War

This post is not necessarily one about books, but about the effects of warfare on people's lives and the unbearability of its existence in our history (a post inspired by the show Cable Girls, if I'm being honest -- which is also during the 1900s).

"Se necesitan 20 años de paz para construir a un ser humano, y solamente 20 segundos de guerra para destruirlo." - Cable Girls Season 05 Episode 01

"You need 20 years of peace to create a human being, and only 20 seconds of warfare to destroy him."

During the books of modernist literature that we've been reading in class, because it was the 1900s, war has been a constant factor in their plots. Whether it be by their after-effects on the characters' lives, a war within themselves, or just the reminder of its appearance in recent history by the shaping of the 'present' culture.

“And that is why you become a dealer of death. You feed death as many people as you can to keep it full and content so its eye stays off of you.” - And I Darken by Kiersten White

As White's quotes states, it is as though all the men and the women -- everyone really -- that has gone to war, has been trying to do nothing but to survive; and when Death is on the prowl, there is nothing else you can do but trip the one on the opposite side and hope Death gets to him first, and tires before he gets to you. All of these characters and the people in real life who have been affected by the war, come to show that even though Death didn't grab on to them, it grazed them, and took a little bit of their lives with it. It is very, very hard to get up the next day in the morning, when a little piece of you is gone, whether it be literally or metaphorically.

In Return of the Soldier, we see the effects of war on Chris, who has a form of shell-shock, where he can't remember most of his life right before the war. He kind of suffers through this, but also mostly doesn't really give a shit, since he can't remember anyways and he doesn't exactly know what it is he is missing from his life. But still, not only had the war stolen endless moments of his life by converting his role in society to that of a soldier, but it had also stolen those moments that he cannot remember from his life. And without our collection of memories, who are we really?

In Lady Chatterley's Lover, despite the fact that Clifford was a world-class dick, the war took away his ability to walk. He came back home a cripple; and even though it didn't seem to make much of a difference since he was already a condescending bore before going to war, he came back from it even more so, since he couldn't really do anything but talk and think about himself and his ideas. His experience of life was irreconcilably stunted by a well -- or very ill -- aimed injury.

"You can break a girl. You can destroy several parts of her, but a girl is made up of so many things." - I Stop Somewhere by T.E. Carter

In Orlando's case, even though we don't really get any scene of Orlando going to an actual war, with guns and blood and everything, the majority of the book is centered on the battle within Orlando. Man or woman. Writer or adventurer. Independence or motherhood. In this theoretical war, Orlando as a man is broken, and is rebuilt as a woman.

In Vile Bodies, the war isn't mentioned in the plot, but it is a pervasive aspect in the culture that is being demonstrated. Despite the lack of violence, and/or violence-caused injury, the after-effects of the war are still present in the way that the new lifestyle of the younger people is being set up. The constant partying and the not-really-giving-two-shits about anything mentality is one that stems from the fact that their parents -- or grandparents -- had survived the catastrophes and violence of war, giving their kids and grandkids a sense of invincibility. And so, the younger people had been raised with the thought that if their parents or grandparents survived the shit-show that the war had been during their lives, then they could survive anything, mainly driving them to adopt a hedonistic lifestyle; whether it be at the bottom of a bottle, or on the dance-floor at a club, the rumpled sheets on a bed, etc.

Not only through the development and different aspects of their society, but also through the emergence of gossip columns, embodied by Mr. Chatterbox. During the war, people found out what was going on in the fronts due to the 'war' columns in the newspaper. After the war was over though, the space occupied by those columns were left empty, and so gossip columns took up the task of filling that space. The appearance of gossip in this book not only reminds of the end of the war, but also highlights the superficiality that arose in society as an after-effect, bringing with it an ultimate reconfiguration of the way that news and culture was absorbed -- history, literature, etc. Within the gossip presented, there is an apparent lack of truth, and if we take away the truth, then we are perpetually stuck in the present, which is a main aspect of Vile Bodies. Characters avoid reminiscing on the past as well as contemplating their future; instead choosing to focus on their own sense of invincibility within their present.

"Al fin y al cabo, la guerra es como una enredadera venenosa que crece arrastrando todo lo que encuentra a su paso". - Cable Girls Season 05 Episode 01

"In the end, war is a like a poisonous vine that keeps on growing and dragging everything it finds on its path."

And so, it begs the question: Even with the shit that people go through, before, during, and after a war, whether it be psychological, emotional, or physical, why do we keep making people go through this crap? From history, HAVE WE LEARNED NOTHING? Have our politicians learned nothing? It seems not. We are all apparently heading for a third world war, and doing it head-first and hoping for the best. What the fuck? Aside from the history of the world, literature, art, and just about every other aspect of culture have shown time and time again, just how much war, battles, violence, and death fuck up a country and its people. And still, it seems we hold our breath to see which one's the next war that is going to happen. Why? I am ridiculously biased, seeing as I am, if nothing else, a pacifist; and well, let's not forget about La Guerra de la Triple Alianza, that totally fucked up my country. We're still feeling its effects, and we're not the only ones who still suffer from the ripples that catastrophes like that provoke in a country.

And what is war really, if not a pissing contest between countries?

"Who has the bigger army?"

- "We do!"

"No, we do!"

- "Oh, really?" **Boom! And so it goes.

And so, in my eyes, that's war boiled down for you. Of course the specifics change depending on what they're talking about (oil, country borders, etc., blah, blah, blah), but that's the gist of it. Isn't it ridiculous? It's like when you have this super complicated problem in your hands, and then you step backwards, and look at it from afar, and you're enlightened to its simplicity. There you have it.

"Sometimes, a man gets exactly what he wishes for, and that can be the most perfect punishment of all." - YOU Season 02 Episode10 (44:24)