Extremely Fresh and Incredibly Young

If catharsis requires tragedy, does real-life tragedy require time before it can become catharsis?

All Quiet on the Western Front appeared 11 years after the end of WWI, and Catch-22 16 years after WWII. The Things They Carried appeared roughly two decades after Vietnam. But, later this year, we’ll see the release of a half-dozen novels that “use 9/11 and its aftermath as central elements of their plot or setting.”

Among those novels is the sophomore effort of not only Jonathan Safran Foer, but 21-year old Nick McDonell (Twelve), which raises yet another question. Which matters more: time or age?

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.