Severance update

I finally got to read Severance a couple of weeks ago. It was a much quicker read than I had expected (I guess it makes sense since each piece was only 240 words), and I was mostly impressed. Generally, the more historical or fictional the figure, the more I liked them--there were a couple that made me uncomfortable. I've been meaning to listen to Butler's NPR interview and see if he mentions them.

One was in the voice of someone who died in the collapse of the North Tower on 9/11--the person (I can't remember now if it was a man or a woman; I think a woman) is given a name and I wasn't sure if she was real or not. I've read some 9/11 or post-9/11 fiction lately and been okay with it, but those were straightforward novels and usually dealt more with the aftermath than an eyewitness account of the events.

The other one that bothered me was the Nicole Brown Simpson one. Again, too recent? It was very direct--I don't know many people who believe OJ is innocent, but calling out his guilt in print from her point of view is pretty ballsy. And I think the idea that she was a real person with a real family who's still out there made it questionable for me. I was never completely comfortable with the definition of a public figure that they gave us in journalism school.

I thought of that today when I read this blog entry about the upcoming Fox special where OJ speculates about how he would have killed his wife. If he actually had, of course. The whole concept is incomprehensible to me; the fact that even the world's sleaziest network was willing to air it makes me wonder about the nearness of the apocalypse. Most of what I've read on the Internet expresses similar outrage, for what it's worth. I can't imagine it'll be yanked from the air because of a little disgust. But what the hell? At least the Butler piece was artful and (dare I say) sensitively done. I can't imagine the Fox thing will have any redeeming qualities.