Thursday, May 06, 2004
I finally got around to getting a copy of Jarhead by Anthony Swofford (actually I was given the book as a gift) and it's everything I had hoped it would be. I saw Swofford interviewed a number of times on television and thought him thoughtful, pensive, and perceptive. He didn't seem to glorify the marines or make his book out to be either an indictment or a tribute to the Marine Corps. It seemingly was what it was, a story about life in the Marine Corps during Desert Storm.
I have to admit that I enjoy crude writing with literary sensibility/sensitivity. Jarhead has it in spades. I find books written with liberal use of the word 'fuck' usually have a sense of sincerity to them. If someone calls you a motherfucker, you can (almost) be sure that they're not being accurate, but you can be certain they're being honest (figuratively). You can always trust someone who isn't afraid to call someone else a motherfucker.
I like mediums that show and don't tell. I don't really enjoy being lectured on the finer points of American foreign policy and the Military Industrial Complex. Suffice to say, it's boring in addition to being something that's completely detached from reality. Real people don't think in academic terms when their lives are going to shit. They don't pause to theorize how American Imperialism is making their lives awful waking nightmares. Real people think in fucking expletives you motherfucker.
I've read an awful lot about Jim Bouton's book, Ball Four, but have never been able to find a copy of it to read. Jarhead has been mentionned with Ball Four quite a bit. I suppose it's because both tell the real story of what it's like to be a marine and a professional baseball player, respectively. Ball Four was criticized pretty harshly during its initial publication for painting baseball greats as, well, not so great.
When I worked at McConnell Library, there was a copy of Ball Four listed in our catalogue. I was excited to finally get a chance to read the book. Unfortunately the book was listed as missing. I was a little bit bummed, so I checked on the full status of the book only to uncover that the last borrower had destroyed the book and refused to pay the replacement cost. The guy thought that the book was too explicit and trashy to be in the library, so he took it upon himself to 'remove' it from the library.
What a motherfucker.
I have to admit that I enjoy crude writing with literary sensibility/sensitivity. Jarhead has it in spades. I find books written with liberal use of the word 'fuck' usually have a sense of sincerity to them. If someone calls you a motherfucker, you can (almost) be sure that they're not being accurate, but you can be certain they're being honest (figuratively). You can always trust someone who isn't afraid to call someone else a motherfucker.
I like mediums that show and don't tell. I don't really enjoy being lectured on the finer points of American foreign policy and the Military Industrial Complex. Suffice to say, it's boring in addition to being something that's completely detached from reality. Real people don't think in academic terms when their lives are going to shit. They don't pause to theorize how American Imperialism is making their lives awful waking nightmares. Real people think in fucking expletives you motherfucker.
I've read an awful lot about Jim Bouton's book, Ball Four, but have never been able to find a copy of it to read. Jarhead has been mentionned with Ball Four quite a bit. I suppose it's because both tell the real story of what it's like to be a marine and a professional baseball player, respectively. Ball Four was criticized pretty harshly during its initial publication for painting baseball greats as, well, not so great.
When I worked at McConnell Library, there was a copy of Ball Four listed in our catalogue. I was excited to finally get a chance to read the book. Unfortunately the book was listed as missing. I was a little bit bummed, so I checked on the full status of the book only to uncover that the last borrower had destroyed the book and refused to pay the replacement cost. The guy thought that the book was too explicit and trashy to be in the library, so he took it upon himself to 'remove' it from the library.
What a motherfucker.
# posted by Die Brucke @ 1:24 PM 
