Shrugging at calamity: America is reacting in strange ways to our chaotic times | Francine Prose

The reaction to the Washington DC shooting shows that Americans are swinging between outrage, exhaustion and numbness In the early hours of Sunday, I awoke to check the time on my phone and learned that there had been a shooting – apparently, an assassination attempt – at this year’s White House correspondents’ dinner, an event held annually to honor the journalists who cover presidential politics. I stayed awake just long enough to read that the attack had been thwarted and that no one had been killed, and then I went back to sleep. Francine Prose is a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Continue reading...

Francine Prose · Tue, Apr 28, 2026, 2:00 AM
US news | The Guardian

Shrugging at calamity: America is reacting in strange ways to our chaotic times | Francine Prose

The reaction to the Washington DC shooting shows that Americans are swinging between outrage, exhaustion and numbness

In the early hours of Sunday, I awoke to check the time on my phone and learned that there had been a shooting – apparently, an assassination attempt – at this year’s White House correspondents’ dinner, an event held annually to honor the journalists who cover presidential politics.

I stayed awake just long enough to read that the attack had been thwarted and that no one had been killed, and then I went back to sleep.

Francine Prose is a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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