2nd quarter you will craft a war story of your own.
According to O'Brien, what are the requirements of a war story?
Do you agree with the advice the old woman gave O'Brien at the end of the vignette in "How to Tell a True War Story"?
"Now and then, when I tell this story, someone will come up to me afterward and say she liked it. It's always a woman. Usually it's an older woman of kindly temperament and humane politics. She'll explain that as a rule she hates war stories; she can't understand why people want to wallow in all the blood and gore. But this one she liked. The poor baby buffalo, it made her sad. Sometimes, even, there are little tears. What I should do, she'll say, is put it all behind me.
Find new stories to tell." (O'Brien 91)
Are war stories sublime? Why or why not?
posted by Unknown @ 10/21/2012
6 comments
6 Comments:
I believe that war stories require sublimity. A true wear story has to have sublimity in it, as stated by O'Brien in his vignette. Sublimity adds to the story in a positive way. War is seen as an overall negative thing, with all the killing, death and destruction. Offering an optimistic view on something negative lightens up the mood of the story and makes it more enjoyable to read
War stories are truly sublime in the fact that they explain the beauty of something that would not normally be seen as beautiful. In "how to Tell a True War Story," explains the situation of shooting the baby buffalo. In constantly shooting the buffalo over and over again, the buffalo stands up each time. The atrociousness of the act is exhibited through the shooting of the buffalo over and over again. But it is also beautiful, because every time the baby buffalo gets up, it stands for courage. This abstract symbol exhibits beauty where as the shooting of the buffalo over and over shows its atrociousness. Combining these elements together creates sublime in this war story.
-Sania Zaffar
I do not believe that war stories are in anyway sublime or glorying by O'Brien's definition. His criteria for a war story includes it being embarrassing, not true, and nauseating to the reader. All of these rules have negative connotations to them and that is one of the reasons why I oppose to saying that war stories are sublime. In a more ethical sense, I would never find something having to do with war as positive. Just as Joan Didion expresses in her "Letter to Paradise," people do not seem to acknowledge the costs of war and the sacrifices that people have made in it. This is my reasoning behind why War stories are not stately by O'Brien's definition.
I do not agree with the old woman's advice at the end of “How to Tell a true War Story”. The woman says that O'Brien should “put it all behind [him]. Find new stories to tell” (O'Brien 91). O'Brien should not forget about his war stories because he cannot. He will never just forget about the war. In a way, by telling these stories, O'Brien is reaching catharsis. If he didn't talk about the war, he could go insane. Soldiers that do not talk or find some other way of reaching catharsis can end up with problems like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Also, as O'Brien has said, the stories are not themselves about war (O'Brien 85). The old woman only sees the concrete and literal meaning of the stories. She is missing the abstract. O'Brien does not tell the stories because he enjoys remembering the blood and gore from the war.
War stories are sublime. Usually, when one first reads any of O'Brien's vignettes, he/she first sees only the tragedy of the war. But as O'Brien says, a war story is not about war (O'Brien 85). A war story can be about love as well, something beautiful (O'Brien 85).
I disagree with the advice the woman gave him. I believe he shouldn't attempt to put it behind him. Because if he has to try to do it, it mean he hasn't come to terms with what happened. He hasn't truly reached catharsis. Only after acceptance does release come naturally.
And I believe they are sublime, as anything in life can be made out to be sublime. In the definition itself for a war story, O'Brien says that it can be a love story. Love is a sublime emotion, in the matter that it brings upon positive and negative effects. (this was expanded upon more in class though). Hence by writting about the emotion, as a war story, the piece becomes sublime by association.
I feel that to call a war story anything but sublime makes it untrue. The very concept of war is as old as time itself, yet, is among the most modern things. The concept of war itself is primitive with ideas of fighting, yet the methods used to fight are at the top of the technological world. When WWI began, the technology had been at the top of the world, and WWII led to the nukes and all these other things. In a way, war innovates us and unites people more than anything, yet, it destroys us by renforcing this fake idea that we are all different, and that we are all separated by supposed borders. One cannot classify war as simply good or bad... it is somewhere between both I believe.
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