Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human motivations,
behaviors, or other characteristics to inanimate objects.
Anthropomorphism is frequently seen in explanations of how the
Twin Towers fell as a result of the jetliner crashes and fires.
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"It was the fire that killed the buildings -
nothing on Earth could survive those temperatures with that amount
of fuel burning,"
said structural engineer Chris Wise.
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City in the Sky
Two of the New York Times reporters who wrote extensively
on the World Trade Center after 9/11/01,
Eric Lipton and Jams Glanz,
use anthropomorphic expressions to great effect.
Along with Jim Dwyer, Kevin Flynn, and Ford Fesseden,
they authored the series
Fighting to Live as the Towers Died.
Glanz and Lipton went on to write
City in the Sky
,
a book that chronicles the history of the World Trade Center.
This book reinforces the official story of the collapses
in numerous unscientific ways,
one being the use of anthropomorphism.
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But it was not just theorizing:
on September 11 the columns of the twin towers really did shift load
around the dark, smoking holdes punched by the planes,
forming the arches and keeping the building standing.
Otherwise the towers would have crumbled in a heartbeat.
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Many of those people saw and described a structure in its final throes,
as floors began to buckle, heat rose, and the building's
defense systems failed.
...
Soon after Emery amd Gentul learned firsthand of the building's failing
vital signs, their situation began to deteriorate.
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About the same time, new fires broke out on parts of the ninety-third,
ninety-fifth, and ninety-sixth floors,
suggesting that whatever breakdowns had occurred inside were spreading
like a fatal malady to other parts of the structure.
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The History Channel
The History Channel
has aired a number of documentaries purporting to explain the
collapses of the Twin Towers,
often with anthropomorphic references.
In a documentary in the series
Inviting Disaster
the narrator described the Towers as being
"like a prizefighter staggered by a hard blow".
The Towers, each with a "huge wound",
"fought and lost the fight to stay erect".
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page last modified: 2007-01-31
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