Summary

In “Magnificent Desolation,” Gabbert became interested in studying disasters when she found a video online. The video showed “the sinking of the Titanic in real time” (3). She became obsessed with the Titanic story, and in turn, with “other disasters” (4, 5). She researched 9/11 next. She found footage of the skyscrapers falling and documentation of “the ‘jumpers’: people trapped in the upper floors” who jumped to escape (6). One famous image is called “The Falling Man.”

The more Gabbert researched, the more she thought about disaster, guilt, magnitude, and shock. She read Jonathan Franzen’s and Roger Angell’s writings about “survivor’s thrill” (11). Their ideas inspired her contemplation on “how quickly an ordered structure dissolves” (12). She then considered “survivor’s guilt” and “survivor’s relief” in the context of the Challenger disaster (15). Many such disasters have been explained by human hubris. Gabbert argues that...