/lit/ - Literature

>>13801755
Nice (You) for you

>>13801755
I was thinking about this book yesterday after watching some of that (terrible) Manhunt Unabomber show. There’s a few scenes where an intense omnipresent humming is used to represent technological society’s constrictions or whatever, which reminded me of the hum Kobek describes as haunting (his) Mohammed Atta, which made me realise I’d never thought about the philosophical analogue between Atta and Kaczynski before. It’s a shame there’s no public access to Atta’s architectural thesis afaik.

>>13801808
I would definitely read Atta's thesis if it was available. I don't know why someone can't publish it, it's not like a thesis on architecture is going to radicalize anyone.

Narrative

A novella by Jarett Kobek, ATTA is a partly biographical, partly fictionalized account of 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta's life. The narrative alternates chapter-by-chapter between Atta's "past" (chapters eight, seven, six...), told in the first person present, and Atta's "present" (chapters 8, 7, 6, ...), told in the third person present. The "past" narrative (moving forward) depicts Atta's boyhood, family life, move to Hamburg, time in Aleppo, brief romantic contact, and ultimate meeting with Bin Laden. The "present" narrative depicts the group's immediate actions in America pertinent to the attack itself: acquiring the necessary flight training, and constantly moving throughout the United States and internationally. Both narratives converge on "ZERO", the day of the attack. This cohesive, scene-by-scene alternation is both a straightforward literary experiment, and also makes a sharp overall narrative which is easy to imagine as a film in its own right, especially given its subject matter and alternation of scenes. Kobek's novella could indeed be adapted as a screenplay for a film, if there are producers and creatives ballsy enough to tackle the project. The length of the work itself, about 160 pages, is about right for a screenplay (or a two-hour, major motion picture).

Themes

The central theme of the book is that a significant motive for Atta was a personal aesthetic hatred of modern, western architecture. Kobek's Atta speaks of the background noise of modernity as being emanated by buildings themselves, "the sound of buildings talking". In the finale, the towers become "the 2 prongs of a tuning fork"; Atta is plagued by their noises.

Since it's easy for the average, everyman reader to also hate modern architecture, and since the book necessarily humanizes Atta by spending time with him and his various facets, the work's real transgression is that it makes Atta if not a sympathetic character, than one whose motives can be understood in their humanity. /lit/ today speaks of BURGERPUNK. ATTA is a work of Burgerpunk. I cite one passage, for demonstration, depicting Atta's travels during preparation:

"Strip malls. Limitless chancres on the American landscape. The countless, fathomless Niagara of strip malls. They are all the same. Dunkin' Donuts. Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's. Radio Shack, Long John Silver's, Arby's, Hardee's, Krispy Kreme, Baskin-Robbins, Dippin' Dots, Carvel."

>>13801839

Aleppo

Atta's Master's thesis is concerned with the example of (ancient, Islamic) Aleppo as a urban planning curative against modernity. As it happens, ATTA is concluded, following ZERO, with a brief three-page passage which seems to derive from the master's thesis itself. But given the work's semi-fictional status, it's difficult to pronounce the epilogue as a genuine passage from Atta's thesis without further research. Did Kobek sit in a reading room at Hamburg while researching? Are people allowed to access the work at the library itself? Is the following worldcat entry legitimate?

https://www.worldcat.org/title/khareg-bab-en-nasr-ein-gefahrdeter-altstadtteil-in-aleppo-stadtteilentwicklung-in-einer-islamisch-orientalischen-stadt/oclc/935623976

This author has taken some personal interest in the academic theses of controversial figures. He has downloaded and printed out a personal copy of Theodore Kaczynski's doctoral thesis, "Boundary Functions", which is still available for purchase at the below link. He has also sat in the reading room of a local college and read the dissertation of his estranged lesbian aunt, on the cultural care for Hmong people in Minnesota hospital systems. So yes, I also would like to read Atta's work. Is there a German equivalent of proquest where the thing has been catalogued? Or is it formally suppressed and kept locked up tight in a back room? These are my questions.

https://dissexpress.proquest.com/dxweb/results.html?QryTxt=&By=&Title=&pubnum=6717790

>>13802014
Well you sold it, I'm definitely reading this book. I think my university library has it.

Hijackers

The work's plot also treats the relationship among the hijackers in a dramatically compelling way, which again suggests the possibility of film adaptation. The special focus is the triadic relationship between Atta (stoic oldest child), Marwan al-Shehhi (south tower pilot-bomber, youngest, gets on well with everyone) and Ziad Jarrah (D.C. target, middle-child, only had 4 crew, failed, happily). Due to Jarrah's womanizing, Atta and Jarrah are constantly at odds with each other; the issue is not so much one of enemies, as of different personality types working for the same goal. These three, both in novella and in fact, formed the core of the attack: they were pilots, Hamburg Cell members, and unlike all-but-one of the last-minute muscle hijackers (who Atta resents as stupid beasts in the story), did not hail from Saudi Arabia.

The Thousand and One Nights

An especially transgressive chapter (because it humanizes Atta) occurs when he dates Amal. In the story, Atta visits Amal while researching in Aleppo. It doesn't work out, but Atta is nevertheless captivated by her storytelling ability. Amal seems to recount a particular episode from the Thousand and One Nights (I wonder if it is a genuine one), a very germane literary device from Kobek at this point, which isn't hackneyed in its execution. The point here is not the story-within-the-story, its authentic literary status (as an episode from the 1001 Nights), although this is "authenticity" is a legitimate object of study. In the story itself, Atta is fascinated by the simple fact of Amal's womanhood. But his principles win out, and he never returns. The 1001 Nights are not continued for a second.

Whitman

In the same volume of the OP, a likewise part-imaginary-part-factual short story follows: "The Whitman of Tikrit", which depicts the capture of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War. The temporal placement of the smaller story after the major novella is appropriate.

Here, Hussein amuses himself as well as he can, cursing both Bushes, Rumsfeld, and Bin Laden, in the time before his capture. A little mock trial is made of insects at one point, and Hussein refrains from shooting his helper, since the helper displays absolutly no disloyalty when tested. Hussein's own literary career is considered against Walt Whitman; Americans presented him with a copy of Leaves of Grass at one earlier point, which he loved so much that he had drawn and quartered an assistant who had the temerity to inform him that Whitman was a homosexual.

In the end, Hussein is caught, having himself a rather long Whitman beard. "One of the soldiers turns towards his comrades. In the moment before violence, the light shows the Tyrant a face and he recognizes it. It is American, one of the roughs, disorderly and fleshy."

>>13802014
>So yes, I also would like to read Atta's work. Is there a German equivalent of proquest where the thing has been catalogued? Or is it formally suppressed and kept locked up tight in a back room? These are my questions.

At least from what I as a kraut just read, it was never released to the public as master thesis aren't required to be published, like doctoral thesis, and are normally just held by the university for five years and then returned to the author or destroyed if they don't want it back.
https://www.ndr.de/der_ndr/presse/mitteilungen/Unveroeffentlichte-Diplomarbeit-von-0911-Todespilot-Atta-Bibliotheken-scheuen-sich-Dokument-zu-archivieren,pressemeldungndr14336.html

Bumping this thread simply because I picked up ATTA completely by chance at a second-hand bookstore last year, and found it incredible. One of the best literary evocations of suicide terrorism I've ever read, up there with Mishima's Runaway Horses.

Great thread, I might take a look at this as well. Thanks for the rec, OP