Ruin More Beautiful than the Building
Ann Treneman's London Times piece (13 September 2001) — Mailer's first response to the September 11 attacks, given from Provincetown two days after, calling the towers 'two huge buck teeth' and the ruin 'more beautiful than the building,' and warning that America would become 'the most hated nation on earth.'
Read an excerpt (rights pending)
“Ruin More Beautiful than the Building,” Ann Treneman’s article in the (London) Times (13 September 2001), is Mailer’s first public response to the September 11 attacks, given by phone from Provincetown as he watched the coverage. He called the towers “two huge buck teeth,” judged the ruin “more beautiful than the building was,” and — raging against terrorism — warned that “large parts of the world … see us as cultural oppressors and aesthetic oppressors,” concluding, “We are going to be the most hated nation on earth.” The 9/11 attacks would preoccupy his late political writing (see Why Are We at War?, 2003).
A full transcription, held in the working archive pending rights clearance, is at full text.