9/11 – Crossfades (Der 11. September. Überblendungen)

September marks the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
In response to this momentous event in world history, which triggered a global emotional outpouring, Robert Menasse wrote an essay describing the attack as a collective »shock, world, and media event«, relating it to the formative childhood experience of John F. Kennedy’s assassination and to the memory of Allende’s murder.
Some time later, the essay gave rise to the short story The American Glasses, in which the historical event is told with subjective memory and childhood emotions, causing a young couple to stumble over their subjective worldviews regarding relative truth and interpretation.
In an afterword, the Dutch Germanist Ewout van der Knaap analyzes the genesis and relationship between the two texts.