Books on War
I have not written much about the reading I have been doing for pleasure this term, of which I have done a fair amount - some would say more than I should have. I have loosely based my reading around the theme of the Literature of War, something relatively apt since I am studying IR in the era of the two world wars, and as its title suggests, the two major global conflicts play a large part in the course. I have managed to work my way though a couple of books, two of them by Tim O'Brien - If I Die in a Combat Zone and a collection of stories titled The Things They Carried. I also finished William Styron's the Long March, which I had picked up at a discount bookstore in London, as well as the second book in Pat Barker's Regeneration Series - The Eye in the Door. And of course, part of any War Literature list would be The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, the classic novel of the American Civil War. At time of writing, I just started on The Ghost Road, the last book in that series, as well as having plans on reading The Railway Man, about a man's experiences as a Japanese POW in WWII and of course All Quiet on the Western Front, the great World War I classic by Erich Maria Remarque.
To say that Tim O'Brien is a brilliant teller of war stories is similar to saying that Herman Melville was good at writing about sea voyages and whales. He is just simply a great storyteller. If I Die in a Combat Zone, his first novel, is a wonderful account of his time in Vietnam - a powerfully descriptive, blood and guts account of things. Where O'Brien excels though, is looking at the psychological underpinnings of the soldiers - what motivated them, how they overcome the shock and horror of war,the psychological effects of the jungle, the mud, the gunfire and the killing. The Things They Carried, though similar in vein, is a more philosophical work - and richer for that as well.
I must admit to not really being able to get into the Red Badge of Courage at all, inspite of, or perhaps even despite of its reputation as a war classic. Certainly, the depictions of the battle scenes were life like enough, and Crane definitely has a reporter's eye for the telling detail, and more importantly the psychological underpinnings of his charachters. He also has a fine enough ear for dialogue. Yet, I never really found myself being captivated by the novel - short as it was, and it failed to generate much in the way of excitement on my part. Why was this so? Well, as interesting as Crane's explorations of the psychological underpinnings of his characters were, I did find some of those passages a tad wearying to wade through and certainly the prose style and writing was a tad more formal to find completely comfortable (to the admittedly spoilt) modern reader, especially since it doesn't have the poetry or cadence, sparkle or wit as compared to a Dickens, Eliot or even Melville, justly so, the novel being the accound of a war and such. Ultimately, given that it was the first of its kind, and that Crane had never even been into a war zone, let alone participated in a war before this, it is quite a remarkable account.
The Regeneration triology had stoked my interest due to its incorporation of real life World War I poets Sigfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen. It was a set text used by my school for a literature of War paper was being thought instead of the Gothic paper that I had done, and enjoyed whilst I was sitting for my A levels. Owen I have been especially fond of since my first expose to him when I learned "An Anthem For Doomed Youth" in an English class when I was 14, and that along with Robert Frost's "Walking by Woods on a Snowy Evening" marked my first real introduction to poetry. Both poets have remained enormous influences and inspirations to me since. Sassoon was a particular inspiration to me during my time in the army, where I greatly enjoyed his unsentimental and unflinching depictions of war, army life and such - it was probably uplifting to see that someone else shared my frustration and indeed loathing of much that is involved in army life. T
he Regeneration triology, of which I read the second and third volumes most recently is a brilliant account not strictly of the war, but more of the equally interesting aspects of how society and individuals in the context of the war. In that sense, the second and third novels were quite different from the first, which centered around the experiences of Sassoon and the "treatment" he received under Craiglockhart hospital under Dr W H Rivers. Areas explored included the moral upheaval that took place during that time, as well as the lot of the conscientous objectors and some chilling passages about how they were persuaded to sign up (such as stripping them naked, pouring ice cold water on them and leaving them shivering and freezing with nothing but an army uniform by way of clothing). Homosexuality is another issue that is not shied away from.
But perhaps, one of the most fundamentally interesting question that Pat Barker looks at is why these men, many of them who were fundamentally opposed on moral grounds to the war, some of whom felt betrayed by the government and their superiors, went back time and time again to the front. It was the main theme of the first novel as Sassoon struggled to come to terms with his "Soldier's Declaration" and eventually decides that it was his duty to return. And it comes up again and again with people like Wilfred Owen, who returned despite shell shock and wounds as well as in the novel's main protagonist Billy Prior. Barker explored a vitally important area of the War, something going beyond the guns and bullets and barbed wire - you can call it the psychology and social side of the things, but it is no less interesting, and no less vital.
To say that Tim O'Brien is a brilliant teller of war stories is similar to saying that Herman Melville was good at writing about sea voyages and whales. He is just simply a great storyteller. If I Die in a Combat Zone, his first novel, is a wonderful account of his time in Vietnam - a powerfully descriptive, blood and guts account of things. Where O'Brien excels though, is looking at the psychological underpinnings of the soldiers - what motivated them, how they overcome the shock and horror of war,the psychological effects of the jungle, the mud, the gunfire and the killing. The Things They Carried, though similar in vein, is a more philosophical work - and richer for that as well.
I must admit to not really being able to get into the Red Badge of Courage at all, inspite of, or perhaps even despite of its reputation as a war classic. Certainly, the depictions of the battle scenes were life like enough, and Crane definitely has a reporter's eye for the telling detail, and more importantly the psychological underpinnings of his charachters. He also has a fine enough ear for dialogue. Yet, I never really found myself being captivated by the novel - short as it was, and it failed to generate much in the way of excitement on my part. Why was this so? Well, as interesting as Crane's explorations of the psychological underpinnings of his characters were, I did find some of those passages a tad wearying to wade through and certainly the prose style and writing was a tad more formal to find completely comfortable (to the admittedly spoilt) modern reader, especially since it doesn't have the poetry or cadence, sparkle or wit as compared to a Dickens, Eliot or even Melville, justly so, the novel being the accound of a war and such. Ultimately, given that it was the first of its kind, and that Crane had never even been into a war zone, let alone participated in a war before this, it is quite a remarkable account.
The Regeneration triology had stoked my interest due to its incorporation of real life World War I poets Sigfried Sasson and Wilfred Owen. It was a set text used by my school for a literature of War paper was being thought instead of the Gothic paper that I had done, and enjoyed whilst I was sitting for my A levels. Owen I have been especially fond of since my first expose to him when I learned "An Anthem For Doomed Youth" in an English class when I was 14, and that along with Robert Frost's "Walking by Woods on a Snowy Evening" marked my first real introduction to poetry. Both poets have remained enormous influences and inspirations to me since. Sassoon was a particular inspiration to me during my time in the army, where I greatly enjoyed his unsentimental and unflinching depictions of war, army life and such - it was probably uplifting to see that someone else shared my frustration and indeed loathing of much that is involved in army life. T
he Regeneration triology, of which I read the second and third volumes most recently is a brilliant account not strictly of the war, but more of the equally interesting aspects of how society and individuals in the context of the war. In that sense, the second and third novels were quite different from the first, which centered around the experiences of Sassoon and the "treatment" he received under Craiglockhart hospital under Dr W H Rivers. Areas explored included the moral upheaval that took place during that time, as well as the lot of the conscientous objectors and some chilling passages about how they were persuaded to sign up (such as stripping them naked, pouring ice cold water on them and leaving them shivering and freezing with nothing but an army uniform by way of clothing). Homosexuality is another issue that is not shied away from.
But perhaps, one of the most fundamentally interesting question that Pat Barker looks at is why these men, many of them who were fundamentally opposed on moral grounds to the war, some of whom felt betrayed by the government and their superiors, went back time and time again to the front. It was the main theme of the first novel as Sassoon struggled to come to terms with his "Soldier's Declaration" and eventually decides that it was his duty to return. And it comes up again and again with people like Wilfred Owen, who returned despite shell shock and wounds as well as in the novel's main protagonist Billy Prior. Barker explored a vitally important area of the War, something going beyond the guns and bullets and barbed wire - you can call it the psychology and social side of the things, but it is no less interesting, and no less vital.
posted by Caleb Liu | 8:50 PM
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