War through Music?

Through the course we have watched documentaries about war and we have read books which used different methods of portraying war stories to us. There are the journal entries in Griffin, the letters in Sakamoto, and the photographs in Nadir. We have watched the film version of Jarhead. These are all mediums which rely on sight, although the film sources do use audio as well as visual narratives. This led me to wonder, other than the radio, audiobooks, and the audio narratives of film media, how else could the war be brought to people who are sight impaired. I've decided to look at songs to do with war.

One of the most famous singers during WWII in Britain was Dame Vera Lynn. She is famous for her song 'We'll meet again' which can be found here. This song seems very optimistic that people separated by war will meet again. It was certainly good for morale, especially during the Blitz.

Later on there, both during and after the Vietnam War, songs were written to protest against wars and to highlight what had happened during these wars. The one that I find the most hard hitting is '19' by Paul Hardcastle, which can be found here. The repetition of '19' is especially disturbing to me as I am only twenty myself and my younger brother is eighteen.

In recent years the songs have been as critical of those behind the order to go to war as they are of the wars themselves. 'When the President Talks to God' by Bright Eyes is an example of this. He criticises both the then President of the United States and amongst other things, his decisions to invade both Iraq and Afghanistan. This can be heard here.

These three songs are just a tiny selection of a much wider genre. It seems as though over the years people have become less united and more critical of war. This could be because they have a wider availability of sources of information or because WWII could be seen as a just war and Vietnam and the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions cannot. Either way, it is interesting how the attitudes have changed.

Breaking the Traditional Narrative Mold

How does Susan Griffin attempt to 'break' the traditional narrative mold?

She does several things. First of all, her narrative does not follow the traditional linear style that we have come to expect from works dealing with historical events. Instead, it cuts and jumps between different times and events. An example of this can be found on page 76 where the narrative skips from 1945 and the night before Hiroshima is bombed to 1986 and the invention of the center fire metallic cartridge to 1941 and Life magazine publishing the photograph of Rita Hayworth featured above.

The second thing that Griffin does is interspersing her journal entries with historical events, in part VI of the book, 'Notes Towards a Sketch for a Work in Progress (271 - 363.) This is an interesting technique as it allows the reader to gain an insight into Griffin's personal thoughts and feelings on her work, her life, and the events taking place in the world around her, such as the first Gulf War. A 21st century version of this would perhaps be created by interspersing blog, social networking or email entries interspersed with current news events. This is perhaps a technique I should attempt later on, although how successful this would be, I am not sure. My entries on these sites tend not to be related to world wide events and more often complaints about the weather.

The third and perhaps most important way in which Griffin attempts to 'break' the traditional narrative mold is that she uses the stories of ordinary people. Whilst there are the well known names that are expected from an historical piece, such as Heinrich Himmler and Hugh Trenchard, but she also tells the stories of ordinary people who have been affected by war, such as Yõko, the woman who is the same age as Griffin and survived Hiroshima, and Hélène, the woman who survived the concentration camps and Griffin meets on the Paris Metro. These are the stories of ordinary people, just like the reader, who have survived extraordinary things. Their stories are more interesting, to me at least, than learning about this or that general whose story has been told in hundreds of books. Griffin shows us the stories that have not been made public, the private lives of war.

An Alternate Past

After WWII was over, my maternal grandfather had to do his national service. He served in the air force. He, along with a friend (I don't know his name), were offered jobs in America by Boeing to help them design their planes. My grandfather stayed but this friend went and they continued to keep in touch over the years. I do wonder though, what would have happened if my grandfather had gone. In the books on the course there have been examples of families split across multiple countries, including One Hundred Million Hearts (Japan and Canada) and The Orange Trees of Baghdad (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, UK, Canada.) Here is my imagining of the way things may have turned out.

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My grandparents decide that they are going to go to America. They get married in a small church in Woking. Whilst they are glad to be living together on their own, they're nervous about moving to a new country.

Eventually they arrive and they find a place to rent. My grandfather goes to work for Boeing and in the meantime they have three children Michael, Denise, and Paul who my grandma stays at home to raise.

They have a happy life and Denise is the last to leave home. She decides to visit her family in England and travel around Europe. On the island of Majorca, she meets a man named Donald. They are soon married and decide to set up home in London.

Denise and Donald have two children, Francesca and Benjamin. They have regular contact with their family in the US. On September 11th 2001 several terrorist attacks occur in the USA. The family is in shock. Michael was working in the south tower. The planes used are Boeing planes. The company that brought them to the US in the first place, is now a cause for grief in the family.

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I know this is a very rough outline but I have a word limit. I also realise that my parents meeting is unlikely in this context but without them an imagined alternate past for my family would be pointless. It’s interesting to see how one decision could potentially change so many things. I am reminded of the part in Nadir’s book just after her parents have gotten married and her aunts want them to move to Iraq. How different Leilah’s life would have been if they had.

What is the private life of war?

To me, the phrase 'the private life of war' suggests the aspects of war which are hidden from the public view. These can be the after-effects of war or the events that take place during war which are hidden or disguised from the public. When I say disguised, I am referring to acts of redescription and acts of omission, as described in Scarry (69-70). When a victory is declared, the number of dead is often omitted, giving the public a false sense of accomplishment. Even if the number of dead is given, it is usually only for the defeated army. The number of dead and wounded within the victorious side is often not included. The public doesn't know and doesn't see those who are dead and wounded from within the victorious army so they may not grasp the enormity of the situation but those who are involved in the fighting are affected by the friends they have lost and the injuries sustained, as are the close friends of family who are dead and wounded.

Let us not forgot that the wounds of war are not just limited to physical ones, there are also the mental scars of those involved in war, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression. This statistics are not as prominent within the public sphere but they cause many problems for those who are affected and the people around them, often for the rest of their lives. A report from 2008 shows that roughly 40,000 US troops had been diagnosed with the condition from 2003 onwards (Jelinek.) This is a fairly large number but it does not take into account the numbers of those are suffering from previous conflicts, are in the forces of other nations, or civilians and emergency workers who are also suffering. The total number of people around the world who are suffering from PTSD as a result of serving in the military or being involved as a civilian in a conflict zone is something that will probably never be known due to the stigma around mental health conditions. This to me is the private life of war.