[lit-ideas] Re: Bad Poetry Competition 2011/ Rennie Airth
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:46:07 -0700
On Jun 17, 2011, at 3:47 PM, Donal McEvoy wrote:
> --- On Fri, 17/6/11, David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Yes, but my point was that even the field artillery wasn't "in" the
>> trenches. My great uncle was in the artillery; my grandfather was in the
>> infantry. They had very different wars.>
>
> Some people think it acceptable, even in polite society, to let ugly facts
> get in the way of a beautiful theory. As an ad hoc evasion of your point, it
> could be argued that though in the artillery W was nevertheless very familiar
> with the reality of the trenches. Also he got a medal for bravery which seems
> unlikely if his actions consisted only of firing on the enemy from a safe
> distance. Nevertheless all my points were bogus.
Can't help you with the Dylan decision.
Re. artillery, two observations:
First, in response to Robert Paul, this week's reading included Bryan Perrett,
"Against All Odds!" which contains several accounts of open sight firing--the
term for looking down the barrel at the enemy. As Robert says, in modern times
this is a desperate place to be. "On the other hand," says Perrett,
"experience in the Western Desert had shown that the 25 pdr, though designed in
a field artillery role, was an excellent tank killer when firing
armour-piercing shot over open sights (p. 150). Works fine when the tank
doesn't see you first.
Second, "they had very different wars" was intended to mean something like,
"they experienced danger in different ways." Wittgenstein's bravery may have
consisted of, for example, continuing to fire his gun when the enemy's
artillery had figured out exactly where his battery was. As Harry Truman would
tell you, counter battery fire could be very intense.
I would like to know more about Wittgenstein's war service. Also that of Henri
Breton, George Braque, André Breton, J.R.R. Tolkien... but I can't see a
do-able book coming out of that desire. What would the point be beyond
"goodness, I didn't know he did that!"? They all had such different
experiences.
David Ritchie,
Hotter than an Otter in
Portland, Oregon
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