Imaginative Literature and Mr. Abdulmutallab

Subtitle: Who wants to waste time reading fiction, when people are trying to bomb airplanes?

An acquaintance of Mr. Abdulmutallab, who studied Arabic with him in Yemen and lives in Orange County, California, is quoted in today's New York Times (A14) as urging people to "try and understand what is going on in our own backyards."  He claims that "It's pointless trying to pin the blame for this on those in far-off lands. . . .We have to ask ourselves why a young man like Umar Farouk would do this, what the factors were in London that drove him to violence."

If the claims of this California acquaintance resonate for you, I recommend John Updike's novel, The Terrorist (2006).   The novel, centered in New Jersey, maps the transformation of a young man who becomes the terrorist.  While the book's suspense is well-crafted, the novel addresses the question posed by Mr. Abdulmutallab's acquaintance:  why would a young man do this.  If you like, here is a link to a book review:  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/books/06kaku.html.  Although the reviewer may discourage you from reading the novel, I do not.  I understand the criticisms, but I still think the book worth reading; it drew me in well enough to consider some dynamics that must part of stories like today's Detroit news.

On a personal note, for many years I have studied literature with students in the context of an English Department.  More recently, I have worked as a member of a Humanities team.  As such, I have had to ask myself what literature brings to a course that also includes History, Art, Religion and Philosophy.  I believe one of literature's primary gifts is its representation of the individual human life.  Imaginative literature, like Updike's novel, leads us into the life of another, while painting the cultural context in which that person lives.

Empathy, therefore, grows out of this reading experience.  Ironically, given these terrorist acts, empathy--the ability to imagine and know the life of a fellow human being--is what the world's major religions have been trying to teach us for thousands of years.