329. How Did the Sept. 11 Terror Attacks Change the Course of Fantastical Fiction?

In the last 25 years, whole human beings have been born, grown up, graduated, married, and become parents. They may not remember that day when our world was gripped by events that seemed stolen from dystopian novels. On Sept. 11, 2001, militant religious terrorists hijacked four planes in the United States and plunged them into the sides of large buildings. Thousands died. Millions mourned. And every real person and fantastical fiction was forever changed.

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1. Where we were when the towers fell

• Zack’s memory of discovering the news by himself on a Tuesday
• Stephen’s memory from just after one class at his own college
• Initial fears, end-times narratives, and a nation cast into grief
• Final blame: the militant group al-Qaeda fighting for their jihad
• This self-destructive and religious evil confused many onlookers.

2. Aftershocks in the world of pop culture

• That December: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
• The next May, Spider-Man (2002). And later The Two Towers.
• These three films and more drew on viewers’ need for heroic tales.
• Stories like The Dark Knight (2008) explored counter-terrorism.
• Christian publishers released many end-times or terrorism books.

3. 25 years later, some truth is under threat

• We’ve talked about conspiracy theories. Many focus on this event.
• But we must rely on testimony from people who lived the reality.
• Today we may not have fantasy/superhero films if not for Sept. 11.
• And the U.S. prevented more mass-casualty terrorism … so far.
• Other stories explore the pre-political realities of justice and war.

Com station

Top question for listeners

• Where were you (or a loved one) on Sept. 11, 2001?

Tiffany Lamb in the RealmSphere recalled the 1980s:

There are so many shows that had an effect on me that I am not sure I can pick just one. However, I find when I go back and rewatch them, I usually am unable to sit through them. The teenage me and the senior me are very different people, thank God! Still, the very first thing that popped into my head was the only cartoon I used to watch, Dungeons & Dragons. I loved that show. I didn’t watch a ton of tv, but on the weekends I watched Tarzan, Batman & Robin (KaPow!), and Superman. I still remember when I learned the original Superman [actor George Reeves] committed suicide. I think that was when I realized that the lives people lived on the outside were very different from what they were living in private. Basically, I came to understand that actors are not really much different than the rest of us. Because of this insight, I never did fall into the hero worship that so many actors and rock stars get from their audience.

… I always thought of it as the age of innocence. However, going back and rewatching certain shows, like the Golden Girls, I can see where that was naive and due to my youth. Still, I miss the innocence of that era, and the hope everyone had for the future. We seem to be lacking that hope in our younger generation now. I wish kids nowadays could experience what we did growing up back then. It seemed like anything was possible.

Next on Fantastical Truth

We identified the villains behind the Sept. 11 attacks. Some doubt this could be true. W