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A Failure of Imagination
How often have you heard that phrase, the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission? What exactly does it mean?
Well, for some prison guards in NewJersey, it means that they failed to watch "The Shawshank Redemption"--a fantastic movie, based upon a short novella by none other than VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR Stephen King.
In other words, it cannot be denied that this was not a public storyline--in the "smash hit and critically successful movie, based upon a story by a VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR" and "short fiction by the VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR of the past 30 years" type of public storyline.
In any event, there was a recent prison escape by two inmates, about which the following was reported:
" To delay discovery of the escape, Espinosa and Blunt used dummies made of sheets and pillows in their beds. They also hung photographs of bikini-clad women to hide the holes in the walls, a move reminiscent of a scene in the Hollywood hit "The Shawshank Redemption."
Romanko played down the comparison.
"I think this is a very serious situation you saw," he said. "I really prefer not to compare with any movie, although I can understand why you might because it does look certainly very similar to some of them. Except in 'The Shawshank Redemption' they had a better poster on the wall.""
You may recall, in the Movie "The Shawshank Redemption", the main character uses progressively larger and larger "girlie" pictures in his cell to hide the ever increasing hole he digs with a spoon through his cell wall and into--I shudder to imagine--a hole he breaks in a 16" sewer pipe through which he eventually makes his escape.
Great film.
Great novella.
Both very much in the public eye, given at the very least the involvement of a VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR.
A bit hard to say that "no one could have imagined prisoners escaping by hiding the holes they drill through the walls with girlie photos."
It's clear that the VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR had no "failure of imagination" in creating his fictional tale of a prison escape via a hole in the wall covered with a "girlie picture".
Flash back to 2001-2002. Do you remember hearing the phrase "No one could have predicted terrorists using airplanes as weapons!!!11!! As missles!!11!!!!"
I certainly do.
But if it worked for Stephen King, why shouldn't we consider the case of that other VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR, Tom Clancy.
Particularly because TOM CLANCY, VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR, depicts almost exclusively military and covert operations in his novels. Does anyone believe that TOM CLANCY, VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR is not on the radar of the CIA? Just like many authors, he is--or certainly SHOULD BE.
Why consider TOM CLANCY, VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR, you say? Well, because TOM CLANCY, VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR wrote a book before 9/11. This was A VERY FAMOUS BOOK by a VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR, TOM CLANCY. Indeed, the AUTHOR was so FAMOUS that the AUTHOR'S OTHER VERY FAMOUS BOOK was made into a movie starring VERY FAMOUS ACTOR, HARRISON FORD. The name of that VERY FAMOUS MOVIE was the same as the VERY FAMOUS BOOK by the VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR, TOM CLANCY. The VERY FAMOUS MOVIE WAS Air Force One , starring VERY FAMOUS ACTOR, HARRISON FORD.
In any event in another couple of VERY FAMOUS NOVELS by the VERY FAMOUS AUTHOR, TOM CLANCY-- EXECUTIVE ORDERS AND DEBT OF HONOR -- a crazed airline pilot, motivated by past wartime injustices, uses an airplane as a weapon to attack the US government. There are really no two ways about it.
Both books came out in the years preceding 9/11. After 9/11, the government famously claims that "NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED ANYONE USING PLANES AS WEAPONS!!" But just a few years earlier, this scenario is the very centerpiece of VERY POPULAR, BEST SELLING SPY FICTION.
A FAILURE OF IMAGINATION?
Go figure.