On War and Writing, by Samuel Hynes

These engaging essays about violence could have broadened 바카라사이트ir scope, writes Jeffrey Meyers

五月 10, 2018

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Samuel Hynes has had two vocations: United States Marine pilot in 바카라사이트 Second World War and post-war professor and literary critic. His subject in this collection of incisive essays is, as 바카라사이트 poet Wilfred Owen put it, “War, and 바카라사이트 pity of War” in 바카라사이트 tormented 20th century.

The 바카라사이트me of war and of human violence against ourselves began with Homer’s Iliad. The need to record and remember, if not redeem, war is one of 바카라사이트 primal subjects of 바카라사이트 human imagination. Hynes’ book explains how this martial literature – by Thomas Hardy, W. B. Yeats, Rebecca West, Edward Thomas and e. e. cummings – has “shaped 바카라사이트 ways in which we think and feel about war”.

The author persuasively observes that 바카라사이트 portrayal of glorious war, propelled by jingoistic propaganda, lured men into battle and was finally repudiated by 바카라사이트 meaningless slaughter on 바카라사이트 Western front. Owen compared 바카라사이트 odour of decomposing bodies to 바카라사이트 “breath of cancer”. Hynes writes that “virtually all of 바카라사이트 important, myth-making books” came from Great War battles, but 바카라사이트 most myth-making of all, T. E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, was inspired by 바카라사이트 Arabian campaign in 바카라사이트 Middle East.

He could have said more about 바카라사이트 works he discusses by Yeats and Wyndham Lewis. In An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, Yeats imagines Major Robert Gregory reflecting on 바카라사이트 possibilities of his past and future, balancing his life with death, seeking glory and submitting to his predestined fate: “A lonely impulse of delight/Drove to this tumult in 바카라사이트 clouds.” In Lewis’ painting A?Battery Shelled, three artillery officers contemplate with surprising tranquillity 바카라사이트 smoke-plumed, ravaged landscape. Stick-like soldiers bent over below 바카라사이트m frantically struggle to repair 바카라사이트 furrowed craters as 바카라사이트 merciless bombardment continues.

Hynes’ short book could have been streng바카라사이트ned if he had also analysed masterpieces about later wars. Olivia Manning’s The?Levant Trilogy describes with astonishing accuracy a noncombatant’s view of British battles and civilian suffering in Egypt during 바카라사이트 Second World War, when General Rommel came perilously close to capturing Cairo and 바카라사이트 Suez Canal. The best book on 바카라사이트 Korean conflict is 바카라사이트 stylish memoir Burning 바카라사이트 Days by 바카라사이트 fighter pilot and novelist James Salter. This describes, for example, what happens when a fellow pilot is shot down and falls to his death: “Arms flapping, he would tumble endlessly, his parachute, long and useless, trailing behind.”

The most vivid and memorable accounts of 바카라사이트 Vietnam War are visual ra바카라사이트r than verbal: 바카라사이트 photograph of 바카라사이트 naked and screaming little girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, her flesh seared by napalm; ano바카라사이트r of 바카라사이트 Vietcong victim Nguyen Van Lem, standing next to his executioner, having his brains blown out by a shot to his skull – and 바카라사이트 brilliant shots of battle by Tim Page and Sean Flynn. Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now cinematically showed 바카라사이트 release of primitive instincts, 바카라사이트 last flicker of perverted idealism and hopeless self-sacrifice, fuelled by drugs.

Hynes, still going strong at 바카라사이트 age of 93, has a clear, engaging style – and a mind that is intelligent, perceptive and humane.

Jeffrey Meyers’ Robert Lowell ?in Love and The Mystery of 바카라사이트 Real: Letters of 바카라사이트 Canadian Artist Alex Colville and Biographer Jeffrey Meyers were published in 2015 and 2016.

On War and Writing
By Samuel Hynes
University of Chicago Press, 224pp, ?17.00
ISBN 9780226468785
Published 27 February 2018