on 6/29/05 11:21 AM, Andreas Ramos at andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > I don't understand these "re-creations of battles". The Americans do this over > and over > again with Civil War battles. And now the Brits are doing naval battles. > > These can only be events that are stripped of all meaning. People die in > battles. Battles > happen because difference forces are trying to destroy each other. But none of > that happens > in a re-creation. The event is literally only "recreation", as in "a bit of > fun". > > War is a horrible thing and I simply don't see why it should be turned into > amusement. > War-as-amusement only encourages militarization and makes war into something > acceptable. > This is as good a moment as any to mark the fact that Shelby Foote died on Monday. If any of you have a long road journey ahead, you couldn't spend a better $29.95 than on the cassette version of "Stars in their Courses," an excerpt from his three-part narrative on the Civil War (American). The publishers have the gall to write on the package, "Complete and Unabridged" --which the *excerpt* is-- but that aside, Shelby reading his own very peculiar prose is a memorable joy. Anyone trying to understand re-enactors should pick up a copy of "Confederates in the Attic," Tony Horwitz's book on the subject, and then try his even weirder work on Captain Cook, which features re-enactors of voyages of discovery--not un-horrible things that are also turned into amusements. I cannot promise that at the end of these two works you will have understood the phenomenon--re-enactors are complete loons and cannot be understood--but you may see why I find them interesting. It's akin to why I think a duck punt gun is interesting, as a reminder of how strange our species is. What's a duck punt gun? A nine foot long cannon-like barrel that you attach to a punt--flat-bottomed boat. You fill the barrel with metal detrius and a charge. You then paddle up to ducks and let fly. Boom! You go scooting backwards, somewhat deaf. There is a chance that the released mayhem could have hit a duck in such a way that one could take it home and eat it. Then again...probably not. It's the ultimate "my gun is bigger than yours" thing, pretty useless and--I think-- very funny. I should have mentioned that the American sailors in the Royal Navy, like many sailors in the Royal Navy, were probably not there by choice; they were likely pressed men. Pressing American sailors was one of the practices that led to the war of 1812. David Ritchie Portland, Oregon ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html