War

just curious wat u guys think about war? good? bad? Anyways, do u guys know any good poems or short stories that have to do with antiwar i could read?

I'm happy to talk. What is your question again?

r u a pacifist?

Or r u a warrior?

Try:

A Rumor of War; Philip Caputo

All Quiet on the Western Front; Erich Marie Remarque

War is a Racket; Gen. Smedley Butler

Channel Firing; Thomas Hardy

Easter 1916;W.B. Yeats

Fly Away Peter by David Malouf. Very moving literatary fiction about the First World War from an Australian soldier's perspective.

War:

The most horrendous and powerful of human inventions.

No other single thing more perfectly shows the horror and vileness that humans as a race are capable of, and the beauty, selflessness, bravery and brotherhood any individual can accomplish.

It burns lives, and sparks progress.

Builds empires and destroys nations.

Artist alternately proclaim its virtues and denounce its savagery.

It gives immortality to it's heroes, while showing the mortality of the hero's victims.

It has built civilisation as we know it, and will in all likelihood destroy it.

My only opinion of war...I am glad, I right now, am not in it!

^^^are those authors of short story books or are they just novels?

The first three are books, the others are poems. Easter 1916 is a stirring account of the uprising that eventually lead to the formation of the Republic of Ireland. Yeats personally knew the revolutionaries and describes them as normal, flawed individuals who became "super" by their actions. Channel firing is said to be an account of the first world war with soldiers in their graves commenting upon the impending doom and slaughter. The glebe cow phrase is an interesting commentary on society being a fat, content cow that fails to recognize the dangerous nature of the situation.

The Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker, which includes the short novels Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, and the Ghost Road, is a powerful account, based in fact, on WWI.

Those novels also refer tangentially to the WWI poets Wilfred Owen and Seigfried Sassoon, definitely worth reading.

Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (1948) is probably his best work, based on his WWII experiences.

crap-o said:

... do u guys know any good poems or short stories that have to do with antiwar i could read?

Click to expand...

Well firstly, any book covering the topic of War that gives you the feeling that it's anything but a last resort has probably failed in it's duty to explain exactly what happens.

But as to some recommended reading:

Poetry - As Novella has suggested, the British war poets of WW1 are a good place to start. You could begin with a general collection which will hopefully point you in the direction of The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon and, even better still, the collected works of Wilfred Owen.

Novels - Probably the best known anti-war novels are 'All Quiet on the Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Less well known is 'The Good Soldier Svejk' by Jaraolav Hasek, which many critics consider to be the first book of this type. Whilst in reality 'The Good Soldier' is more about authority than war, it does have the advantages of being funny, far more so than Catch-22, and not containing any actual fighting. In this way Svejk is similar to 'The Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin' by Vladimir Vionovich.

Graphic Novels - If you have any interest in Graphic Novels then try to find Charley's War 1 & Charleys War 2 which are reprinting the comic stip of the same name by Pat Mills from the late 1970's. A war comic may not seem the most likely place to find good quality anti-war writing but Charley's war was written from just such a point of view and was widely praised at the time by surviving veterans for it's accuracy.

Trench Newspapers - A collection of the most famous British trench newspaper 'The Wipers Times' is out next year. It should make fasinating reading.

Films - You probably don't need much help with this one, but I'd recommend 'Come and See'.

Regards,

K-S

Channel Firing is hard to understand..i don't really get it, wats it about? I'm not sure if it means people are used to all of the wars, gun and blood shed and they go about their business in a usual way.....

Maybe War and Peace by Tolstoy? I haven't read it, but am surprised that noone has mentioned it yet.

Instead of reading specifically and only about war, I would suggest that you read about the highest and most noble aspirations and accomplishments that people have been capable of, and that you also read of the genocides that people have perpetrated, in order to realize the extreme evil of which people are also capable, to thereby realize the extreme blackness of the blot that war is upon this fragile thing we call humanity.
Peder

I would suggest that you read about the highest and most noble aspirations and accomplishments that people have been capable of

Click to expand...

Can u suggest some good books on that genre? I'd really like to read some of those books for inspiration.

crap-o, did you happen to see the thread on Johnny Got His Gun? I haven't read this book myself yet, but it might be right up your alley.

ecks said:

Can u suggest some good books on that genre? I'd really like to read some of those books for inspiration.

Click to expand...

referring to 'highest and most nobel aspirations and accomplishments that people have been cpapble of.'
Ecks,
That could be a longish answer. But the short part is that I have not read so many entire books specifically on the topic, if indeed any, and not many of those mentioned above. The one book that does come to mind (for me) is of course the foundation of my own faith, the Bible.
I have found inspiration more in individual parts of stories, of people well-known and little-known, in all walks of life. In that connection I would especially mention the paean to love written by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 13 (whence comes the phrase 'faith, hope and charity'); and also Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a Dream" speech; and the heart-rending story of the sacrifice of Pvt. Kurt Frosheiser to be found in a single chapter of "The Assassins' Gate," by George Packer, (a book about the Iraq War, incidentally); and also equally well in the actions of plain people who serve selflessly on soup lines to feed the indigent and the needy. In short I see those aspirations and accomplishments in the lives and actions of those who devote themsleves to the vision of a better world, and those who sacrifice themselves so that we can have our lives.
That's the best I can do. Perhaps a separate thread would be appropriate and no doubt bring many responses from the entire forum?
Peder

crap-o said:

Channel Firing is hard to understand..i don't really get it, wats it about? I'm not sure if it means people are used to all of the wars, gun and blood shed and they go about their business in a usual way.....

Click to expand...

The men are lying in their graves and hear the rumbling of artillary guns across the channel. They ask each other what is going on and if war is not already occuring yet again. A heavenly voice assures them that it's just practice, but as previously mentioned, society is blissfully content and fat from prosperity(hence the reference to the indolent cow near the artillary batteries) There is also an interesting reference to people who work to make "red war redder" or something along those lines, a whiff of anti-war sentiment pervades the entire poem. It was written in 1914-sadly, the author of it was quite prophetic.