strange books about war
Aug. 15th, 2001 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabMy old shrink, in LA, told me that my current fascination with war meant something bigger and different, something about this world always in opposition to me, and me hiding out in foxholes, me with a gun.
so I've been reading a lot about the Asian theatre, this last year or so. Books on Korea, Vietnam, Pacific-stationed forces in World War II.
guess it only makes sense that Nanci found Vietnam too, somewhere in her ex-husband, and her work with anti-landmine groups, and a song about Dickey Chappelle, the only female photojournalist to die in Vietnam. makes sense that it should come now, convergence, clash, conflict.
I'm reading a lot of books. learning about war. I'm not sure why yet.
and a thousand thousand more. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have their Band of Brothers on HBO soon (does anyone know when?), another tribute to WWII.
We all have our pet wars, now, safe at home when we can look back and we don't go crazy like Winnie Smith, we don't trip a land mine in Chu Lai like Dickie Chappelle. we're the entire 8th Army, this man's Army, this man's marines, don't call them soldiers.
I'm not sure where I get these strange dreams about war. I just know it started about a year ago, over a year ago, and I'm not done with it yet.
"I used to love reading Hemingway, you know. Because he wrote so well. But now I don't understand why anyone would willingly go to a war." - Hawkeye
"I'm a temporarily misassigned civilian." - BJ
and what's most interesting, to me, about America, is that a lot of things happened in July. If you believe we put a man on the moon...
so I've been reading a lot about the Asian theatre, this last year or so. Books on Korea, Vietnam, Pacific-stationed forces in World War II.
guess it only makes sense that Nanci found Vietnam too, somewhere in her ex-husband, and her work with anti-landmine groups, and a song about Dickey Chappelle, the only female photojournalist to die in Vietnam. makes sense that it should come now, convergence, clash, conflict.
I'm reading a lot of books. learning about war. I'm not sure why yet.
- American Daughter Gone to War, memoir about an army nurse in Vietnam. made me cry on an airplane, she goes crazy at the end. Why wouldn't she?
- Highways to a War is a novel, which is different. Australian journalist goes up to Cambodia in 1976, infiltrates the Khmer Rouge, tracing the journey of his buddy who disappeared a POW at the end of the war.
- A Rumor of War is apparently the classic Vietnam memoir, and they're marines, don't call them soldiers
- but read Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign first, because it's the same marines, years earlier, in Korea, the famous retrieval sweep, where no man has gone before.
- Strange Ground is the best. "An Oral History of Americans in Vietnam," it's called, covers 1945-1976. do you realize, guys, I was born in 1976?
- I won the battle of Pork Chop Hill in Korea, lost it, won it, lost it again.
and a thousand thousand more. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have their Band of Brothers on HBO soon (does anyone know when?), another tribute to WWII.
We all have our pet wars, now, safe at home when we can look back and we don't go crazy like Winnie Smith, we don't trip a land mine in Chu Lai like Dickie Chappelle. we're the entire 8th Army, this man's Army, this man's marines, don't call them soldiers.
I'm not sure where I get these strange dreams about war. I just know it started about a year ago, over a year ago, and I'm not done with it yet.
"I used to love reading Hemingway, you know. Because he wrote so well. But now I don't understand why anyone would willingly go to a war." - Hawkeye
"I'm a temporarily misassigned civilian." - BJ
and what's most interesting, to me, about America, is that a lot of things happened in July. If you believe we put a man on the moon...
