I have to say that this chapter had me trying to breathe calmly and holding back tears, not so much because of the chapter, but because of the trope you picked. Born to a family that only exists because of its members being dislocated during WWII and growing up during the Cold War, some of my earliest memories involve soldiers - nice, friendly men from the military station in my hometown who always smiled at us kids, and who filled me with such fear that I would end up sobbing in my mother’s arms, terrified that tomorrow, these men would change and come and take my father away to die somewhere far, far away from me.
I don’t know if you wrote this with a view to current political situations in several countries, but even if not, thank you for pointing that trope out and subverting it. There is nothing, absolutely nothing glorious about war, not for the ones who die, not for the ones who return home damaged and not for the ones left behind at home, wondering how their loved ones are faring and if they will ever get to see them again. I don’t know why, but people these days, even people who should know better, seem to be forgetting it, when it is the one thing we should always remember before deciding someone else is, for whatever reason, not worthy of something we have.
My mother's father was in World War II. He never told 'war stories' or spoke of it much at all. If pressed, he'd give a speech much like I did here about the horrors of war, always in the abstract. His favorite series of novels was Lord of the Rings, a series arguably about good surviving during wartime.
His son, my uncle, went to war again in Vietnam and rose through the ranks for being sensible and good at managing people. He tells lots of funny stories about bureaucratic snafus but nothing about fighting and nothing about Vietnam itself. I believe, although the family is very quiet about it, that he fell in love with a local woman and that she was killed in front of him. He never married.
These are the 'war stories' I heard growing up. The idea of anyone getting drunk and talking about wartime as the good old days 'when a man was a man' is Greek to me. I've seen that attitude in movies and I've seen it in people (usually men) who've never been to war.
My impression is that there is a group of humans who spend a lot of their time believing they could be more, greater than they are. And that some of them see war as a proving ground, a place where they could show everyone how good they could be.
The proof of goodness so far as I'm concerned is in what we do every day, and single, dramatically heroic acts cannot undo a lifetime of sluggish acceptance of injustice. If we want to be good, we have to fight the good fight, and we have to do it today. Not in some hazy, potential future.
Well, I've gone on enough here. Thank you very much for sharing your experience with us.
Comment on A Game of Chess
aellisif on Chapter 11 Mon 04 Mar 2019 01:59PM UTC
Comment Actions
Kirinin on Chapter 11 Mon 04 Mar 2019 05:24PM UTC
Last Edited Mon 04 Mar 2019 06:07PM UTC
Comment Actions
Aldenisan on Chapter 11 Fri 02 Aug 2024 01:23AM UTC
Comment Actions
Kirinin on Chapter 11 Sat 03 Aug 2024 04:44PM UTC
Comment Actions