Dispatches

Dispatches finished with me last week; I can't say I'm finished with it.

Though it came out in 1977, it is simply alive; still breathing and kicking and still wrecking people to existential and artistic crisis. 

Case in point:

But then this tidbit from an old interview with Terry Gross:

GROSS: I think it took around 10 years for "Dispatches" to be published after you returned.HERR: Well, it took about nine years. That's because it took about eight years to write it.GROSS: How come it took so long?HERR: That's a long story, you know? It just took a long time. It took what it took, you know? I was afraid to finish the book.

Afraid. 

Books like Dispatches hold up a mirror to humanity.

And sometimes the abyss looks back.

Too Authentic

I just finished Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun and…

War, what is it good for?

As my father used to say, no one wins in a real fight.

Trumbo conducted an incredible thought experiment and like a great actor he stayed in character. He must’ve bled, anguished, and experienced madness as he wrote this book. Otherwise he couldn’t have written this book. It is too authentic.

The book truly frightened me in parts; made me feel incredibly claustrophobic…

                for the future, for a possible future.

The plot in the book resolved around the Christmas holiday.

As we sit here January 4 2017 I can’t help but think that not a whole lot has changed.

Is there a collective resolve? Do laws reflect collective resolve? Do we just need more time and a flatter earth for our moral circle to expand or will there always be enough in-group out-group ideology to birth war?