Response to O'Brien

Vietnam Review 

There was much food for thought in Tim O’Brien’s  “The Things They Carried With Them.”  What caught my attention in one chapter was his narrative on telling war stories.  He has many definitions of what a “true” war story is, including “A true war story is never moral” and that a true story adheres to “absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil” (O’Brien 68).  He’s playing with the mind of the reader a bit.  Not all aspects of war are ugly, harsh and cruel.  What O’Brien is defining as a War Story, is the aspects non-participants would not understand.  Most people can identify with pain and sacrifice to some degree, O’Brien wants his readers to understand from a soldier’s perspective.  Hence, his somewhat narrow definition of a true war story-it will always involve negative, terrifying, gut wrenching aspects; most blurred because “it’s hard to separate what happened from what seemed to happen” (O’Brien 71).  I’m not minimizing what a combatant faces, rather had to reconcile what I’ve heard from veterans of the Vietnam era and even now as they talk of their experiences.  The horrific is alluded to, but usually it’s the funny or touching stories that are spoken.  In effect, O’Brien molded a key to understanding what was not spoken.

Another interesting point is the aspect of truth verses accuracy, when O’Brien speaks of war stories.   If deceit can be defined as “Taking the truth and telling a lie,” he has worked the antithesis, using a lie, or as he says, “making up a few things to get at the real truth” (O’Brien 85).  It is an incredible irony.   He describes retelling a story until his listener gets it, usually thinking uncomplimentary things as he pictures the war story.  He seems frustrated, almost angry that someone does not get it, “Because she wasn’t listening” (O’Brien 85), as he patronizes her with a different version of the true story.  What is most ironic is the True Story itself.  What he is trying to get his audience to see is not the hardship so much as the outcome from all the privation and pain.  He finally describes courage, disillusion, sorrow, and oblivion.  But what he says is a true war story is about is “love and memory” (O’Brien 85).

O'Brien Tim. 1st Mariner ed. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990. 67-85. Print.

The Sand Storm

 

Whether it’s been family, close friends or acquaintances, it’s been my privilege to know many members of the armed service.    I think many who have served could identify with The Sand Strom, because it is telling soldiers’ stories, not the news spin or political drivel.   I appreciate being able to “just listen” to each story, though they are ruthlessly honest and hard to hear.  

In the play, MARINE/SGT CASAVECCHI expressed an interesting sentiment concerning war stories: “You’re supposed to go through absolute Hell, become something so base you can’t hardly believe it’s still you, but whatever you do, if you make it home…keep it to yourself” (Huze 1).   There are many things this play has made me think about, the isolation of veterans is one of them.  I have heard comparatively few war stories, even from Viet Nam veterans.  I think there are a couple reasons for that.  Number one is social taboo, folks want to hear about adventures but not about harsh realities. We are comfortable knowing vets. are able to “protect” us, but we really don’t want to know what that involved.  We just want them to be able cope with it, and get on with civilian life.    I also think it takes too much energy on the part of the veteran to tell their stories; so many just don’t try.  They are too tired.  They are tired of war, of travel, of MRE’s,…of everything, to bother trying to make someone understand what they’ve  been through, except perhaps someone who has shared experiences.  I think it is the forgotten part of “Supporting our troops.”  They can be home but need time to “come back”, without feeling isolated.

            The best example I can give of this, is the community response when a friend of ours returned from Iraq.  His Marine Wife, a calling of its own, asked the community welcome him back with poster and ribbons-and give them some space.  It was touching to drive through town and see welcome home signs all over.  When the family was ready, after a short vacation, they hosted a get together.  There was allowance for readjustment without isolation. 

"We still have hearts"   

Works Cited:

The Sand Storm.  BY Sean Huze.  Dir. David Fofi. Perf. The Elephant Asylum Theater, New York, Jan2004.

Photos used with permission, Mrs. Brig Pleitgen, Marie Wife.

Peotry Blog

By Krisna-Udayana

In the poem “Photograph from September 11”, author Wislawa Szymborska captures the indescribable on paper the way a picture did with film.  In part, her attention to detail as she writes: “There’s enough time/for hair to come loose/for keys and coins/to fall from pockets.” (lines 10-14), brings the reality of how intense the free fall was for those who jumped from the Twin Towers.  Though it was only about ten seconds in duration, it would have seemed endless for those who were falling. 

I liked this poem for a number of reasons, Szymborska gives us a reprieve from the inevitable and helps us resolve the crisis.  When she says the only thing she can do is, “describe this flight/and not add a last line”(lines 18-19), she stops death.  Though just for an instant, it gives one time to breathe and begin to reconcile our pain, anger and disbelief. 

I appreciate her tone; it is direct and lends dignity to a situation that has none.  There is no decorum in death.  It is an ugly event, especially when brought about in such a heinous manner.  It can be faced with courage and grace.  It can be faced peacefully and many other positive emotions, but the occurrence itself is ugly.  By speaking in a simple, direct voice rather than a flowery or obscure one, Szymborska emphasis the victim’s plight rather than glorifying their deaths.

The style used in “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting” caught my attention.  In it veteran Kevin C. Powers uses phrases like, “I tell her” repetitively (lines 1, 4 and 9).  After each phrase Powers uses the rest of the stanza to demonstrate each train of thought.  The meandering nature of the verses screams, understandably, mental exhaustion and disillusionment.  Yet still, the next stanza continues with “I tell her” as structure demands.  One senses the same demands, structure and perseverance,  were required of the soldier who penned the lines.  

BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION:

 Szymborska, Wislawa. Monologue of a Dog. Orlando, FL, USA: Harrcourt Inc., 2006. Print.

Powers, Kevin C. "Poetry Foundation." N.p., 09 Feb 2009. Web. 8 Sep 2010. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=182821>. 

Just for a laugh!

Picture Gallery from New York Magazine 

Sam Hamil

Picture credits

Sam Hamil, (1942- ), authored The Necessity to Speak which was published in 1990 in A Poet’s Work: The Other Side of Poetry. He touches on many controversial issues in the essay, The Viet Nam and other wars, homophobia, battery, the conditions of American prisons, and more, with his first hand knowledge and views of violence being the theme throughout. But the controversies are only that-things that will and should be argued. Hamil’s use of poetry as a communication tool among prisoners, and victims, is commendable and insightful.
He personifies poetry when he asserts “The poet is the vehicle used by poetry so it can touch us.” (Hamil, 550.) In effect, things that happen-and I use the term loosely- are a poem in themselves. That they are recorded is the response to the “event” by the author. On the whole I agree with his analogy, “life” is just waiting to be recorded and poetry is a much more flexible means to do so than say a biography, article or work of fiction.
For instance, in Photograph of September 11th, by Wislawa Szymborska, the impact on the reader about the events of September 11, 2001 is much stronger as she adds real and perceived details to her description. To my knowledge she wasn’t a live witness at Ground Zero that day. Yet through poetry, and the specific genera Poetry of Witness she is able to touch an audience more effectively than had she just described what she saw in a picture. By way of example, she tells us “The photograph halted them in life, and now keeps them, above the earth towards the earth.” Poetry has another dimension, that of honest feelings-a soul-rather than the stark facts of a news report or article.
Hamil also says “Before the first words were written, the writer is a witness who struggles not to flinch, not to look away” (Hamil, 549) Hamil’s anger aside, he touches on an interesting point. If “poetry happens” it is the responsibility of the poet to see and record. The weakness in this line of thinking is perception. (I recognize poetry is not limited to what is observed, but for simplicity’s sake, I’m narrowing the approach here.) Like music, poetry is filtered though the mind of the author/artist. Poetry is often a medium for expressing passionate emotion. This emotion automatically colors the author’s view to their perception. Is there such a thing as an objective observer? I think not, especially in poetry. It is good for the reader to be aware that emotion bias is a part of the poetic process too.

The Other Side of Poerty. Moon Press, 1990. 547-553. Print.

Wislawa Szymborska, “Photograph from September 11” from Monologue of a Dog. Copyright © 2005 by Wislawa Szymborska. Reprinted with permission of Harcourt, Inc.

A blip about Hamil

Nabokov

As a professor at Cornell University in Ithica, NY, Vladimir Nabokov, (1899-1977), delivered what had to be hundreds of lectures on Western Literature. “Lectures on Literature” is a compilation of those lecture notes, published after his death. One of those lectures was titled “Good Readers and Good Writers.”

In this lecture the challenge was to define a “good reader” and “good writer.” His definition of a good reader was not one that identified with the hero, the action or the social aspects of the story. Rather, he states a good reader is “one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary and some artistic sense” (Nabokov, 315.) For the most part I agree with him concerning good literature. I especially like the dictionary comments, as it implies learning from what was written. Nabokov also explains a good reader is what I’ll dub a “re-reader.” His thought encompasses folks like me, who may be working so hard to understand one aspect of the story the first time around that they may miss a whole theme or other embedded jewels. Re-reading is like reordering a favorite meal, it’s enjoying something that’s worth having twice.

I’m a “good reader”, when I have to be. Generally, my mind doesn’t have to work too hard at what I’m reading, because I read to “clock out” not absorb literature. I’m assuming Nabokov wasn’t addressing this type of reading, he probably would have found it witless.

Nabokov, Vladimir. "Good Readers and Good Writers." An Anthology of Nonfiction. 11th, shorter. New York: W. W. Norton, Print.

Info. about Nabokov

Mary's Introductory Video.