W. D. Ehrhart: Paul Fussell — A Remembrance
While Fussell wrote on a wide variety of subjects over his long life—ranging from Augustan humanism, Samuel Johnson, and Kingsley Amis to the 2nd Amendment, the Indianapolis 500, and travel in between-the-wars Europe—war, the irony of war, the suffering and lunacy and permanent damage of war, the unfairness of war, lay at the heart of his writing and of his being.
Barrett Swanson: The Soldier and the Soil
Their prose often stood head and shoulders above the standard freshman drivel, exhibiting a certain rigor of thought and depth of feeling that perhaps comes from having witnessed whole anthologies of trauma—entire villages razed by fire, wide-eyed children draped in gore, wives screaming beside mutilated husbands.
John Samuel Tieman: Alert
a night in a bunker when we were
kids in fatigues getting high
listening to Hendrix and the cassette stops
Chris Hedges: War and Memory
I asked my grandmother after he left what was wrong with him. “The war,” she said acidly.
Steve Nolan & NJ DeVico: The Orchestration Of War
Steve Nolan writes: It’s one of the most common souvenirs of war, the constant ringing in the ears, or, in my case, a high-pitched squeal presumably caused by the Blackhawk … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: Strange Angels
the burnt torso of a monk an enemy monk tonight a cigarette glows in the dark and is crushed . I’ve been asked to teach a course in American … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: My War as a Clarinetist
“One time, the band played a welcoming ceremony for these grunts – and I mean they walked right out of the bush and into “Stars and Stripes Forever.” John Samuel … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: The Traveler
another gray road a homeless veteran stands at attention — You consider your obligations. You drive on. There is a running man, a shabby man. It would be easy to … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: After the War
. After the war, some of us had to have answers. Who were these people we’d had a war with? Where did they come from? Where did they learn to … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Memphis, 1970
Came home from that war trailing death like ground fog. Wandered summers, did trim carpentry in Texas, bartending, landed in Memphis working for a marble mill where with old Thomas … Continue reading
Adam Hochschild: Why No One Remembers the Peacemakers
Celebrating War Over and Over and Peace Once Go to war and every politician will thank you, and they’ll continue to do so — with monuments and statues, war museums … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: What Combat Veterans Know
There is a war inside the war that only combat veterans know. They’re not being mysterious when they talk and seem to leave you out. They’d prefer it weren’t that … Continue reading
Rory Fanning: Thank You for Your Valor, Thank You for Your Service, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You…
Still on the Thank-You Tour-of-Duty Circuit, 13 Years Later. Last week, in a quiet indie bookstore on the north side of Chicago, I saw the latest issue of Rolling Stone … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: The Anger of Men
Does the fact of testosterone need a cultural ritual? We think of sports as a healthy way of de-sublimating testosterone but we don’t have a spiritual or philosophical approach to … Continue reading
