| Monday, April 27, 2009 6:36PM | | | | Swine Flu, Any One? (Fear Itself) | Posted By: Peter H. Fogtdal
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| Tags: PEN America 10: Fear Itself, Lou Reed, swine flu, The Language of Fear, World Voices 2009, Guillermo Fadanelli, Anya Ulinich | BREAKING NEWS: The Statue of Liberty has swine flu. Evacuate New York. Punish the Mexicans. And let's all OVERREACT ... please!
Yes, here we go again. Fear is back. It never becomes unfashionable, does it? Fear sells newspapers, and now we're all supposed to stop traveling. Europeans should stay in Europe, Americans should stay in America, and nobody should travel to Mexico because swine flu is going to do us in!
I doubt it but maybe it will. Perhaps swine flu is going to b blamed for every death in the US the next twelve months. It might surpass our fear of terrorist attacks and erectile dysfunction. All You Need Is Fear - isn't that what John Lennon sang back in 1967?
I'm sorry if this seems insensitive. I don't mean to belittle the danger of a pandemic. I'm merely pointing out that hysteria and screaming headlines don't help! Information does.
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What has this to do with American PEN, you might ask? Quite a bit. In the last brilliant issue of our magazine, PEN America 10: Fear Itself, our anxieties are examined through fiction, poetry, drama, and essays. The subject is fear in all its guises. And I suspect the same theme will be in the forefront at World Voices because there are very few writers who don't write about fear one way or the other.
Actually, The Language of Fear is the name of Friday night's event. Writers like Guillermo Fadanelli, Colum McCann, and Anya Ulinich will discuss how important fear is in literature and in our lives. The event takes place at Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 6 pm. It sounds like a must-see event to me.
Another participant at World Voices, Lou Reed has spent a life time examining fear in his music. I've been a fan of his since his ground breaking album Berlin in 1973. And I'm deeply envious of the people who are going to PEN's Cabaret Saturday night. It's sold out, of course. Like most good things in life.
But hey, we're never going to run out of fear, so we might as well make some good art about it! | | | |
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