David,
You wrote, “Someone gave me a book about Churchill at the dinner table. So far
it’s dull. The history of World War Two I’m currently reading just posed an
interesting question: why didn’t Hitler encourage Japan to attack Vladivostock?
Normally getting your enemy to fight on two fronts is a good idea. I suspect
he couldn’t quite bring himself to think of the Japanese as real allies. Bit
of a conflict with his ideas about race.
One of the other books I have been reading is Richard Connaughton’s Rising Sun
and Tumbling Bear, Russia’s War with Japan. This war took place in 1904-1905.
Britain’s war with the Boers ended in 1902 and Churchill as a Journalist for
the Morning Post was probably still interested in South Africa more than
eastern Russia and Japan, but had he followed the latter a little more closely
he might have warned Roosevelt to beware of a sneak attack, after all, Britain
had sold Japan one or more ships used in that attack – caught the Russians off
guard in the same way the Americans were caught off guard in 1941.
Connaughton is an interesting fellow, a retired colonel who has been teaching
the British and Americans what we should learn from previous wars. His Modern
Warfare, written in 2008, which I am reading on Kindle, begins with Goose Green
– lots of micromanagement went on, and the chief micromanager, Colonel “H,” got
himself killed in a futile Banzai-type charge along with his aid and so became
the hero of Goose Green. Connaughton loves irony but isn’t heavy handed about
it. He doesn’t hammer British planners for not remembering that the Russian’s
had their guns pointing out to sea at Port Arthur, and who blithely pointed
their guns in the same direction in Singapore a few years later.
Lawrence
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of david ritchie
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2017 9:23 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: A Book!
On May 24, 2017, at 7:49 AM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
David,
I did read your note. In fact I read it twice thinking I ought to respond, but
we are in the midst of a heat wave here in Southern California and I am reading
or watching all sorts of things rather than hiking and photographing and
walking the dogs, and so being tired couldn’t find or think of a hook.
I wonder about the Greeks. How did they get all that thinking done when it was
always hot? Robert Paul could undoubtedly explain their thermodynamic thinking
mechanism.
But I will add, because you used the word criticism (J), that I have been
reading Edith Wharton recently and was astounded by how good she is. Years ago
I read the mandatory Ethan Frome and didn’t care for it, but in the past couple
of weeks have read The Marne, The Reef, and The Age of Innocence. This spate
of reading began after reading an old NYROB review of the Library of America’s
issuance of one of their volumes of Wharton’s writings. I downloaded a Kindle
collection that turned out to have far fewer typos than their typical
collections and read the novels I mentioned and then read some things about
Wharton – quite an important literary figure in her day – and with The Reef,
and The Age of Innocence clearly in mind, she deserved it.
I have avoided her, but now I am encouraged to try again. I believe I read,
“The Age of Innocence,” but I was young and innocent at the time and so may not
remember well. My favorite new line from the book I recommended, “Nobody’s
Perfect,” is from a review of “Braveheart,” “And then all Mel broke loose.”
Those words I wish I’d written. Someone gave me a book about Churchill at the
dinner table. So far it’s dull. The history of World War Two I’m currently
reading just posed an interesting question: why didn’t Hitler encourage Japan
to attack Vladivostock? Normally getting your enemy to fight on two fronts is
a good idea. I suspect he couldn’t quite bring himself to think of the
Japanese as real allies. Bit of a conflict with his ideas about race.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
