"Talk of the Town"

Both John Updike and Suzan Sontag clearly have strong feelings about the eye-opening event of 9/11. I loved the way Updike used vivid pictures and recollection in his writing. This style drew me into his story and helped me feel as if I also just experienced the tragedy of 9/11. The way he describes the destruction also made me feel empathy towards the people affected by the attack and sympathize with the point he wanted to make. The point that I concluded from the author's writing was that the immense loss and tragedy is difficult to portray on a t.v. screen, therefore; the people who were there in person are the only ones who could truly feel the sense of loss and tragedy. He wanted people to realize how bad this event really was.

The word choice chosen by Updike was also very interesting and engaging. Some of my favorite examples are "inky rivulets" and "architectural reticence". Both of these word choices had a nice ring on the tongue when read or said out loud. There were a few words in the passage that I did not know, which made some sections difficult to understand. However, the passage was well written overall which helped me piece things together and understand it in the end.

After reading Suzan Sontag's passage about 9/11, I could tell that she put a lot of time and thinking into this topic, which showed in her writing. She described how many people in America think the Al Qaeda attackers were simply cowards, but in truth they had valid reasoning behind their intentions. It does not by any means make what they did right.  A lot of what Sontag described reminded me of the discussion we had about the 9/11 attack in U.S. History. Many other countries in the world, especially in the Middle East, do not like the way the U.S. puts its nose in other countries' business. This has led to many countries resenting the U.S. and may be part of the reason why Al Qaeda chose to attack the U.S.

Overall, I truly enjoyed Sontag's writing style. I felt that the way she made her writing personal and more casual made it easier and more enjoyable to read. The line "But let's not be stupid together" is just one example of her casual and personal writing.

Despite being written about the same topic, both were very unique and different. Although I enjoyed reading both, I was able to understand and follow along with Sontag's article more clearly than Updike's.  I do feel that both were very interesting and well written articles.