing seriously and long. Many events dedicated to this tragedy took place both in our city and throughout the country. But the most impressive of them is six episodes of the television series, which was prepared by the magazine Nashnl Gioographic, together with the museum and the September 11 memorial, which for 20 years collected and selected materials for history.

The series called "September 11: one day in America" was met with great interest. Suffice it to say that his rating of the audience came close to the full ten: 9 and a half stars on IDMB, I don’t remember that. Archive materials were included in the picture, we have never seen many personnel before, but the main thing is detailed, very frank and extremely sincere interviews with people who survived this day. Spectators, among whom are many who were already born and grew up after the death of the "twins", see the eyes of witnesses. We hear the stories of firefighters, police officers, medical workers, rescuers and those who were inside burning skyscrapers, that is, everyone who stood as close as possible; Those who were closer did not survive.

The authors of the series, excluding the announcer text, entrusted the narrative only to those who survived this day. And this gives their work an extremely subjective character - a living, human story outside analysis and politics. It is important that in 20 years no detail has lost its enormous emotional power - simply because it is impossible to forget this. We see a wide variety of people-a fireman who especially distinguished that day, a physician who picked up a dying woman, a businessman who put on his best suit and a bright tie, a cook who always dreamed of working in a restaurant on the 107th floor at a decisive business meeting.

But most of all, as always on the anniversary of the terrorist attack, I am touched by the stories of people who ran along endless stairs from 100-story skyscrapers-racing with fire. All of them, without exception, are heroes, already because they did not succumb to panic and helped each other. One middle -aged lady tells, swallowing tears, about a disabled person with a prosthesis instead of a leg. Unable to go down, he wanted to stay in a burning office so as not to interfere with the rest. He was picked up by unfamiliar men and demolished him in his arms, not allowing him to die. And this whole series is full of such stories.

It is customary to scold New York for selfishness, pride, soullessness, fussiness, vanity, boasting, but that day, September 11, 2001, the city redeemed its sins and became a hero.

(Music)

Alexander Genis: Solomon, you and I ourselves witnesses the death of the "twins". What do you first remember when it comes to this day?

Solomon Volkov: The TV screen that I turned on because I saw that something unusual was happening on the street, that it was-it was impossible to understand. I turned on the TV, and already on all channels there were only pictures of the burning buildings of the “twins”, running people who did not understand what happened. If you remember this feeling, no one understood what was happening, and everyone was afraid of the worst. Then I read that a huge number, several thousand people got into boats and sailed from New York, so that only to be away from this city. People felt that something unprecedented and terrible would now happen to the city, they tried to run away even from it. Of course, I also had the absolute shock from this. On the fourth or fifth day after I went out into the streets.

At first it was a dead city, but when I saw a T -shirt on the oncoming man with the inscription "I survived on September 11," I realized that everything was in order. As they say in America: business of America is a business. So, after five days, people did a business on this disaster, and then I realized that everything was in order. How did you survive this day?

Alexander Genis: You remind me of our friend Andrei Zadansky, who on this day put the car in the wrong place and received a fine. He says that he was never so happy to get a fine, because this meant that life continues. You still looked at the distance, the TV is that everyone saw, but it was completely different with me. I live on the shore of the Hudson, and for the first time I found out about these events when our colleagues from Prague called me and said: "Look out the window." I ran to the embankment and saw how skyscrapers burn, how the plane crashes, all this was before my eyes, unlike the TV, I saw it all alive. And it was the most luxurious autumn day, which only happens. In New York, the climate is very unpredictable, but on September 11, 20 years ago there was excellent weather. Such are the days of "golden autumn" when the air is crystal clean and there was absolute silence. Everything happened silently, the wind blew towards the ocean, all the sounds were demolished into the water. I did not hear anything, but only saw the smoke covered in the skyscraper, and then, when the smoke scattered, there was no skyscraper. All this was most reminiscent of animation, it seemed that this simply could not. And people shocked me. People stood around me, everyone took off what happened, but terrible silence reigned, everyone silently looked at this wild spectacle.

Since then, I talked a hundred times about what happened on September 11, and each time it seems that everyone is telling the same thing as it was on this day, as they transferred. This is an event that will never leave our memory. Therefore, now, on the 20th anniversary, people who were born after that, they re-worry with us, witnesses of this event, all these historical tragic watches, when there were a raid on skyscrapers.

Solomon Volkov: You rightly said in your introduction that New York could be perceived as the city of soulless, fussy, conceited, but on this day New York became a hero city. For me, New York was transformed, transformed on this day. I must say that the main figure for me in those days was Rudy Juliani, the mayor of New York at that time. Now Juliani is hung, maybe even fair, many dogs are another person than the Juliani that I saw then. For me, as I am sure, for so many he was the main figure, the main character of this day, because he turned out to be a real, firm, confident leader who managed to prove to the New Yorkers that life continues.

Alexander Genis: I completely agree with you. I want to remind you that at that year on Christmas, all the windows decorated, as usual, the deer of Santa Claus. As you know, one of the deer is called Rudolph, and he was portrayed with the face of our mayor, also Rudolph.

But what you say about "hanging dogs" is, of course, strongly said, because Juliani, as they say, ruined the necrologist. He was set aside from legal practice, he was caught on lies, on fraud, on crook. Supporting Trump's “big lie” about the stolen elections, Juliani forever ruined his reputation. But we must remember him as he was September 11th. I will not forget this to him, whoever he became today.

We started a conversation with a chronic film. This memorial series, prepared by museum employees on September 11, caused admiration - the film promises to remain in history as the most complete certificate of tragedy, and emotional evidence. But another series, shot by the anniversary of the famous film director Spike Lee, caused a scandal that forced the author to move the film before going to the screen. The work of the indigenous New York, Spike Lee, who assures that his city was in DNA, was conceived as an Ommage New York, a story about how courageously the city has survived the most difficult days over the past 20 years. This is our pandemic unhappy, not only September 11th. But the main episode was dedicated, of course, the death of the "twins", it was with him that everything went by no means smoothly. Solomon, tell us about this control.

Solomon Volkov: At first, a little about the adhesion Lee. This is a significant and colorful figure in American cinema. It is extremely pretty to me as a person and as a director. He is an eternal violator of calm. I would call it African American Quentin Tarantino. Each film Lee provokes some kind of control, literally everyone, starting from the very first, which was called "She needs it desperately", 1986, a young spike Lee. The film received a Cannes award. Subsequent films collected many different awards. Spike Lee became the first African American director, who worked in a large way, in a large way, with large solid firms in Hollywood, and in this sense he, of course, is a historical figure. He made films very different. "Blues about a better life" is such a very peculiar history of the emergence of American jazz, and on the other hand, the film-biography "Malcolm X" about the leader of the radical African American organization. What was not accused of Spike Lee: both misoginism and in anti -Semitism, recently attacked him for defending Woody Allen. So with this series. He interviewed for this film more than two hundred people - this is a tremendous job in itself. In the last episode associated with the death of the “twins” buildings, he in the initial version gave the floor to the representatives of the group called “architects and engineers for the truth about September 11”. They prove that the skyscrapers were brought down not by terrorists, but by some conspirators within the country. After all, we now live in an era of all kinds of conspiracy theories, their extraordinary distribution primarily thanks to the Internet. So the 2016 survey showed that more than half of the Americans believe that the state hides various information from them in one way or another. Many people do not trust the state. An example is unidentified flying objects. Indeed, in this sense, the state sometimes gives reasons for this. For so many years, the information about the UFO was classified, then they have been released with some separate pieces, understand this as you want, especially if you are not a specialist, you involuntarily begin to think that something is deliberately hiding from you.

At closed shows for the press on Spike Lee, critics attacked for providing the vote of this conspiracycological organization. Everyone began to prove that this is at least the deepest misconception, but in fact a pure lies. As a result, he made a new edition of this series, tried to soften the scandalous impression, which first defended his version.

Alexander Genis: All this, of course, happens against the background, as you rightly said, crazy conspiracy theories. And this is extremely dangerous, dangerous in all respects. Then we hear that on January 6, supporters of all sorts of anarchic groups, not fans of Trump, attacked the Capitol, then we hear that the vaccine is conceived in order to “chip” us all. Then they tell us that at first everyone will be forced to vaccinate, and then they will take away the Bible and weapons from them. This can also be heard, and sometimes from the very top.

The fact that Spike Lee gave an equal time to conspiracyrs and those who refute them plunged into the amazement of the New York and insulted them. That is why they were attacked by their spike, for example, New York Times, which supported him in every possible way, but this caused all rabies. Which is fair.

You know, Solomon, I myself am a victim of such conspiracy conversations, because I have a comrade, I will not call him, who for several months after September 11 explained that not a single Jew died in these towers. Jews, he said, and not only he, warned in advance, so they all were saved. But at that time, from day to day for several months, the "New York Times" printed the lists of the dead in this building. Each time I called my comrade and asked: "What do you think, Nathan Cohen, who is he by nationality?" He says: "Well, I do not know, there are different opinions." - "And who is Abraham Shapiro by nationality?" He says: "I have no idea." In the end, this list ended, but I did not manage to convince it, like many others.

It always seems to me that tragedies such as this terrorist act, and as everything related to Pandemia, give rise to the most medieval, wildest rumors, because they return a person to primitive fear. We are afraid of incomprehensible, it seems to us that we do not know how to deal with it if there is no evil will behind this. Intent-then simply, then well, then everything is fine, because there is some kind of secret villain like Gates, who everyone hate, because they believe that he should somehow chip our sick population. In short, Spike Lee, of course, flew with this film. Because the film is conceived excellent, there are a lot of magnificent interviews, as you said correctly, but this mistake will be remembered, of course. Despite the fact that he reduced his film by half an hour, one way or another, all this control, as you say, will remain in his portfolio.

The 20th time we celebrate the anniversary of this event, each time they are all celebrated in different ways. What do you remember most of these twenty anniversary that we have already experienced?

Solomon Volkov: I personally try to avoid the whole kind of memorial events and ceremonies, it’s just hard for me. By the way, in this sense, I had a like -minded Dovlatov, who more than once or twice admitted that he had all kinds of memorial ceremonies as a burden. Therefore, I want to ask you what you remember the most?

Alexander Genis: You had one more like -minded person - Goethe, who hated the funeral and did not go to bury his closest friend Schiller, believing that death is an insult to a genius.

In my opinion, the most touching memorial act was when two towers of light were built on the other side of the Hudson. Of 200 spotlights, rays were produced. At night, they created mirage, virtual towers in memory of the dead "twins", which were the most beautiful skyscrapers in the city. Perhaps, I must also say about this and remind you that there were no better. And the house that was built in their place can not compare with the previous brilliant "oak". One skyscraper is a skyscraper, and two are already a circulation, a writer’s business, maybe that’s why I liked them so much.

When the light towers rose in the dark above the city and pierced the sky - it was unusually beautiful and touching. But I liked even more that they were disconnected when it turned out that the light of birds was worried. In my opinion, this is terribly pretty. And this reminded me of one of the most touching stories related to September 11. Literally on the day of the tragedy, the next day, a day later - everywhere the written posters hung in the hands with the question of whether the locked animals were left without care. Their owners died on September 11, and cats, dogs, parrots live in their apartments, they must be saved. And the city authorities, despite the fact that the funnels were still smoking, helped animals.

Now, on the 20th anniversary, and in connection with animals, I want to say about another wonderful memorial event. In the Museum of Dogs, and there is one in New York among more than a hundred museums, arranged an exhibition of dog dogs. They worked in the ruins of a skyscraper, trying to find survivors. No dog died, by the way, and there were about 300 dogs. Now they all died from old age. But in this museum we can see portraits of dogs and thank them too.

(Music)

Alexander Genis: Solomon, today all the events of the current anniversary of memorial events are held against a very sad background. This is the withdrawal of Americans from Afghanistan, the Taliban triumph and so on. All this is the final of the war, which in essence began on September 11, 2001. How closely are these events in your view?

Solomon Volkov: For me, the main legacy of these terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and subsequent events is a question of how to respond to such villainy. Emotionally or rationally? I do not have a certain established point of view. Because at the first moment it is quite obvious that the emotional reaction is justified, needed. This emotional reaction requires decisive actions, such as air strikes. Say, an example is the murder of Osama Bin Laden in 2011, which was organized by American special services by order of Barack Obama. Here - it was an absolutely legal, necessary, emotionally extremely satisfactory action, if you like, a certain balm on the soul. The question is that after September 11 the wars began - in Iraq, in Afghanistan, all this dragged on in Afghanistan, as we know, for 20 years. Biden’s President is attacked for turning military operations in Afghanistan, and withdrew American troops from there. This Bidden justifies as a rational step, I completely agree with him in this.

As you think, what is preferable-an emotional reaction, and should this emotional reaction last 20 years and continue and now, as we see, in the responses to Biden’s actions and Biden's actions? He is accused almost of betrayal, of treason, and he, on the contrary, proves that this is the only possible way out of that impasse.

Alexander Genis: We always try to consider any problem in a historical context. Тут тоже есть исторические параллели. Когда началась война в Афганистане, которую все приветствовали, потому что было совершенно очевидно, где прячутся виновные, то эту войну еще приветствовали. Когда началась война в Ираке, уже с все стало сложнее. Если все эти 20 лет военные действия на Востоке американской армии в общем не вызывали особого возмущения по сравнению, скажем, с Вьетнамской войной, то это объясняется только одним фактом: дело в том, что сегодня американская армия добровольная, какой она не была во Вьетнамскую войну. Не было призыва, не было мобилизации, поэтому американцы и терпели 20 лет.

Но я помню, что когда началась череда военных операций, то были в Америке критики, которые говорили: вспомним Первую мировую войну. Это очень правильно, потому что всегда надо вспоминать самую большую ошибку в истории человечества, в истории Запада уж точно – это Первую мировую войну. Историки говорят: почему началась Первая мировая война? Не из-за того, что был совершен отдельный террористический акт, некий Гаврило Принцип убил эрцгерцога – это трагическое событие. Но реакция на террористический акт была несопоставима с самим актом. То же самое произошло с событиями 11 сентября: реакция на эти события была несопоставима с самим событием. Опять-таки, вспомним Первую мировую войну. Если бы любому главе правительства сказали в 1914 году, что война продлится четыре года и закончится такой страшной бойней, то ни одна бы страна не решилась ввязаться в эту войну. Скажите, если бы политикам, тому же Бушу-младшему, который был тогда президентом, сказали, что война в Афганистане будет продолжаться 20 лет, решился бы он на эти действия или нет? I think not.

Но я могу понять и другую точку зрения. Мне сейчас все говорят о том, что Америка зря пытается построить демократию, нести свободу для людей, которым она совершенно не нужна, что афганский крестьянин не хочет ни свободы, ни демократии, если его дочка накрасит губы. И это по-своему справедливо. Но вспомним, что у Америки есть и другой опыт. Говорят, не нужно строить чужое государство, не нужно исправлять чужие ошибки. Тем не менее, две самые богатые страны Азии и Европы – это те, которые были оккупированы американскими войсками, – Япония и Германия. Или Южная Корея, где американские солдаты сумели защитить нищую страну, вошедшую в десятку самых развитых в научном, в техническом отношении стран мира – под американским зонтиком. Была надежда на это и в Афганистане, конечно, она была, как мы знаем, напрасна. Тем не менее, можно понять, откуда это шло.

Соломон, давайте от политики, которая неизбежно вторгается в наши беседы, перейдем к культуре. Дело в том, что День памяти 11 сентября завершился крайне важным событием в культурной жизни Нью-Йорка. Открылся после долгого карантина Метрополитен. Без оперы Нью-Йорк не полный город. Возвращение Мет приурочено к 11 сентября. Эту годовщину главный музыкальный театр страны отметил исполнением "Реквиема" Верди. Как вы оцениваете этот выбор? Как вы оцениваете это событие?

Соломон Волков: Я сказал, что не люблю всякого рода поминальных событий, но к этому событию я отнесся с большим интересом и симпатией. Хочу напомнить, что 500 бесплатных билетов на этот концерт в Метрополитен-опера с исполнением "Реквиема" Верди были распределены среди семей погибших людей в теракте 11 сентября. Это благородный жест. Слушатели были в масках, от них, конечно, требовали справки о вакцинации, их проверяли – это все понятно. Но, слава богу, концерт этот прошел, его транслировало Общественное телевидение, главный культурный телевизионный канал Соединенных Штатов. Ведущей была, что тоже отражает тенденцию времени, Мисти Коупленд, афроамериканская солистка балета, сейчас очень популярная. Среди исполнительниц была меццо-сопрано Элина Гаранча из Латвии – это тоже для нас с вами, как людей, которые много лет провели в Риге, тоже очень приятно.

"Реквием" был создан в 1868 году Верди на смерть Россини. Это было коллективное сочинение, Верди досталась по жребию заключительная часть Libera Me ,"Избавь меня, Господи". Потом так сложилось, что умер Алессандро Мандзони, замечательный итальянский писатель, он был очень важным человеком для Верди, его памяти Верди посвятил уже собственный "Реквием", полностью им написанный, куда это Libera Me вошла в качестве заключительной части. Главная тема "Реквиема" и Libera Me – это для Верди Dies irae, "День гнева". Эта тема проходит и в последней части "Реквиема" Верди. Но Верди преображает этот символ, для него это не символ Судного дня, а безжалостное вторжение смерти. Это не поминальное событие, а настоящая оперная драма, и мы в ней слышим не заупокойную мессу, а страстное моление о жизни.

"Реквием" Верди, Libera Me.

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Вы слушали подкаст Александра Гениса "Взгляд из Нью-Йорка". В этом эпизоде, приуроченном к 20-й годовщине разрушения террористами небоскребов-"Близнецов", мы с культурологом, музыковедом и другим ньюйоркцем с 40-летним стажем обсуждали годовщину и связанные с ней культурные мероприятия. We are easy to find on the air and on the Radio Liberty website. Subscribe to my podcast on iTunes , Google Podcasts , Yandex Music . Пишите мне в социальных сетях, оставляйте свои комментарии и приветствия в аккаунтах "Свободы" и на всех подкаст-платформах.

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