AP file The image of the burning towers defined this decade. It dominated waking and sleeping life, political debates and Sunday dinners, birthday parties and weddings and funerals, for a solid year, maybe two, then lurked in the background for the rest of this decade, haunting elections and reelections, military debacles and constitutional fights. And it forced every artist in every medium to start each new piece by first asking if the work was meant to confront the image of the burning towers or deliberately avoid it (avoidance is also a response). (Matt Zoller-Seitz, “Image of the decade: Osama and the towers,” Salon, 31 Dec. 2009) Cover for the fall If we focus on this image, then it means we're attracted to the awesome, feel the need for awe. There is a sense that it belongs in the "mission accomplished" category, only much more successfully. That...