tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547067420689722925.post8912300458846131639..comments2023-08-13T11:58:31.588-04:00Comments on Ghulf Genes: Shock and Awe in 1940s StyleADhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06408980212433714362noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547067420689722925.post-56626105088232035232010-03-18T00:55:30.025-04:002010-03-18T00:55:30.025-04:00Just wanted to note that I caught up a bit here wi...Just wanted to note that I caught up a bit here with a post of my own on Sebald's essay: http://patioboat.blogspot.com/2010/03/book-review-on-natural-history-of.htmlPatioboaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01600842825460753192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547067420689722925.post-78944427824242179902010-01-16T09:53:33.122-05:002010-01-16T09:53:33.122-05:00The Tin Drum is worth reading, but as I remember t...<em>The Tin Drum</em> is worth reading, but as I remember the book, very little if any focus on the war...ADhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06408980212433714362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547067420689722925.post-65108021489045540262009-12-14T04:29:17.025-05:002009-12-14T04:29:17.025-05:00More thoughts. Now I'm generalizing here but I...More thoughts. Now I'm generalizing here but I'm struck by the idea that, when it's not from the soldier's point of view (Remarque, for instance), literature often occupys itself with war from a child's perpective - perhaps because the people writing it afterward lived through it and then grew to write about it...<br />I'm thinking of Gunter Grass who I think although I've not read it must have written something about the war in "The Tin Drum." I'm thinking of "The Kite Runner" which talks about Afghanistan in the 1990s or late 1980s perhaps after the war with the USSR.<br />Then there's Anne Frank, of course. I'm sure the Japanese have loads of examples too. Not that I can think of any off hand...Michelle D-Pnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547067420689722925.post-34323947974858657822009-12-14T04:21:09.193-05:002009-12-14T04:21:09.193-05:00Dorris Lessing writes about coming to London just ...Dorris Lessing writes about coming to London just AFTER the war and the way the city and the Londoners were then : shocked and devastated. And the answer to any question about why something was the way it was , "There's been a war, you know. But you wouldn't understand. You weren't here." <br />CS Lewis begins "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" with one line about the four children being sent from London because of the airraids (like Mom to that school in the country in Poland). But then of course, they escape entirely, even from England itself. Those are just two books that I've read that come to mind immediately and I definitely DO NOT look for war literature! And, of course, there's no description in either of the actual bombing. That's why I was quite upset that the movie made from Lewis's novel begins with a scene of a night bombing in London. <br />But I get the point you're making and I think you're right that certain sides of WWII have been ousted from official memory and artistic memory. <br />That passage is quite impressive! Merci Thierry and Arsen for the translation.Michelle D-Pnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547067420689722925.post-82980734821071559882009-12-11T14:35:36.485-05:002009-12-11T14:35:36.485-05:00Aside from Holocaust literature, how much German l...Aside from Holocaust literature, how much German literature of any kind is there on World War II?<br /><br />I've never looked into it, but other than Vonnegut I'm not sure I'm aware of any major author in any language who survived one of those truly horrible air raids from beneath the bombs. As I mentioned above, the survival rate from that perspective was pretty slim. There are quite a few who made it through various aspects of the London Blitz, of course.<br /><br />You might try going to the Gale online databases and seeing what you can find on the topic in the "Literature Resources from Gale" database. (I might even give it a try this weekend if I think of it and get some time.)Patioboaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01600842825460753192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547067420689722925.post-80271909263046455312009-12-10T21:53:19.892-05:002009-12-10T21:53:19.892-05:00The author's actual point, which I did not con...The author's actual point, which I did not convey too well, was that literature on the experience of being bombed, particularly in Germany, did not get described by anyone who went through it. I'll get hold of an English language version of this essay, however...ADhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06408980212433714362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547067420689722925.post-62274642544321192682009-12-10T18:05:33.603-05:002009-12-10T18:05:33.603-05:00I've often been struck by the fact that more p...I've often been struck by the fact that more people died in some of the conventional bombing firestorms -- especially in Tokyo, Berlin, and Dresden -- than in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.<br /><br />I'm surprised, however, to hear that the impact of strategic bombing in World War II is considered to have been unrecorded in literature. Perhaps it's just that "Slaughterhouse Five" was vivid enough for me to fill the need for any more literature on the topic, especially when nonfiction accounts such as "Hiroshima" by John Hersey are often lumped in with the fiction.<br /><br />It seems to me that there's also a good bit of "The London Blitz" stuff out there written by the English. It tends to have the flavor of the victors, though.<br /><br />It's also interesting that there's probably at least as much good literature written on the bomber crews ("Catch-22") as on the bombing victims. But then, there weren't many people left at the heart of those conflagrations to write literature afterwards, were there?Patioboaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01600842825460753192noreply@blogger.com