A copy editor asked Glynn Stewart to add a suicide-bombing warning to an upcoming novel. Alex Clarke initially approaches the subject as a familiar feature of modern warfare, especially grey-zone conflict. Stewart then recognizes a more specific reason to have warned this editor: the New York resident had been near the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. The novel uses aircraft as explosive delivery vehicles, and Stewart accepts that their being uncrewed drones does not remove the disturbing resemblance.
Notable Point · 53:17-54:20
When military fiction echoes recent historical trauma
An editor's experience near the Twin Towers changes how the author thinks about warning readers of a fictional aircraft attack.