Some say teachers should, like soldiers, should put their lives on the line. This A.E. Housman poem brings up the question of whether even soldiers should do so when there sacrifice will be meaningless.
Tag Archives: Things They Carried
Wanted: Teachers, Not Martyrs
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Charge of the Light Brigade", "Here Dead We Lie", "I Have a Rendezvous with Death", "Soldier", "Strange Meeting", A. E. Housman, Alan Seeger, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bertolt Brecht, COVID-19, Donald Trump, Galileo, Rupert Brooke, school reopening, teachers, Tim O'Brien, Wilfred Owen Comments closed
Ask Vets to Tell You Their Stories
For Veterans Day, ask a vet for his or her story. Scott Bates and Tim O’Brien convey the importance of such storytelling.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Greatest Generation", Scott Bates, Tim O'Brien, Veterans, Veterans Day, war Comments closed
Great Pro-War Literature Doesn’t Exist
In which I argue that great pro-war literature doesn’t exist, including “The iliad” and “War and Peace.” (Both works are magnificent; I just don’t see them as pro-war.)
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Charge of the Light Brigade", Alfred Lord Tennyson, anti-war literature, Catch 22, Donald Trump, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homer, Iliad, Joseph Heller, Leo Tolstoy, Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer, Tim O'Brien, war, War and Peace Comments closed
Genesis: Story Truth, Not Happening Truth
The creation story in the Book of Genesis is magnificent poetry that resists the attempts of religious and scientific fundamentalists alike to reduce it to a scientific account.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged creation story, creationism, Genesis, Marilynne Robinson, religious fundamentalism, Tim O'Brien Comments closed
Fiction Is Best Way to Tell God’s Story
Story-truth superior to happening-truth, in war stories and in Bible.
The Right Wing’s War on Science
Tim O’Brien describes a character for whom facts are formed by sensation. Sounds like today’s right wing.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alexander Pope, Dunciad, GOP, political discourse, politics, Tim O'Brien Comments closed
Sweethearts Now Cleared for Combat
Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam War story about a woman who goes rogue has things to teach us about the recent suspension of the Pentagon ban on women in combat.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged crimes against humanity, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Tim O'Brien, war, women in combat Comments closed
How to Tell a True War Story
Two weeks ago I was honored to participate in two conversations with high school classes about the Tim O’Brien Vietnam War novel The Things They Carried. Carl Rosin, an English high school teacher and regular reader of this blog, set up the occasion. I have taught O’Brien’s marvelous work in our College’s 20th century English-Language […]
