Francis' bravado is intriguingly unlike the kind of WWI soldiers you find in, say, Remarques All Quiet on the Western Front, which in the artistic sense was a minor casualty itself of Remarque's pacifist aim. (the classic movie was fabulous, though: a true masterpiece) Or is it just a symptom of the shell shock? A lack of bravado in the actual war, now coming forth when it couldn't in the actual war? Still, I suppose a soldier close to the front but not in the trenches could find a way to hold onto the old bravado that led the first soldiers to enlist right away in 1914, before they - or should I say the survivors - lost it all.
I guess that's my way of saying I appreciate all the psychological nuance at play here. The Western Front was, in some senses, simple - charge, get obliterated, then do it all again in a different place, at a different time - so often, in WWI fiction, it feels like a less crafty Stephen Crane using a slaughterhouse to create a war as he used football to conjure up the Civil War. Even those who were in the war wrote like that. (Who, in the trenches, were far removed from the machinations of Foch or Von Falkenhayn, and too alienated from the effects of total war away from the trenches as Remarques character was on his leave) As valuable as their contributions were, in many ways the WWI veterans were too screwed up to tell the whole story. But there was, of course, a lot more to it than that.
A very interesting take, Felix. Yeah, and they didn't have the understanding we've had since about the late 1970s -- a growing understanding for more than four decades now -- of PTSD. I'm riding a line here between how people would have thought about these things in the 1920s versus how we can understand them now. And Francis's sister Carmen is a psychotherapist with an M.D. So there's that. And Francis is unusual -- spending four years a dozen miles from the trenches as a veterinarian.
I think All Quiet remains the best novel written about the First World War. (Having read about three dozen of them.) And it's about friendship as much as anything else. I didn't think Richard Thomas was a good casting choice for that film, but other than that I think it's a great film. I haven't seen the new one yet, but hope to very soon. One thing I've often wondered is why the French, who suffered every bit as much as the Brits and the Germans, never produced a great novel of that war.
Is that the case with the French? Interesting. I suspect it's because of how the trauma manifests itself. I read Alistair Horne's book about Verdun - hands down, the best history book I've ever read. And he goes into detail about the military veneration of Verdun, among other things: if I was French knowing what I knew from that book, I probably wouldn't write a WWI book either. I wouldn't have to: the carnage speaks for itself. Though clearly, other cultures felt differently. And unlike Holocaust lit, which was set in secret facilities of death, there was no need to really tell other French people about what they already knew.
My favorite WWI novel is The Good Soldier Svejk, though it's of course a very different kind of novel from All Quiet and is interested in other things rather than the slaughter itself. The Poles, to my knowledge, don't have a big WWI classic: the war kind of ended well for them, since it allowed all three partitioned parts of the country to reunite. So there wasn't a cultural need, I guess: while the phoenix died in France and Germany, the Poles and Czechs beheld its rebirth. (Though there's one book I hope to read, called Elusive Alliance, which will certainly teach me more about Poland and WWI https://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Alliance-German-Occupation-Poland/dp/0674286014)
Have you heard of Latvian author, Aleksandrs Grins? His WWI novel. Blizzard of Souls, hasn't been translated into English yet. But they recently made a movie adaptation that I heard was good, so the story is accessible. I mention him since apart from Hasek and Isaac Babel, there aren't, to my knowledge, as many Eastern Front authors.
Very interesting. I'll write some of these names down and look them up.
Isaac Babel is a major literary figure, of course. Harold Bloom includes him in his 100 great literary geniuses in his 2003 book Genius.
Yeah, I mean, that's just my opinion about French novels about WWI. And I'd say the same about the Americans. Our soldiers were only over there for a few months. Hemingway is unique, because he volunteered to be an ambulance attendant at the Front.
Beyond the novels there's the poetry. Quite a lot of excellent poetry. I agree with the consensus that the best was Wilfred Owens.
And I'd be amiss if I didn't mention Vera Brittain. Her writing about the war has affected me emotionally more than that of any other writer. And the 2014 film is beautiful and moving. Testament of Youth. We'll remember her fiance Roland Leighton and her brother Edward forever because of her, as well as Vera herself.
PTSD yes governments and all others slow to react there. Vietnam veterans didn't even get a parade did they? Any government that falls into war is a failure it's like having to fire an employee should be last resort and fall squarely on the incompetence of management. Police seem to favour or choose force over compassion and are ill equipped to be effective in matters of mental health
Francis' bravado is intriguingly unlike the kind of WWI soldiers you find in, say, Remarques All Quiet on the Western Front, which in the artistic sense was a minor casualty itself of Remarque's pacifist aim. (the classic movie was fabulous, though: a true masterpiece) Or is it just a symptom of the shell shock? A lack of bravado in the actual war, now coming forth when it couldn't in the actual war? Still, I suppose a soldier close to the front but not in the trenches could find a way to hold onto the old bravado that led the first soldiers to enlist right away in 1914, before they - or should I say the survivors - lost it all.
I guess that's my way of saying I appreciate all the psychological nuance at play here. The Western Front was, in some senses, simple - charge, get obliterated, then do it all again in a different place, at a different time - so often, in WWI fiction, it feels like a less crafty Stephen Crane using a slaughterhouse to create a war as he used football to conjure up the Civil War. Even those who were in the war wrote like that. (Who, in the trenches, were far removed from the machinations of Foch or Von Falkenhayn, and too alienated from the effects of total war away from the trenches as Remarques character was on his leave) As valuable as their contributions were, in many ways the WWI veterans were too screwed up to tell the whole story. But there was, of course, a lot more to it than that.
I'm looking forward to reading more!
A very interesting take, Felix. Yeah, and they didn't have the understanding we've had since about the late 1970s -- a growing understanding for more than four decades now -- of PTSD. I'm riding a line here between how people would have thought about these things in the 1920s versus how we can understand them now. And Francis's sister Carmen is a psychotherapist with an M.D. So there's that. And Francis is unusual -- spending four years a dozen miles from the trenches as a veterinarian.
I think All Quiet remains the best novel written about the First World War. (Having read about three dozen of them.) And it's about friendship as much as anything else. I didn't think Richard Thomas was a good casting choice for that film, but other than that I think it's a great film. I haven't seen the new one yet, but hope to very soon. One thing I've often wondered is why the French, who suffered every bit as much as the Brits and the Germans, never produced a great novel of that war.
Is that the case with the French? Interesting. I suspect it's because of how the trauma manifests itself. I read Alistair Horne's book about Verdun - hands down, the best history book I've ever read. And he goes into detail about the military veneration of Verdun, among other things: if I was French knowing what I knew from that book, I probably wouldn't write a WWI book either. I wouldn't have to: the carnage speaks for itself. Though clearly, other cultures felt differently. And unlike Holocaust lit, which was set in secret facilities of death, there was no need to really tell other French people about what they already knew.
My favorite WWI novel is The Good Soldier Svejk, though it's of course a very different kind of novel from All Quiet and is interested in other things rather than the slaughter itself. The Poles, to my knowledge, don't have a big WWI classic: the war kind of ended well for them, since it allowed all three partitioned parts of the country to reunite. So there wasn't a cultural need, I guess: while the phoenix died in France and Germany, the Poles and Czechs beheld its rebirth. (Though there's one book I hope to read, called Elusive Alliance, which will certainly teach me more about Poland and WWI https://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Alliance-German-Occupation-Poland/dp/0674286014)
Have you heard of Latvian author, Aleksandrs Grins? His WWI novel. Blizzard of Souls, hasn't been translated into English yet. But they recently made a movie adaptation that I heard was good, so the story is accessible. I mention him since apart from Hasek and Isaac Babel, there aren't, to my knowledge, as many Eastern Front authors.
Very interesting. I'll write some of these names down and look them up.
Isaac Babel is a major literary figure, of course. Harold Bloom includes him in his 100 great literary geniuses in his 2003 book Genius.
Yeah, I mean, that's just my opinion about French novels about WWI. And I'd say the same about the Americans. Our soldiers were only over there for a few months. Hemingway is unique, because he volunteered to be an ambulance attendant at the Front.
Beyond the novels there's the poetry. Quite a lot of excellent poetry. I agree with the consensus that the best was Wilfred Owens.
And I'd be amiss if I didn't mention Vera Brittain. Her writing about the war has affected me emotionally more than that of any other writer. And the 2014 film is beautiful and moving. Testament of Youth. We'll remember her fiance Roland Leighton and her brother Edward forever because of her, as well as Vera herself.
PTSD yes governments and all others slow to react there. Vietnam veterans didn't even get a parade did they? Any government that falls into war is a failure it's like having to fire an employee should be last resort and fall squarely on the incompetence of management. Police seem to favour or choose force over compassion and are ill equipped to be effective in matters of mental health
Vietnam vets. Rough. Shouldn't have had that war. And not treated well when they got home.