October 29, 2001

11:25 AM

Dichotomy is a new project by Jeff Gates which is seeking submissions of 9.11 stories. Plenty of places are highlighting these stories now, but Dichotomy is doing something slightly different. (More inside.)
posted by fraying (6 comments total)

The site presents pairings of stories: one from a far-flung witness to the events, and one from someone who was there. It's the same division we had in {fray}'s Missing Pieces, where the featured stories were were all by people in New York City and the posts were mostly by people who saw it on TV, though not exclusively.

But Dichotomy takes makes this difference explicit by putting one story of each kind together, side by side, on the same page. The pairings are presented randomly, so you never know what you'll get, and some work better than others (personally, I find having some stories in third person and some in first person slightly disconcerting, though I understand why some have to be that way). When it works, the site evokes a chilling truth: it was just a matter of time and place that you watched these events on television, instead of other people watching you.
posted by fraying at 11:26 AM on October 29, 2001

(And, of course, as soon as I post this, fray.com goes offline. So, uh, ignore those links. Sigh.)
posted by fraying at 11:38 AM on October 29, 2001

Interesting, thanks for the link, fraying. To me, the most enduring and touching reflections of September 11th are these, the stories of witnesses and participants.

I'll keep checking this site to see when there's more than one participant story. That's all I seem to be getting; the one story about the first officer on flight 77.
posted by msacheson at 11:42 AM on October 29, 2001

It's true - they're still looking for submissions (which is one of the reasons I posted this).
posted by fraying at 12:06 PM on October 29, 2001

Have you ever had a photo of yourself taken in front of or near the World Trade Center Towers?
posted by Macboy at 2:19 PM on October 29, 2001

I plan to, next time I'm ... oh, damn.
posted by dhartung at 3:06 PM on October 29, 2001