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My POV
Brian A. Wilson
ACID TEST Redux: Art presages Life
If you thought you were freaked out by last week's terrorist attacks, imagine being the guy who not only thought something like this might happen, he wrote about it.
Starting in 1998.
Such is the case with Ross LaManna and his book "Acid Test," reviewed here earlier. I interviewed LaManna about the striking parallels between his work of fiction and real life events.
I asked him if he was surprised by the events. "No. Just horrified," he said. "My research conversations with the Air Force guys always started not with ?if this happens,' but with "when this happens.'"
"Acid" concerns a fictional Mongol warrior who, through terrorist tactics, goes toe-to-toe with the U.S. president. The story ends with (and skip this sentence if you don't want to know how the book ends) a jet duel on the Mall in D.C. That scenario seemed like good Hollywood visuals, but a tad preposterous, when I read it two months ago.
So much for preposterous.
As proud as he is of his book, as much as he worked on it, LaManna hardly holds it precious. "If I'd been given a wish, I would gladly have traded never having written this book for this tragedy not to have happened," he said.
LaManna spent about 18 months researching his tale. (Interesting note:, he used the money from his "Rush Hour" spec not to buy the big house, but to buy himself time to write this book. Would you have made the same choice?) He said he chose to create a fictional enemy of Mongol warrior heritage that would "give me license to deal with issues, without engaging in clich?s." LaManna's father-in-law, a retired four-star Air Force general, suggested the concept for his Air Force investigator hero.
Pit that villain against that hero, fire that conflict in the forge of world events, and the result is art that stuns us as we see it turn into reality.
LaManna applauds Hollywood's sensitivity to the tragic events at the World Trade Center. At the same time, he's concerned about it getting too "Orwellian" as images of the trade center are digitally removed from some productions, while other works (like Spiderman) get held from distribution or have scenes featuring the twin towers cut.
"Part of our job is to give the public our myth," LaManna says. "Myth helps us process everything. I applaud the industry's sensitivity, but there's a big difference between being sensitive and never talking about it. If we go too far, it separates us from our myth."
"I do believe this is the right time for this story to be published, because of the message it carries," he said. "We can't view our adversaries through the prism of our own values and culture. What they're capable of doing is different than what we're capable of doing."
Writers hold considerable influence any time, but perhaps that is shown more clearly in these difficult times.
"As a writer, there's an enormous amount of power in your hands," LaManna says. "I hope that people come away from reading my book, saying, ?Damn, we really do have to be careful, don't we?'"
Because of the book, LaManna has been invited to participate in the Air Forces' National Security Forum. "We help them think stuff through," he says. "They're all very smart, but still, they visualize things as Americans. Our job [as writers} is to view the world as our characters."
"Acid Test" was as accurate as it was prescient. That makes LaManna's interpretation of the WTC bombings especially chilling. "This was the symbolic hit," he says. "For these guys, it's really all about getting and using weapons of mass destruction."
LaManna's Matt Wilder was up to the challenge of meeting and beating the villainous, ruthless Batu Khan.
Here's hoping LaManna was right about that part of the story as well.
Keep writing.
BW
LA
bigtex@loop.com
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