[lit-ideas] Re: The Black Day of the German Army
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 18:46:23 -0700
On May 15, 2008, at 6:27 PM, Lawrence Helm wrote:
Comment: But Paul Fussell, whose expertise seems to be English
Literature, provides us with a provocative interpretation of these
matters.
Fussell has written extensively about warfare, in part because he was
a lieutenant in the 103 rd Infantry Division in W.W.2. You'll have
seen him speaking in Ken Burns' "The War" perhaps?
"Provocative" is exactly the right word to describe his book, which
grows out of anger--see Wikipedia on this-- and high culture
concerns. It should be read, I think, as an examination of how an
officer's experience of World War One differed from that of World War
Two. The extent to which people quoted the "Oxford Book of English
Verse" is one example of his exaggeration. That said, it's a really
interesting book.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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