Re: [Marxism] It's the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden,

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>In the army at the time I believe that at the time we had no concern
for
the victims of the Dresden - or other bombing raids - which we saw
simply
as retaliation for Nazi bombing raids on London and elsewhere.
>Paddy Apling

(1)
Paddy brings his own memory of his and his comrades' participation in
WWII. I wonder what his take is on Catch 22 and Slaughterhouse Five,
which were important books for those of us who did not live through
WWII.

(2)
Unless there is a Marxmail contributor now sitting in a library and
checking microfilm for us, we have no idea what allied reportage was
for either Hiroshima or Dresden. However, perhaps some writer has
already done this for us. Is there any account that doesn't simply
recycle old pictures and stories, but attempts to analyze what was
presented to the civilians on the allied side?

(3)
While googling for Catch 22 and Slaughterhouse Five, I came across this
comment on the differing avoidance techniques of Yossarian (Catch 22)
and Billy Pilgrim (Slaughterhouse Five). Some of the differences may
stem from the fact that Vonnegut witnessed Dresden as a boy.*

"Yossarian is a sane, scared man dealing with his fears as best as he
can by developing normal, human relationships.  Billy, in contrast, is
deeply disturbed. His mental illness reaches such an extreme that he
invents a parallel universe that he can reach when his mind needs an
even further release from its current constraints."
http://www.sc.maricopa.edu/mugford/wallin.htm

from Brian Shannon

*http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/vonnegut.htm for a brief biography of
Vonnegut



_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism