SOURCE: Mitchell, W. J. T. “9-11: Criticism and Crisis.” Critical Inquiry 28, no. 2 (winter 2002): 576-81.

In the following essay, Mitchell expounds on the role of criticism and review in the context of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

The stately pace of the quarterly journal makes it almost impossible to reflect on current events in a timely fashion. By the time one's words appear in print, they will already have been overtaken by events. The horizon of recent history and imminent possibility, the context of choice and decision making will have changed in unforeseeable ways. What point, then, could there be in producing a timely utterance that will be outdated by the time it is heard? How can we know, as we write in this moment of “hot” historical time, what will have been the right thing to say?

The answer, of course, is that we cannot know, and that...